Carolyn and I have appreciated the work of British primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, who studied the social interactions of chimpanzees in the wild for over sixty years and is considered the world’s foremost expert. She has also been an important voice for wildlife conservation and animal welfare issues.

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London, England in 1934. Her father was a successful racing car driver and a businessman in the automobile industry. Her mother was a novelist. As a child, Goodall’s father gave her a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee as an alternative to a teddy bear, and Goodall has said that her fondness for the special toy sparked her early love of animals. To this day, Jubilee sits on Goodall’s dresser in her home.

Goodall attended Uplands School, a private school located in the coastal town of Poole, Dorset on the south coast of England, Goodall did not pursue higher education immediately after school; instead, she worked as a secretary and saved money for a trip to Africa. In 1957, Goodall visited the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands of East Africa. This visit brought her into contact with the renowned anthropologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey. Impressed by Goodall’s passion for animals and her keen observational skills, Leakey hired her as his secretary and soon after, recognized her potential to contribute to primate research.

In 1960, Leakey sent Goodall to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees, marking the beginning of her groundbreaking research. Despite having no formal training in higher education at the time, Goodall’s intuitive and patient approach led to remarkable discoveries about chimpanzee behavior, tool use, and social structures, which revolutionized our understanding of the primates and their close relation to humans. She found that “it isn’t only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought and emotions like joy and sorrow.”

In the early 1960s, while Goodall was still new to studying chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, she faced a significant challenge: the chimpanzees were very wary of her presence and they would flee whenever she approached. To overcome this, Jane adopted a unique and patient strategy. She would sit quietly in the same spot every day, making sure not to intrude or disrupt the chimpanzees’ activities. Her perseverance paid off when a young chimpanzee that she named “David Greybeard” became the first to approach her.

David’s acceptance of Goodall paved the way for other chimpanzees to become more comfortable around her. This breakthrough was not only a pivotal moment in her research but also led to the groundbreaking discovery of tool use among chimpanzees, fundamentally changing our understanding of primate behavior and bridging the gap between humans and animals in the scientific community. David’s trust in Goodall marked the beginning of her long and fruitful relationship with the chimpanzees of Gombe, and it remains a testament to the power of patience and respect in scientific observation.

In 1962, Goodall began her higher education at the University of Cambridge, where she enrolled in a Ph.D. program despite not having an undergraduate degree, which was a rare exception. In 1965, Goodall obtained her Ph.D. in Ethology from Darwin College, Cambridge. Her thesis was titled Behavior of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee, based on her pioneering field research in Gombe.

Goodall was able to correct quite a few misunderstandings that people had about chimpanzees. For example, she discovered that they are omnivorous, and not vegetarian as was previously thought. Goodall learned that they are capable of making and using tools, and have a set of previously unrecognized complex and highly developed social behaviors. She summarized her findings in several books and articles about various aspects of her work.

Goodall is the author 36 books. In 1971, she published her book In the Shadow of Man, which is her initial account of her life among the wild chimpanzees of Gombe, and in 1986, she summarized her years of observation in The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. Some of her other varied books include A Prayer for World Peace and Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey. She also wrote a cookbook, Eat Meatless, and a children’s book, Pangolina.

Goodall’s work and life have been deeply intertwined with spirituality, although she does not adhere to a specific organized religion. Goodall’s spirituality is rooted in a profound sense of connection to nature and all living beings, which she often describes in her writings and speeches. Her spiritual perspective is reflected in her reverence for the natural world and her commitment to conservation and animal welfare. Goodall often speaks about the sense of awe and wonder she feels in the presence of nature, and how this has guided her work with chimpanzees and her broader environmental advocacy. Her spirituality also informs her belief in the power of hope and the potential for positive change through human action.

In 1975, while Goodall was studying the wild chimps in Gombe, along with several of her research students and assistants, a harrowing incident occurred when several of them were kidnapped by armed rebels in Tanzania. The rebels, from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire), crossed into Tanzania and took the students hostage. The incident was a significant and frightening disruption to Goodall’s research. The students were held captive for several hours, but fortunately, they were released unharmed after negotiations. This event underscored the challenges and dangers faced by researchers working in remote and politically unstable regions. Despite this traumatic experience, Goodall continued her work at Gombe, demonstrating her resilience and dedication to her research and conservation efforts.

