Jasper A. Cruz
Reaction Paper # 2
STS – Prof. J. Sonido
Reaction Paper # 2
STS – Prof. J. Sonido
Reaction Paper: On the
Life of Mammals (installment documentaries)
These mammals are often seen as primates, who
are always up to no good. For some, they see these creatures as our origins or
perhaps to whom we evolved from. And, as you may have guessed – they are apes
and monkeys. They were featured on The
Social Climbers and Food for Thought, installments of the
10-part documentary, Life of Mammals
produced by BBC.
The installment documentaries
were able to encapsulate how the monkeys and apes live like and how they adapt
to their environment. I found it fascinating that each kind of monkey has its
own ways to survive given its body structure.
There is the Saki, the spider monkey that uses its tail to reach its
food, the Pygmy marmoset that gnaws away on tree trunks for its food and also
the red howler monkey that uses its excellent color vision to pick the best
leaves for its food. What I also found remarkable is that, like us, humans,
they also have their hierarchy which is political in a way like some monkeys,
particularly the Saki monkeys. They denote and display seniority.
In addition, the next
documentary, Food For Thought, our
capabilities, skills and know-hows as human beings were compared to those of
the monkeys and apes. These chimps were seen to have a decent survival skills
such as in nut-cracking and rowing boats. The apes were also found to have the
capability to imitate us humans in searching for food, tool making etc.
That is why, it has been said in the
documentary that all of these go to show that the monkeys and apes are our
closest relatives as they were able to adapt to their environment and
manipulate it even. And, to further compare these chimps to us, humans, in the
closing part of the second documentary, the ruins of the Mayan civilization
were once again shown. Attenborough recalled how the Mayans adapted,
manipulated, and engineered their complex society and how it gradually fell.
After watching the documentary, I realized
that animals like the apes and the monkeys are not really far much different
from us, we share likenesses. Like us, they know how to adapt and cope with the
place they are living in. Like us, at least what was shown in the clip, they
know how to establish their hierarchy based on their capabilities. Like us,
they also have an undesirable attribute that is discriminating against those
who are different and marginalized. (Case in point: only those high-ranking
male monkeys can ‘mate’.)
Most importantly, I realized something about
our fast-paced society and we should ponder on this: If the Mayan civilization
back then was considered if not the most prevailing, one of the most powerful
civilization but their society fell. I would say that we should not be so
complacent because our modern society is not far from struggling with the same
luck. That is why we are studying all of these, their history in particular in
order to learn from them and not to commit the same mistakes they made.
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