Malgré son caractère d’animal exotique et venu d’ailleurs, le singe a fait l’objet d’une attention toute particulière de la part de la culture grecque et gréco-romaine. L’animal, que l’imaginaire contemporain considère comme le plus proche de l’homme en vertu de ses caractères morphotypiques et éthologiques, était au contraire conçu par les Anciens comme l’être vivant le plus aberrant de l’humanité, justement en raison d’une pareille similarité considérée comme échouée. L’imaginaire grec concernant le singe se nourrit de pratiques relationnelles en grande partie différentes de celles qui peuvent concerner l’observateur moderne : en effet, les Grecs ne connaissaient pas de grands singes, et le représentant prototypique des primates non-humains était pour eux le magot. En analysant le portrait-robot que les sources zoologiques et médicales nous délivrent concernant la forme du singe, son éthologie et sa façon de se déplacer, il est possible de comprendre d’autres aspects apparemment plus obscurs faisant partie des représentations culturelles conçues par les Grecs pour cet animal. Le singe s’intègre en particulier dans les mêmes configurations symboliques que d’autres caractères de l’imaginaire grec, avec une spécificité propre lorsqu’il est associé à des figures imparfaitement viriles ou masculines telles que les enfants ou les eunuques, ainsi que les homosexuels efféminés. Son association à de milieux sociaux d’élite très souvent liés à une vie considérée comme débauchée, sa condition marquée par l’imperfection physique ainsi qu’une soumission au maître toujours jugée comme précaire, font en sorte que le singe soit considéré comme le véritable geloion mimēma de l’être humain et de son modèle de perfection, à savoir le mâle adulte de condition libre. / Despite being an exotic animal and coming from elsewhere, monkeys have been the subject of special attention from Greek and Greco-Roman culture. The animal that the contemporary imagination considers the closest to man by virtue of its morphotypical and ethological characters was, on the contrary, conceived by the ancients as the most aberrant living being when compared to man precisely because of such a failed similarity. Ancient Greek imaginary about monkeys feeds on relational practices largely different from those that may concern human beings nowadays: ancient Greeks indeed did not know any great apes and the prototypical representative of the non-human primates was the Barbary ape. By analysing the information that zoological and medical sources give us concerning both the anatomy and the ethology of monkeys, it is possible to understand other seemingly more obscure aspects that are part of the cultural representations conceived by the Greeks for this animal.In particular, monkeys enter into the same symbolic configurations as other figures in ancient Greek imagery especially when associated with imperfectly virile or masculine figures such as children or eunuchs as well as effeminate homosexuals. The association with elite social circles very often linked to a life considered debauched and their condition marked by physical imperfection in addition to a submission to the master always considered as precarious, make the monkey be considered a real geloion mimēma, a laughable counterfeit of the human being and of his perfect prototype, namely the adult male of free condition.

[pt] Os estudos de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS) e os estudos sociais e culturais das ciências abriram novos espaços ontológicos e epistemológicos que questionam a epistemologia universalista moderna, revelando as controvérsias e redes de conexões envolvidas no desenvolvimento de diferentes disciplinas científicas, antes obscurecidas pela modernidade. Com base nessas perspectivas, a presente tese visa suscitar reflexões acerca das controvérsias e particularidades históricas, ontológicas e epistemológicas no desenvolvimento dos estudos de comportamento animal, tendo em vista que se desenvolveram a partir de diálogos interdisciplinares e de dissolução de fronteiras entre conhecimento local e científico. Pretende-se discutir as diferentes apreensões de alteridades animais a partir dos estudos do comportamento animal, e suas relações com outros tipos de olhares poéticos sobre os animais. O advento da etologia abriu caminho para novas compreensões acerca das capacidades sociais, cognitivas e subjetivas dos animais não-humanos em condições de campo. Essas novas compreensões suscitaram reflexões críticas acerca da mente animal, confrontaram as ideias modernas cartesianas, mecanicistas e funcionais, dos animais como máquinas ou autômatos insensíveis e transformaram as relações entre humanos e animais não-humanos. O caráter interdisciplinar e multimetodológico que a etologia assumiu no decorrer do seu desenvolvimento no século XX como estudo biológico e evolutivo do comportamento, possibilitou o diálogo entre as ciências biológicas e as ciências sociais, bem como permitiu o atravessamento de fronteiras entre humanidade e animalidade. Embora Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen e Karl von Frisch sejam considerados, pela História (Monumental) das Ciências, como os legítimos fundadores da etologia, ainda há controvérsias acerca de sua origem e constituição como disciplina científica, tendo em vista que já se falava em etologia desde antes de Charles Darwin, que já escrevia acerca da dimensão evolutiva do comportamento animal no século XIX. Antes da sua consolidação