Project Nim

Project Nim, a film involving the life of a chimp who is raised by humans in order to analyze if chimps can learn a language in order to communicate with humans. Through this process it was discovered that sign language was the most understandable language for communication between humans and chimps. The film questions the importance of nature vs nurture in the personality and actions of any given species. The film argues in favor of nature in the nature vs. nurture debate by showing that it is impossible to completely escape the tendencies of generations of evolution despite a certain upbringing. This is evidenced by Nim pounding his owners head into the ground in anger and by a variety of other violent aggression towards his main caretakers. Nim would quickly transition from a lovable and creative being to an upset violent creature in seconds. The evidence provided is especially convincing because it is such a sharp contrast to the sweet and emotional human like qualities that Nim is also capable of exhibiting. The grotesque results of Nim’s violence are important to the story because it emphasizes the violent alpha nature of chimps compared to his gentle upbringing. Notably, it was a person not directly involved with the caring of Nim that noticed this tendency for violence, meaning that the others continued to think of him their child despite the outbursts. The value of the Nim experiment is that it shows although humans are not necessarily completely unique our development over thousands of years certainly separates us from other species, showing that although the human “nurture” does matter, its nature that is the ultimate decider.