Barbara J. King

Biography

Barbara tweets @​bjkingape

Have a look at Barbara's weekly contribution, almost always on Thursdays. to NPR's 13.7 science blog. Scroll down as needed to find her posts:

13.7 science blog


Barbara J. King is Chancellor Professor of Anthropology at the College of William & Mary.

She is author of the Being With Animals (Doubleday 2010), Evolving God (Doubleday 2007), The Dynamic Dance (Harvard University Press 2004), and a number of other books.

Dr. King has studied monkeys in Kenya and great apes in various captive settings in Africa and the US. Her research has advanced the thesis that humans and animals have deeper emotional relationships than previously thought.

Barbara is a popular guest on interview programs and recently appeared on the Diane Rehm Show and National Geographic Radio. Previously, she has been interviewed on radio programs in Canada, Austria, Germany, and Australia.

Dr. King is the recipient of numerous teaching awards from William & Mary and the state of Virginia. She is also associated with the Teaching Company which produces course material taught by America’s leading professors.

Barbara King graduated from Douglass College with a BA in Anthropology. She also received her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma.

Together with her husband, she cares for and arranges to spay and neuter homeless cats in Virginia.

Selected Works

Nonfiction
Being With Animals
Why are animals so irresistible to us? Why do we live with and care so deeply about them? From the famous "art caves" of ice-age Europe, to the ancient villages where animals were first domesticated, to stories of apes, whales, dogs, and cats doing fascinating things today, King weaves together a scenario about the animal-human bond that encompasses our past, present and future.
Evolving God
Can scientists discover a prehistory of religion just as they have traced the evolution of technology, language, and art? What does compassion in chimpanzees, or burial patterns in our human ancestors and Neanderthals, tell us about the origins of religion? In Evolving God, named a Top Ten Religion Book for 2007 by the American Library Association, Barbara King explores these questions.
The Dynamic Dance
How do chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas-- the African apes -- communicate using body postures and gestures? Using her many years of experience studying these apes, Barbara King answers this question in a book that offers a new perspective on the evolution of language.