Reiner Maria Matysik will give a two day workshop about Pongo sapiens — Homo pygmaeus — Workshop über die Verbindung von Menschen und Menschenaffen / Pongo sapiens — Homo pygmaeus: On the Connection between Humans and Hominids (the Great Apes), on June 11-12, offering 1 ECTS. A field trip to Schönbrunn Zoo is included. 

Humans do not like to regard themselves as animals; this is part of their self-image. Nevertheless, humans are animals. The ape is a member of the taxonomic family of primates which includes humans. Thus any safe dividing line between apes and humans disappears. Recent research findings show that the other members of the Hominidae are far closer to us than previously assumed. They are intelligent, social, some possess the ability of self-recognition, and they have almost identical genes to us. According to today’s state of knowledge, no doubts can persist any longer about the connection between apes and humans.  The workshop prepares to leap across the borders. It will engage with the question of the “missing link” between humans and other primates — the gap between ape and human. Are we on the path towards an ape–human hybrid? What have we lost along the way from animal to human? Can we get back what we have lost? How can we bridge the gap between nature and civilisation? Should we support bringing animal and human back together, the wedding of these realms of nature? The workshop will take place where the four orangutans in Vienna live. On site, the work will engage with the animals to develop an understanding for the mental processes of both humans and animals. A workshop that will cross the border between the realms of animals and humans. 

The workshop is open to all.