| 9781681775685 |
| 1681775689 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Cheyenne Library | Book | 599.885 CROC | Nonfiction | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
An exhilarating quest into a remote African forest to examine chimpanzees and understand the roots of human behavior.
As a young student, John Crocker embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, spending eight months in the Gombe forest working with Jane Goodall. He followed families of wild chimpanzees from sunrise to sunset and learned the fundamental behavioral traits of these chimps as they raised their offspring.
One chimpanzee captivated him. Her name was Fifi, and she displayed extraordinary patience and reassurance toward her infant, Freud. Upon returning home and becoming a doctor, Crocker found himself incorporating the lessons he learned from Fifi into his work as a father and physician. When he witnessed his young patients rocketing around his exam room, he would picture Fifi's patience and tacit approval of Freud's uninhibited and joyful exploration.
Crocker shares how his time spent with our closest animal cousins has helped him better understand his patients with ADD, anxiety, and depression, and how primate traits hardwired into our own natural behavior help chimpanzees protect their community, raise their young, and survive. Finally, chronicling his return to Gombe thirty-six years later with his own son, he reflects on how his experience with the chimps has come full circle.
An illuminating book that will raise thought-provoking questions about the evolution of human behavior and the importance of patience and strong family bonds, Following Fifi provides a greater understanding of what it means to be human.
Author Notes
John Crocker has been practicing family medicine in Seattle for thirty-five years. He attended Stanford University, where he met Jane Goodall. He received his MD from Case Western School of Medicine in Cleveland. Dr. Crocker is a popular speaker on primate behavior and has written for the Huffington Post about lessons learned from our closest living relatives. This is his first book.
Jane Goodall continues to study and write about primate behavior and is the author of several books. She founded the Gombe Stream Research Center in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, and the Jane Goodall Institute for Wild Life Research, Education, and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Patience, compassion, presence, and gratitude are the values championed by Crocker, a family physician, in this eloquent and appreciative memoir of his time as a student of Jane Goddall at Gombe, Tanzania, in 1973. Crocker begins his narrative with his experiences living in rugged forest conditions while following several mother-infant chimpanzee pairs, particularly matriarch Fifi and her playful son Freud. The too-short second part relates how understanding chimp behavior models helps Crocker's work as a family doctor, providing him with an orientation toward promoting strong parent-child attachment and insight as to how difficult behaviors, such as those associated with ADHD, could have been adaptive to human ancestors. Crocker closes by chronicling his return in 2009, accompanied by his 19-year-old son, to a more commercialized Gombe. They observe Freud as an elder and visit the home village of Hamisi, who had served as Crocker's field guide. Crocker thoughtfully muses on parenting, nostalgia, and lifelong friendship; he shows how the connection he made with primates affected him and taught him how to bring wise and loving care to his young patients. Crocker's book is emotionally stirring without being overly sentimental, and is as much about human experience as it is about comparative ethology. Color photos. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
After college graduation, most students head off for more education or new careers; Crocker went to Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park to study chimpanzees with Jane Goodall. Interested in child development, he contemplated a career as a pediatrician, so being assigned to follow several families of chimps fit right into his goals. As Crocker also assisted in Gombe's medical clinic, he made his first connections between what he experienced with human patients and chimpanzee mothering. Fifi, a daughter of one of Goodall's most famous chimps, taught him the most, owing to her calm and patience with her offspring. This human-chimp connection continued with medical school and his family practice, as Fifi's lessons helped Crocker minister to human mothers. Anecdotes from his practice demonstrate the close relationship between the two species and how mothering is universal. In the final section, Crocker writes of his return to Gombe with his son and of reconnecting with his past. A gentle and thoughtful look at our bond with nature, especially with our closest relatives.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this autobiographical account, Seattle-based family physician Crocker fondly recalls his experiences as one of several student research assistants working under legendary primatologist Jane Goodall. In 1974, as a 22-year-old Stanford undergraduate, Crocker traveled to Gombe National Park in Tanzania to assist in observing the Kasekela chimpanzee community. Students were paired with local Tanzanian field guides and assigned to follow specific chimps. Crocker was especially impressed by chimp mother Fifi's nurturing behavior toward her young son Freud. The author recounts how this formative experience shaped his perspective on the world and his approach to medicine. The lessons he gleaned from watching Fifi as a parent, and the insight he gained into human evolution have influenced his treatment of ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Thirty-five years later, Crocker returned to Gombe with his teenage son to revisit the place that has meant so much to him. Fast-moving and readable, the narrative provides engaging anecdotal examples from both chimps and human patients. VERDICT A sympathetic personal journey that explores the many profound similarities between humans and the creatures with whom we share 96 percent of our DNA, this book will make a great addition to public and college libraries alike.-Lindsay Morton, P.L. of Science, San Francisco © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. ix |
| Preface | p. xiii |
| The Main Players | p. xvii |
| Map of study site location: Gombe Stream National Park | p. xxvi |
| Illustration of author's hut in the Gombe forest | p. xxvii |
| Part 1 Into the Forest | p. 1 |
| Chapter 1 Gombe Arrival | p. 3 |
| Chapter 2 Settling In | p. 22 |
| Chapter 3 A Day in the Life of Fifi and Freud | p. 34 |
| Chapter 4 Of Chimps and Men | p. 52 |
| Chapter 5 Madame Bee Holds Her Own | p. 61 |
| Chapter 6 Trust and Security | p. 68 |
| Chapter 7 My Friend and Mentor: Hamisi Matama | p. 76 |
| Chapter 8 Knowing Jane | p. 88 |
| Chapter 9 Leave-Taking | p. 98 |
| Part 2 The Medical Path | p. 105 |
| Chapter 10 Entering the Medical Field | p. 107 |
| Chapter 11 Forest Reflections: Jungle Influences in My Practice | p. 118 |
| Part 3 Return to Gombe | p. 141 |
| Chapter 12 Gombe Calling | p. 143 |
| Chapter 13 Reunion with Jane | p. 148 |
| Chapter 14 Gombe Return | p. 156 |
| Chapter 15 Back to the Forest | p. 166 |
| Chapter 16 Jane's Peak | p. 174 |
| Chapter 17 Finding My Place | p. 188 |
| Chapter 18 Forest Reflections: How Wild Chimpanzees Helped Make Me a Better Father | p. 195 |
| Chapter 19 A Path Less Traveled: Bubongo Village | p. 204 |
| Chapter 20 More Forest Reflections: Broadening My Perspective on Family Medicine | p. 218 |
| Chapter 21 Good-bye Again | p. 229 |
| Chapter 22 Keeping Up with Jane | p. 235 |
| Epilogue | p. 251 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 257 |
| Index | p. 261 |
