Humanzees

I've referenced the podcast Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff  before on this blog. They're a pair of writers that frequently collaborate on RPG-related projects, and have overlapping interests in fiction and non-fiction (though Ken is more of a historian, while Robin is more of a narrative critic). Since their podcast has literally hundreds of episodes and I spend a lot of time in my car or doing data entry, I have copious opportunity to listen to their back-catalog.

Most recently, I listened with much pleasure to Episode 163, in which they discuss the history and stories surrounding attempts to create Humanzees - Human/Chimpanzee hybrids. These attempts were actually made, by Americans, the Soviets, and Imperial Germany, at minimum. They were also multi-decade efforts, running from the late 19th century to the height of the Cold War. Unsurprisingly, there was a military interest in creating super-strong but not-so-smart soldiers, particularly on the part of Josef Stalin, who sponsored research in his native Georgia (Sakartvelo) by Ilya Ivanovitch Ivanov.

American Humanzee research was conducted in Cuba, as Americans loved to use Cuba as a place to do questionable things before the Castro revolution.

Imperial German research was conducted in the Canary Islands - which is interesting, because the Kaiserreich had no control of the Canaries the way the USA did of Cuba, or the Soviets of Georgia. One commenter on the episode link mentioned mummies, Atlantis, and ur-races, all of which are great hooks for gaming or a certain sort of fiction.

From here on, I'm going on a deep dive into inventing and confabulation of fictional things. Fictional, as in not real. Potential employers, take note!

Brainstorming about broader, less geographically-specific issues regarding Humanzees...Since I was an Anthropology major in college and have colleagues that are primatologists, paleo-primatologists, or archaeologists of the Paleolithic, I know a little bit about Hominini. These include both our presumed direct-line ancestors, our closest living relatives (Chimpanzees/Bonobos) and an array of extinct species (including Neanderthals and Australopithecines). So I have a bit of knowledge to play around with, especially if one imagines some of these extinct species to be analogous to some fantasy archetypes (Homo Floresiensis as "Hobbits," or the mighty Paranthropus genus as vegetarian orcs).

Before the brainstorming gets too far, I should probably also unpack some of the race issues that immediately rise up here. When Humanzee research began, many people considered humanity to be made up of "races" that were of various degrees of closeness to animals, or distant from God, with African peoples typically placed at the bottom. Another reason why American research into Humanzees was located in Cuba was probably the greater ease of acquiring research subjects. And a lot of those subjects were probably Black, due to their then-perceived "closeness" to the Chimpanzee subjects. This of course was eventually proven to be both hogwash and absolutely horrible, but it's a disturbing part of our scientific history, just like the Nazi experiments during the Holocaust, or the Tuskegee smallpox experiments.

...Speaking of Nazis...Contrary to popular culture, the Nazis were utterly against the creation of Human-Ape hybrids. As they believed that "races" and "breeds" of plants and animals had "over-souls," the 3rd Reich was disturbed even by cross-breeding dogs, much less people.

Disclaimer complete, let's move on.

What is the visceral appeal of Humanzees/Apemen/Man-apes/etc? Same as the one for Zombies/Vampires/Androids/etc: the Uncanny Valley effect. It's like us, but not like us. It's a parody of the human form, or a human form that has been approximated wrongly. It's a monstrous archetype: a thing that looks like us but preys on us. Because Chimpanzees will eat meat, they will eat monkeys, and they will sometimes eat each other. And a Humanzee? They'll eat anything they can kill.

I'd also like to briefly note the Koolakamba cryptid, supposedly a cross of a Chimpanzee with a Gorilla. It has similar appeal as a Humanzee, but more resembling the Yeti/Sasquatch archetype (also a lovely idea mine).

Another rich vein is the works of Stanislav Szukalski, originator of Zermatism and associated art, which posits a cabal of sinister Yeti, or Neanderthal/Human hybrids conspiring behind the scenes of history. Behold, the Protong!!! is the work that lays out much of these ideas, and all this hot mess of crazy I came across (again!) from Ken & Robin, Episode 179.

Now, to the point I've been lurching toward - use of the Humanzees as the foundation stone of fictive work, whether individually-written, or collaborative (RPG, LARP, etc). I'm comfortable with either, but have been published in neither, beyond a couple credits for proofreading. 

Since the monstrous archetype of "looks like us but isn't us" is so broad, there's a lot of angles one could make to attack Humanzees. One way could be with Night's Black Agents (I probably have a bit of hero-worship for Ken and Robin now) - the Humanzees are hidden in plain sight/the dark of night, they have fangs, and perhaps their hybrid physiology or lab-grown origins demands...unique nutrition. Perhaps they become more bestial without regular feeding on blood (or brains - brains are good too) before exploding into incredible violence...

Since much of the known Humanzee research was conducted before Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA in the 1950's, the actual method in the Humanzee labs was based on artificial insemination, well before our modern era of CRISPR and DIY gene-splicing. The early 20th century is also the time when the Human Immunodeficiency Virus passed from Chimpanzee (or Mangabey) to Humans. Could this be connected in our fictions to Humanzee research? Why not?

Perhaps the appearance of Humanzees in the modern world (of our fiction) is due to someone replacing artificial insemination as a production method with gene-splicing, retroviruses, etc. Perhaps Troglodytism, like vampirism, is a blood-borne condition. Now the population of Humanzees can grow without laboratories, instead needing only fangs or needles. 

Alternatively, maybe Humanzees exist in the open as laborers, astronauts, or the like. Their great strength and grasping feet give them an edge in skyscraper construction and micro-gravity. This would obviously make more sense in a more futuristic setting, analogous to Transhuman Space, Eclipse Phase, or David Brin's Uplift series. Or maybe they're more covert, existing for a specific secret purpose (like their original intended actual purpose - that of soldiers). Humanzee squads would be awfully handy in vertical spaces like Favelas, elevator shafts, or for helicopter insertion. 

Maybe I just need to re-watch the Planet of the Apes movies?