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Justifying Human Behavior with Animal Stories

A trio of Bonobos
wildlifedirect.org
A trio of Bonobos

Ants practice democracy... Penguins are monogamous... Bonobos honor female sensitivity. If animals do it, does that mean humans should too?

We talk with a Virginia historian who has been researching two centuries of such arguments; including when behavior in nature was used to justify slavery, the divine right of kings, and much more.

Guest:
Nicolaas Rupke, PhD - Science Historian. The “Johnson Professor of History” at Washington and Lee University.  Former Director of the Göttingen Institute for the History of Medicine at Göttingen University in Germany.

Tom Graham was Senior Producer and host of WMRA's Virginia Insight from 2006 to 2015.