NO. 3662 PRIMATE BIOLOGY—NAPIER 5 
It is not possible to anticipate in detail the direction that future 
research will take, but, without a shadow of doubt, it will become 
heavily committed in the areas of child development, and mental, 
social, and environmental health and behavior. In these fields the 
experimental animal must be a primate. Information, firmly rooted 
in biology, will be needed about the behavioral parameters of primates 
under varying conditions: firstly, in the field in the framework of 
ecology; and secondly, in artificial environments ranging from the 
near-normal conditions of the field-cage to the wholly artificial con- 
ditions of the laboratory. These studies of naturalistic and ‘‘semi- 
naturalistic” behavior are subject-oriented just as certainly as are 
the more traditional academic disciplines of anatomy, taxonomy, and 
phylogeny. 
Primate Biology Today 
The last ten years have seen the coming of age of two subjects 
concerned with the science of man—human biology and primate 
biology. Although they can scarcely be considered new disciplines, 
they reflect a new attitude of mind and provide fresh ways of looking 
at old problems. 
The approach to both is naturalistic. The animal, whether man or 
nonhuman primate, is studied primarily as a living creature in the 
context of its normal environment; it is regarded as a member of a 
natural population, not as an individual; and it is regarded as an 
expression of the phenotypic variation of the species rather than as 
the archetype of the race. These principles require new and liberal 
perspectives in study methods. Human walking, for instance, one of 
the more simple components of human behavior, cannot be investi- 
gated merely by studying the osteology of the limbs, nor can it be 
explained solely in terms of the biomechanical functions of the relevant 
muscle groups. Walking also is concerned with the environment of 
men who walk and with their physiological needs in a variety of dif- 
ferent habitats; it is concerned with the effects of culture on the 
periodicity of this human activity and the historical conditions that 
led to its evolution. 
To study primate behavior entails a consideration of anatomy, 
physiology, biochemistry, ecology, ergonomics, paleontology, anthro- 
pology, and genetics. With a multidisciplinary approach of this sort, 
primate biologists cannot afford to be specialists. While inevitably 
possessing special knowledge in particular fields, they require a 
general awareness of all relevant fields. In this context ‘‘awareness’’ 
can be interpreted as an attitude of mind that, in turn, can only 
evolve from a training that is designed to develop it. There is much to 
