NO. 3662 PRIMATE BIOLOGY—NAPIER 2 
Not so widely appreciated, however, is the urgency of providing 
rear-guard support for the flying columns of applied primate research. 
Perhaps at this point it should be emphasized that there are two 
main types of primate research that, broadly speaking, can be classi- 
fied as applied/project-oriented or academic/subject-oriented. Project- 
oriented research is research with primates using them as other 
laboratory animals are used in order to test the efficacy of a technique 
that cannot be so tested in man. Subject-oriented research is research 
on primates that leads to a further understanding of their biology and, 
by the nature of their relationship to man, to the development of 
hypotheses that can be tested subsequently in a human context. 
Subject-oriented research, thus, tends to produce results that are 
seldom of immediate applicability to areas of human health and 
welfare; they are usually at least one stage removed from medical or 
sociological usefulness. 
The work of Landsteiner and Wiener on the Rhesus-antigen, which 
was later shown by Levine et al. (1941) to be identical with the 
blood-factor involved in cases of human erythroblastosis foetalis, 
provides a good example of the value of a ‘‘once-removed” type of 
applicability. 
As an example of subject-oriented research, Haddow’s (1952) field 
study on Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti may be recalled. This basic 
research project not only contributed to our knowledge of the ecology 
and behavior of the redtail guenon, but also it provided the essential 
background to Haddow’s later work on the epidemiology of sylvan 
yellow fever. The work of Harlow and his associates (1958-1965), 
of Mason (1965), and of Hinde (1966, 1967) on the affectional systems 
of monkeys and apes already has had profound repercussions in the 
areas of child health and development and social psychology. In the 
field of sociology and social anthropology the zoological perspective 
(particularly in primate field studies) is leading already to a better 
understanding of human behavior and human social systems (Tiger 
and Fox, 1966; Morris, 1967). Subject-oriented research also is often 
anticipatory as discussed by Riopelle (in press), who recalls, inter 
alia, that W. S. Hunter developed the delayed-response test in 1913 
long before it became useful as a means of measuring function in the 
frontal lobes in man. 
Subject-oriented research requires not only a specific training in 
primatology (at least at graduate level) but a continuing exposure to 
an academic environment where peer-contact has the salutary effect of 
promoting self-criticism and of stimulating intradisciplinary, subject- 
oriented thinking. Project-oriented research, on the other hand, given 
good primatological advice at its inception, need not be done in a 
primate-oriented environment; it can be carried out wherever ap- 
