PROGRAM
Nov. 16, 17
SAGA-2nd Symposium
(English / Japanese)
Nov. 18 - 20
COE Symposium
Nov. 21, 22
CBSG Meeting
ABSTRACTS
Abstracts for COE / SAGA Symposium
OFFICIAL REPORT
PLACE
Inuyama International Sightseeing Center Freude
(English
/ Japanese)
Preface
The COE international Symposium, November 1999,
"Evolution of the Apes and the Origin of Human Beings" is held in Inuyama,
Japan, under the auspices of Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. The
symposium has two satellite meetings of SAGA (Support for African/Asian Great Apes) and
CBSG (Conservation Breeding Specialist Group for bonobos). It gives me a great pleasure to
welcome you to Inuyama for this very special event. This symposium might be the first
truly worldwide meeting on the Apes and Human Beings in the primatology and anthropology
spheres at the end of the 20th century.
Japan is a special country because it has an indigenous
primate species (Macaca fuscata), known as snow monkeys, and there are also many
primatologists. Japanese primatologists led by the late Imanishi started the study on wild
Japanese monkeys living in Koshima island in 1948. With the accumulation of knowledge on
wild Japanese monkeys, Imanishi and his colleagues first stepped into Africa in 1958 and
started the socio-ecological study of African great apes. The long term studies on
chimpanzees and bonobos continues in Mahale, Bossou, Wamba, and the other several research
sites.
In addition to the socio-ecological studies, various disciplines have contributed for the
study of living and fossil primates. The purpose of this symposium is threefold. Firstly,
it aims to combine the various disciplines such as Ecology, Sociology, Ethology,
Psychology, Neuroscience, Molecular Biology, Physical Anthropology, and Paleontology to
illuminate the evolution of the apes and the origin of human beings. Secondly, it aims to
provide a rare opportunity for exchange of information and discussion among leading
scientists from various disciplines with Primatology. Thirdly, it aims to promote future
scientific collaboration between Japanese and other researchers of apes and humans from
around the world. Participants will have the presentation describing her/his major
research topic reviewing past and present trends plus her/his thoughts about its future
directions.
Recent fossil findings of the Australopithecines suggest
that they are more similar to living apes than to modern humans with regards to skeletal
features. The early hominids exhibit a high degree of sexual dimorphism in body size with
a large face and relatively small brain. Recent molecular biological studies have also
shown that the living apes are very close to humans. Several million years ago, the early
hominids differentiated from a common ancestor of the African great apes. Lithic
technology and the genus Homo are estimated to have emerged around 2 to 2.5 million years
ago. Given these findings, the time is now ripe to reconsider the evolution of human
sociality, culture, cognition, and behavior.
A key focus of the symposium will be to bring together the
results from long-term laboratory and field research. From this we wish to reconfirm what
we have learned about the apes through our collective long-term experience with them. The
symposium will consist of three major topics: "ape social systems and culture",
"cognition and behavior", and "evolutionary anthropology". To be held
in conjunction with the COE symposium are two satellite meetings, SAGA2 and CBSG. All
participants are welcome to join these satellite meetings to be held before and after to
the main COE symposium. The symposia are open to attendance by all interested
international scientists. At the time of the meetings, Japan is especially attractive,
with clear blue sky, pleasant temperature, and autumn leaves.
We, the organizers of the COE symposium welcome you to
Inuyama, and hope you enjoy this meeting.
Osamu TAKENAKA
Chair person
COE International Symposium, November1999
Copyright (C) 1999 COE International Symposium
saga@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp