Gorilla nation songs

Songs of the gorilla nation, my journey through autism

by Dawn Prince-Hughes Phd.

This is an interesting autobiography of a woman with Asperger syndrome, and how her relationship with gorillas facilitated their acceptance in human society. Asperger’s disease was classified as a disability only in 1994, so we have the situation of people like Susan Boyle who were not classified until three years ago. That is, they lived 51 years, aware that something was terribly wrong with them, but they did not know what it was, nor did anyone else.

Autistic people are often described as “on the spectrum,” meaning there is a wide range of symptoms. Asperger syndrome generally refers to high-functioning autism. These people are often skilled in certain intellectual subjects, geeky, have an extraordinary memory, and excel at mathematics. Mozart, Jane Austen, and Paul Cezanne are known to have Asperger syndrome.

Dawn was in this situation. Since she was a child, she knew that she was different in many ways. He was unable to communicate with other people; However, she was able to understand some complex subjects such as anthropology and philosophy, but she was not sure how to find her way home, she did not recognize the people she saw regularly, she was afraid of sounds, she was confused if she was interrupted when doing somewhat, he was distracted by bright lights, and when he was stressed he would have panic attacks.

From her early days at school, Dawn was the butt of jokes and revenge from teachers and classmates. She was treated like a rebellious idiot because she found it difficult to conform to the standards of others, difficult to relate to people, difficult to understand some things that were simple for everyone else.

He ran away from home at age 14 and lived on the streets in squats, drinking and using drugs. As she grew up, she worked as an erotic dancer in strip clubs. Even here she was misunderstood, she often wore heavy leather clothing, even when dancing, leading other dancers to believe that she liked the S&M. In fact, the leather was to give her body a feeling of touch, a tactile sensation that allowed him to feel who she was.

Dawn’s sexuality was blurry; Like many people with Asperger’s, they are confused about who they are, what they are, and how they relate to other people. A strong hereditary link to autism is known to exist, and this becomes absolutely clear when you describe your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, all of whom exhibited various aspects of autism.

In the second part of the book, he tells how he started going to the zoo to observe the animals. It was the gorillas that caught his eye and he spent hours, days, weeks and eventually years observing them, taking notes of their actions and movements, and in particular how they communicated with each other.

It was during this long process, which spanned over a few years, that she began to learn about herself by observing and understanding gorillas. He came to feel empathy for the way they were deprived of their real lives, locked in a prison. Although the zoo he attended was one of the best, people passed the gorillas and made fun of them, yelled insults at them, laughed or tormented them.

We understand that chimpanzees and gorillas are the most intelligent animals, the most similar to humans. But we know very little about his social life. Dawn examined this, taking meticulous notes on how they communicated with sounds, movements, and actions. He saw the sadness and crying of the gorillas when one of them died. He learned how they played, chasing and hiding in the bushes. He watched them avoid rain and mud, how they used tools, how they lived in an artificial environment; if they were human, we would say a prison. It was as much a prison for them as it would be for us.

And thanks to her observations and understanding of gorillas, Dawn learned to communicate with humans. He copied the movements and actions of gorillas, reflected on what they did, how they expressed facial emotions. Her research has been valuable for understanding primates, as she herself led her to obtain a Ph.D.

At one point in the book, Dawn describes a situation where one of the older gorillas is sick and refuses to get up to eat. Some of the younger gorillas throw sticks at him. The public who saw these events said it was because they cruelly wanted to drive away the sick gorilla. In fact, the other gorillas were quite concerned that the sick gorilla would not get up and eat. None of the gorillas would eat while she lay on the ground. Finally, a stick hit the sick gorilla, and she got up and went with the others to eat. However, viewers assumed they were indifferent to the illness of one of the group members.

The rather short 220-page book describes his journey through autism and the lives and actions of gorillas. They are not the stereotypes that they show us in the movies, but more human than we could imagine. It’s just that too often we see gorillas threatened in the wild, or confined to zoos, with their family group shattered, so we misunderstand what they mean by their actions.

An interesting autobiography that presents a different view of gorillas, leading to a greater understanding of our relationship with animals.