The Infanticide Controversy

“I have long thought that the infanticide controversy would provide a gold mine for historians of science, and Amanda Rees has mined it to the fullest. She not only provides an extraordinarily well-researched and insightful chronicle of the controversy and its roots, but in the process provides important insights into the ‘science wars’ as well as the most comprehensive available introduction to field primatology, its history, aspirations, limitations, and inherent fascination.  Even with the background and the biases of a participant, I found the book studded with novel insights and in reading it gained a broader perspective on my own field of study. This is history of science at its best.”—Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of The Woman That Never Evolved and Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection

“Amanda Rees provides us with a comprehensive yet sensitive history of one rather tortured debate in the history of primatology—shedding much-needed light on an aspect of science (namely, field-based research) that is very rarely considered in studies of the history of science.”— Robin Dunbar, University of Oxford

“This well-written and deeply considered book cleverly applies the insights of the sociology of science to primatology. Amanda Rees shows that there is a ‘fieldworker’s regress’ which creates unavoidable ambiguities in field-based observations.  These combine with researchers’ ideas about humans’ relationship to primates, giving rise to irresolvable conflicts over what is going on when monkeys kill infants belonging to their group. The book engages the reader from page one and has the hallmark of a lasting resource, not only for analysts of science, but also for primatologists, and for fieldworkers of all kinds.”—Harry Collins, Cardiff University

“Why on earth would monkeys kill their babies? Primatologists want to know. On the other hand, Amanda Rees wants to know how field primatologists come to conclusions about it. In this brilliant analysis, she examines the history of a recent scientific controversy, using it as a lens by which to peer into the evolving epistemology of a young science. This is one of the most important recent books to come out of the field of science studies, and her analysis of the infanticide controversy will most likely outlive the controversy itself.”—Jon Marks, University of North Carolina–Charlotte

“The Infanticide Controversy is an authoritatively researched and attractively written work of historico-sociological analysis of important recent science. It draws on extensive interviews with participants and exhibits a deep knowledge of the technical issues as well as the multiple contexts conditioning debates about them.”—Gregory Radick, author of The Simian Tongue