In 1977, the Jane Goodall Institute was founded, which is dedicated to wildlife research, conservation, and education. Its primary focus is on the protection of chimpanzees and their habitats, promoting sustainable livelihoods for local communities, and fostering environmental stewardship through programs that engage young people worldwide in conservation efforts. The institute also works on issues such as reforestation, climate change, and advocacy for animal welfare and biodiversity.

In 1991, Goodall started her Roots & Shoots program. This is a global youth-led community action program that encourages young people to make a positive impact in their communities through projects that promote conservation, animal welfare, and social justice. The program empowers participants to identify and address local issues, fostering leadership skills and environmental stewardship. Through various initiatives, Roots & Shoots “aims to inspire and support the next generation of compassionate leaders committed to creating a better world for people, animals, and the environment.” The program has had an incredible impact and has grown exponentially since its inception, engaging millions of young people in over 100 countries in community-based conservation projects.

Goodall has continued to make significant contributions to primatology, conservation, and environmental advocacy. In 1993, she founded the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo, providing a sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees and raising awareness about the threats they face. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Goodall expanded her efforts globally through the Jane Goodall Institute, promoting sustainable development and conservation initiatives in Africa and elsewhere.

Goodall has lectured widely about environmental and conservation issues and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 1995, she won the Kyoto Prize, and in 2002 she became a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2003, Goodall was honored as the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2021, she also was awarded the Templeton Prize, and in 2022 she won the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. In 2006, the Open University of Tanzania awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree, and in 2017, a documentary about Goodall’s life and work titled Jane was released by National Geographic.

Goodall has been a tireless advocate for animal welfare and environmental protection, delivering lectures worldwide and meeting with global leaders to discuss these critical issues. Goodall’s unwavering dedication has inspired a global movement towards a more sustainable and compassionate world. I met Jane in 1993 at the opening celebration for the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona, which was the largest closed ecological system ever created. She was extremely kind and gracious as we spoke, and I could sense why animals feel so comfortable and trusting around her beautiful presence.

Some of the quotes that Jane Goodall is known for include:

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. The greatest danger to our future is apathy. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.

We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place– or not to bother.

You cannot share your life with a dog, as I had done in Bournemouth, or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

If we do not do something to help these creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.

Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.

Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it that we can destroy the only planet we have?

Giving people hope is my mission in life.

by David Jay Brown

Carolyn and I have appreciated the work of physicist, activist, and ecologist Fritjof Capra, who is the founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, and author of several bestselling books, including The Tao of Physics, which explores the relationship between Eastern philosophy and modern physics.

Fritjof Capra was born in Vienna, Austria in 1939. His father was an attorney and his mother was a poet. Capra attended the University of Vienna and earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1966. Capra also studied numerous languages and is fluent in German, English, Italian, and French.

Capra conducted physics research at several prestigious institutions. Between 1966 and 1968, he was a researcher at the University of Paris. Between 1968 and 1970, he conducted research at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1970, he was a researcher at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Palo Alto, California, and then at Imperial College in London between 1971 and 1974. Between 1975 and 1988, Capra worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Northern California.

Capra was involved in theoretical high-energy physics research, focusing on quantum field theory and particle physics. He worked on topics related to the physics of subatomic particles, exploring the fundamental forces and interactions that govern their behavior. Capra’s work included studying the properties and interactions of elementary particles, contributing to the understanding of quantum mechanics, and developing theoretical frameworks that describe particle interactions.

In 1975, while Capra was a researcher in Northern California, he joined the Fundamental Fysiks Group, which met weekly to discuss philosophy and quantum physics. Our friend Nick Herbert, who I wrote a profile about a while back, was also a member of this legendary group that revolutionized physics. David Kaiser’s book How the Hippies Saved Physics, chronicles how this group of unconventional physicists in the 1970s, blended psychedelic and counterculture influences with scientific inquiry, to help revive interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics and contribute to the development of quantum information science.

