Gorilla Americanus: Race, Primates, and Stereotypes in the American Search for Order
Gorilla Americanus: Race, Primates, and Stereotypes in the American Search for Order
The ape as an analog has been a long tradition in the United States. To understand that tradition, we must understand the science of human origins, theories of evolution, and the real roles of gorillas in the United States. We must analyze apes in the American imagination—how they came to represent the “dark side”, the “primitive world,” and all that was threatening to late 19th century and early 20th century Americans. This work seeks to illuminate the factors that contributed to the creation of this “mental model” of apes, how those images and perceptions were quickly translated, transformed, and distorted into malicious stereotypes such that the ape came to represent “the Other” in American society. – R. James Wertz, Ph.D.
R. James Wertz, Ph.D.
Dr. Wertz serves as the Director of the Honors Program at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and is an Assistant Professor of journalism and digital media as well as the journalism program coordinator in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Dr. Wertz has also taught courses in U.S. and Latin American history in Edinboro University’s Department of History, Anthropology, and World Languages. A Reading, Pa. native, Wertz earned concurrent Bachelor Degrees in History and Speech Communication from Edinboro University, received a master’s degree from The American University in Washington, D.C., where he studied the history of American politics and culture in post-1945 America, and completed his Ph.D. in Communications Media and Instructional Technology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