como disciplina científica no século XX, a etologia foi (re)definida através de diferentes perspectivas (behaviourismo, psicologia comparada americana, etologia objetivista européia, etologia vitalista, entre outras) constituindo uma trajetória peculiar como ciência multidimensional. Dentre controvérsias e particularidades, a presente tese enfatiza a relação de respeito mútuo e rivalidade entre dois importantes fundadores da disciplina: Konrad Lorenz e Jakob von Uexkull. Uexkull influenciou significativamente as ideias de Lorenz acerca do comportamento e subjetividade dos animais. No entanto, essa influência terminou em uma rivalidade, tendo em vista as diferentes posições epistemológicas e políticas entre o darwinista evolucionista alemão e o vitalista estoniano. Nas linhas de fuga da História e Epistemologia das ciências, é importante considerar que Uexkull, desconhecido por muitos etólogos atuais, com sua teoria dos mundos-próprios (Umwelt) e perspectiva neovitalista, reconheceu os animais somo sujeitos, revolucionando os conhecimentos sobre a ação e percepção dos animais. E é possível que Lorenz posteriormente tenha reconhecido os animais como sujeitos com base nas reflexões de Uexkull. Com estas reflexões, a presente tese pretende explicitar como a etologia desenvolveu-se de forma não linear e múltipla, incorporando diferentes perspectivas, conceitos e metodologias ao longo de sua história. Em outras palavras, serão discutidos os diferentes caminhos e linhas de fuga ontológicas e epistemológicas percorridos nos estudos do comportamento animal, que transformaram a etologia numa ciência biossocial e fronteiriça, com uma história não-fatual que abrange diferentes dimensões, métodos, conceitos, praticas, disciplinas e objetos. / [en] The Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies and the social and cultural studies of the sciences have opened up new ontological and epistemological spaces that question modern universalist epistemology, revealing the controversies and networks of connections involved in the development of different scientific disciplines previously obscured by modernity. Based on these perspectives, this thesis aims to elucidate the controversies and historical, ontological and epistemological particularities in the development of animal behavior studies, since they have developed from interdisciplinary dialogues and the dissolution of borders between local and scientific knowledge. It is intended to discuss the different apprehensions of animal alterities from the studies of animal behavior, and their relations with other types of poetic looks on animals. The advent of ethology paved the way for new insights into the social, cognitive, and subjective capacities of nonhuman animals under field conditions. These new insights have elicited critical reflections about the animal mind, confronted modern cartesian, mechanistic, and functional ideas of animals like machines or insensitive automata and transformed relations between humans and nonhuman animals. The interdisciplinary and multi-methodological character that ethology assumed in the course of its development in the twentieth century as a biological and evolutionary study of behavior, enabled the dialogue between the biological sciences and the social sciences, as well as allowed the crossing of borders between humanity and animality. Although Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch are considered by the (Monumental) History of Sciences as the legitimate founders of ethology, there is still controversy about its origin and constitution as a scientific discipline, since ethology was already spoken since before Charles Darwin, who was already writing about the evolutionary dimension of animal behavior in the nineteenth century. Before its consolidation as a scientific discipline in the twentieth century, ethology was (re) defined through different perspectives (behaviorism, american comparative psychology, european objectivist ethology, vitalist ethology, among others) constituting a peculiar trajectory as multidimensional science. Among the controversies and particularities, the present thesis emphasizes the relation of mutual respect and rivalry between two important founders of the discipline: Konrad Lorenz and Jakob von Uexkull. Uexkull influenced significantly Lorenz s ideas about animal behavior and subjectivity. However, this influence ended in a rivalry, given the different epistemological and political positions between the German evolutionist Darwinist and the Estonian vitalist. In the escape lines of the History and Epistemology of the Sciences, it is important to consider that Uexkull, unknown to many today s ethologists, with his theory of the own-worlds (Umwelt) and neovitalist perspective, recognized animals as subjects, revolutionizing knowledge about action and perception of animals. And it is possible that Lorenz later recognized the animals as subjects based on Uexkull s reflections. With these reflections, the present thesis aims to explain how ethology has developed in a non-linear and multiple way, incorporating different perspectives, concepts and methodologies throughout its history. In other words, we will discuss the different ontological and epistemological paths and escape lines routes in animal behavior studies that have turned ethology into a biossocial and frontier science with a non-factual history that encompasses different dimensions, methods, concepts, practices, disciplines and objects.