That same year Capra published his groundbreaking book The Tao of Physics, which became a bestseller and was translated into twenty-three languages. The book explores the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism, suggesting that both realms offer complementary perspectives on the nature of reality. Capra argues that quantum mechanics and relativity discoveries reflect the holistic and interconnected worldview found in ancient spiritual traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

In 1982, Capra published his book The Turning Point, which examines the failures of modern society’s mechanistic worldview and advocates for a paradigm shift towards a more holistic, ecological approach to science, economics, and society. In 1988, Capra published Uncommon Wisdom: Conversations with Remarkable People, a series of dialogues that he had with several brilliant thinkers, such as Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Krishnamurti, and R.D. Laing about the interconnectedness of life and the universe.

In 1990, the movie Mindwalk — starring Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, and John Heard— was released, and Capra co-wrote the screenplay. The film — which is about three people who engage in a deep philosophical discussion on a variety of topics, including science, politics, and the interconnectedness of life, while walking around the island of Mont Saint-Michel in France — is loosely based on his book, The Turning Point.

In 1991 Capra co-authored Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality with a Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast. The book explores parallels between new paradigm thinking in science and religion, and it won the American Book Award in 1992.

In 1995, Capra co-founded the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. The organization is dedicated to promoting ecological education in schools and integrates ecological principles into the curriculum to foster environmental awareness and sustainability among students. It has supported projects in habitat restoration, school gardens, and cooking classes, partnerships between farms and schools, school food transformation, and curricular innovation.

In 1996, Capra published his book The Web of Life, which presents a new scientific understanding of living systems, emphasizing the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life forms through the principles of complexity, networks, and ecology. In 1998, Capra received the New Dimensions Broadcaster Award, in 1999 he received the Bioneers Award, and in 2007 he was inducted into the Leonardo da Vinci Society for the Study of Thinking.

In 2002, Capra published The Hidden Connections, and he co-authored The Systems View of Life in 2014. Both books emphasize the interconnectedness and complexity of living systems, integrating perspectives from biology, ecology, and social sciences to understand the holistic nature of life. Capra has also taught physics classes at the University of California Santa Cruz, University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University over the years.

In 2018, at an event hosted by our friend Ralph Abraham, I met Fritjof Capra. I told him how much I had enjoyed his book The Tao of Physics, and asked him about his inspiration for writing it. Fritjof then described to me how he was sitting on a beach in Santa Cruz when he experienced the revelations that led to his integration of physics with Taoism, and how mystical experiences that he had with “power plants” had played a role in his insight.

Some of the quotes that Fritjof Capra is known for include:

The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within.

Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both.

Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated “building blocks,” but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object’s interaction with the observer.

The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.

At the deepest level of ecological awareness you are talking about spiritual awareness. Spiritual awareness is an understanding of being imbedded in a larger whole, a cosmic whole, of belonging to the universe.

In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events. This division is useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality. It is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorizing intellect. To believe that our abstract concepts of separate ‘things’ and ‘events’ are realities of nature is an illusion.

by David Jay Brown

Carolyn and I have appreciated the work of pioneering cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who profoundly influenced the social sciences by studying the behavioral patterns of different cultures, particularly in the South Pacific. Mead’s groundbreaking work challenged Western perceptions of human development and sexuality, emphasizing cultural variability.

Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1901. Her father was a professor of finance, her mother was a sociologist, and she had four younger siblings. As a child, Mead’s family moved around frequently, and her grandmother largely educated her.

In 1912, when Mead was eleven, she was enrolled at the Buckingham Friends School in Lahaska, Pennsylvania. In 1919, Mead studied for a year at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and then she transferred to Barnard College in New York City. Mead graduated from Barnard in 1923, and then she received her master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University a year later.

In 1925, Mead set out for the Polynesian island of Tau in the South Pacific Ocean. This was where she did her first ethnographic fieldwork, studying the life of Samoan girls and women. Mead’s observations were summarized in the now-classic book Coming of Age in Samoa, published in 1928, and describe how Samoan children were raised and educated and how sexual relations occurred in the culture. Mead also studied personality development on the island, as well as dance, interpersonal conflict, and how Samoan women matured into old age.

