Primatology is the study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and primatologists can be found in departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and many others. It is closely related to physical anthropology, which is the primatology of genus Homo, especially Homo sapiens. The fields cross over in the study of the hominids, which includes all ancestors of man and the other African Apes.
Modern primatology is an extremely diverse science. It ranges from anatomical studies of primate ancestors and field studies of primates in their natural habitat, to experiments in animal psychology and ape language. It has cast an immense amount of light on basic human behaviors and ancient ancestry of these behaviors.
Long term sites of research tend to be best associated with their founders, and this leads to some tension between younger primatologists and the veterans in the field.
Though Kawai is the only Japanese primatologist associated with the use of this term, the underlying principle is part of the foundation of Japanese primate research.
Japanese primatologists are renowned for their ability to recognise animals by sight, and indeed most primates in a research group are usually named and numbered.
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