Tracing the trajectories of the orangutans dissected by the Dutch anatomist and naturalist Petrus Camper in the
1770s and the research questions asked of them, I zoom in on the question: can orangutans speak? This question
entertained the 18th century debate about the place of the orangutan in natural history and in relation to the
human. By means of comparative anatomical research, Camper concluded that orangutans were physically incapable
of speech and this supposedly settled the debate. However, the question of speech was not entirely put to rest.
In a 21st century iteration, captive orangutan Rocky was found capable of producing human speech sounds. A
research team led by primatologist Adriano Lameira employed the means of experimental and acoustic research to
prove volitional voice control in the orangutan. They argued that this finding is crucial for understanding the
evolution of human speech.
One of the orangutans that ended up on Petrus Camper’s dissection table in
1776 is historically known to have been the first orangutan that survived the journey from Borneo and lived in
captivity in the Netherlands from June 1776 to January 1777. What do we learn when we read her story and that of
Rocky through one another? About the ways they were silenced or made to speak? The analysis brings into view
legacies of colonialism and human exceptionalism and the intricate entanglement of violence and care in
displacement, captivity and scientific knowledge production.