Coming of Age in Samoa contrasts development in Samoa with that in the United States, and the book was received with wide acclaim for its revolutionary approach to understanding adolescence in different cultures. It became a bestselling work and has been highly influential in the field of anthropology. However, it wasn’t without controversy. Some conservative groups and individuals were uneasy with the book’s conclusions, which contradicted traditional views on adolescence and morality.

In 1926, Mead was back in New York City, where she became an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History, and in 1929 she received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University.

In 1929, Mead visited the island of Manus, which is now part of Papua New Guinea, where she did more cultural studies. In 1930, Mead published her book Growing Up in New Guinea, which is about her encounters with the indigenous people of the Manus— before they had been changed by missionaries and other Western influences— and she compares their views on family, marriage, sex, child-rearing, and religious beliefs to those of westerners. As with her pioneering studies in Samoa, Mead’s studies in New Guinea also challenged prevailing Western views on adolescence, gender roles, and cultural norms.

In 1932, Mead met anthropologist Gregory Bateson while conducting anthropological fieldwork on the shores of the Sepik River in New Guinea, and they married in 1936. That same year, the couple traveled to Bali, Indonesia, where they helped to pioneer Visual Anthropology, a subfield of anthropology that uses visual media— such as film, photography, and digital imagery— to study and communicate cultural practices and social phenomena. Mead and Bateson were some of the earliest anthropologists to emphasize the importance of photography as a tool for ethnographic research, and they used visual media extensively during their fieldwork to capture cultural practices and everyday life. They believed that visual records provided invaluable data and insights that complemented written ethnographies.

In 1935, Mead published Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. This is a study of the intimate lives of three New Guinea tribes from infancy to adulthood. Focusing on the “gentle, mountain-dwelling Arapesh, the fierce, cannibalistic Mundugumor, and the graceful headhunters of Tchambuli,” Mead advanced the theory that many so-called masculine and feminine characteristics are not based on biological sex differences but reflect the cultural conditioning of different societies. For example, the Tchambuli tribe exhibited a unique gender role reversal, compared to the West, in which women dominated economic and social activities while men engaged in artistic and emotionally expressive pursuits.

Mead continued to study the cultures of the Pacific islands. In 1949, she published Male and Female, an anthropological examination of seven Pacific island tribes. Mead analyzed the dynamics of these cultures, to explore the evolving meaning of “male” and “female” in contemporary American society, and the book also offers hope, by providing examples of how to resolve conflict between the sexes. When it was published The New York Times declared, Dr. Mead’s book has come to grips with the cold war between the sexes and has shown the basis of a lasting sexual peace.”

From 1946 to 1969, Mead was curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where she had been an assistant curator twenty years earlier. From 1954 to 1978, Mead taught anthropology at Columbia University and The New School for Social Research in New York City. In 1960, Mead served as president of the American Anthropological Association in the 1960s and 1970s, and she held various positions in the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mead also had an interest in altered states of consciousness. She shared professional circles with, and interacted with, our friends neuroscientist John C. Lilly and psychologist Timothy Leary. Mead and Bateson contributed to conversations about the nature of human consciousness by emphasizing cultural relativity, interconnectedness, and systems thinking. In later life, Mead mentored many young anthropologists and sociologists, including psychologist Jean Houston, whom I did a profile about several months ago. In 1976, Mead was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Mead died in 1978 at the age of 76.

In 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced he was awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mead. In 1984, Mead and Bateson’s daughter, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, published a book, With a Daughter’s Eye, about her experience growing up with two of the world’s legendary anthropologists. In 1998, the U.S. Post Office issued a 32-cent stamp with Mead’s face.

The Margaret Mead Award is presented annually in Mead’s honor by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association, for significant works that communicate anthropology to the general public. There are schools named after Mead: a junior high school in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, an elementary school in Sammamish, Washington, and another in Brooklyn, New York.

Some of the quotes that Margaret Mead is known for include:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

I was wise enough never to grow up, while fooling people into believing I had.

Laughter is man’s most distinctive emotional expression.

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

… the ways to get insights are: to study infants; to study animals; to study primitive people; to be psychoanalyzed; to have a religious conversion and get over it; to have a psychotic episode and get over it; or to have a love affair with an old Russian…

An ideal culture is one that makes a place for every human gift.

by David Jay Brown