Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Amber & Controversy


Kevin is an ape. There are no two ways about it. He may be a great ape but is most definitely a human ape. The superfamily Hominoidea makes up three families: the lesser apes (gibbons) are in the family Hylobatidae, great apes (orangs, gorillas, and chimps) and humans are both in the family Hominidae, but fall into the subfamilies Ponginae and Homininae.

Wikipedia puts orangs in Ponginae alone, and lumps humans, chimps and gorillas into Homininae, but this seems to be a fringe understanding. In Primate Zoo Class and here all great apes except humans are in Ponginae, and humans and their extinct close ancestors alone are in Homininae. The superfamily of Hominoidea is what defines apehood, so, although there's controversy about whether or not they are great apes, everyone seems agreed that humans are apes. Except Kevin, who is a fine ape.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is all very upsetting. Why not blog about something less controversial, like Duran Duran perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Why further cloud the picture by saying I am GREAT APE rather than just ape? The other day you said definitively that I was not GREAT ape. But now you say, yes, GREAT. This further erodes my confidence in this whole discussion.

CRD said...

Sometimes I wish Kevin was a Grape Ape.

ALH said...

I misspoke and have revised my statement. You MAY be a great ape, depending on where you stand on the family classifications, but there is no doubt that you are an ape.

I don't know why you rebel against your apehood.

Anonymous said...

Amber and Chris are both apes too. Let's be clear about this. It's not all about me.

ALH said...

Yes, I am an ape. I wholly embrace my apeness. I have known I was an ape for some time. I do not think I am a great ape, nor do I think Kevin is-- but I am open to the possibility. I definitely recognize my apehood and kinship with other apes. And tarsiers.

CRD said...

This posting is SO controversial, like Duran Duran's 1995 album "Thank You."

So why are Kevin and I apes but it doesn't appear that James or Diana or Amy are? I don't understand this any more than I understand Patti LuPone at the Tony's. Was she singing so funny because she's an ape?

Anonymous said...

Everyone reading this blog is an ape.

ALH said...

Amy says that's true because Chimpillas are apes.