Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to
Speaker 1: day I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April
Speaker 1: May twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio I is
Speaker 1: a reading service intended for people who are blind or
Speaker 1: have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
Speaker 1: Please join me now for the first article, which is
Speaker 1: part two of To Finance Their Lifestyle, a young French
Speaker 1: couple went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost
Speaker 1: everything wrong by Joshua Hammer. In part one, we learned
Speaker 1: how Andrea and Clara Malroe traveled to French end to
Speaker 1: China in nineteen twenty three under the false pretense of
Speaker 1: conducting research, when in fact they intended to steal valuable
Speaker 1: Khmer antiquities from Cambodia's Bantier Srie Temple and sell them abroad.
Speaker 1: Motivated by money, adventure, and a sense of impunity, the
Speaker 1: couple carefully studied the site and colonial regulations, recruited an accomplice,
Speaker 1: and removed carved sandstone reliefs from the temple. Their plan
Speaker 1: quickly unraveled, however, when suspicious colonial officials and museum director
Speaker 1: George Grasiers tracked them seized the stolen artifacts and had
Speaker 1: them arrested before they could escape to Saigon. Beyond the
Speaker 1: dramatic heist, Part one places the episode in the broader
Speaker 1: context of French colonialism and the long history of Western
Speaker 1: appropriation of Cambodian cultural heritage. While Molroux later became a
Speaker 1: celebrated writer, resistance fighter, and French cultural minister, this scandal
Speaker 1: remained a defining contradiction in his life, revealing him as
Speaker 1: both intellectually brilliant and morally compromised. The incident also foreshadowed
Speaker 1: later debates over who has the right to possess and
Speaker 1: protect cultural treasures, especially those taken under colonial rule, and
Speaker 1: suggests that Malro's exposure to colonial injustice during the trial
Speaker 1: may have helped push him toward later anti colonial politics.
Speaker 1: Here now it is Part two. Malro's conviction, wrote the
Speaker 1: American literary critic Roger Shattuck in nineteen sixty eight, had
Speaker 1: a traumatic effect, forcing Malroe to square off with the
Speaker 1: dark angel of his own past. Malro continued to define
Speaker 1: himself as a foe of authoritarianism and a voice of
Speaker 1: the oppressed. When civil war broke out in Spain and
Speaker 1: July nineteen thirty six. He used his rising influence to
Speaker 1: secure French aircraft on behalf of the Republicans, then organized
Speaker 1: air crews and accompanied them on operations. He joined the
Speaker 1: French resistance in nineteen forty four, taking part in the
Speaker 1: harassment of an SS division as it moved north to
Speaker 1: join the Battle for Normandy. In July of that year,
Speaker 1: he was wounded and captured, then was left behind in
Speaker 1: a Tuloose prison camp when the Germans retreated. Malroe met
Speaker 1: Charles de Gaulle at the end of the war and
Speaker 1: was captivated by the general, regarding him as another self
Speaker 1: made and charismatic man of action. The admiration was mutual. Later,
Speaker 1: when de gaul became president, he looked into Malro's background
Speaker 1: and saw the crime in Cambodia as no impediment to
Speaker 1: his appointment as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine. Says Lea Genovez, an expert in French
Speaker 1: Endochina and a biographer of the Malrose. He was widely
Speaker 1: regarded as an ambitious and effective minister, renovating much of
Speaker 1: the country's deteriorating state architecture, democratizing the arts by opening
Speaker 1: Maison de la culture, state funded cultural centers in many
Speaker 1: provincial cities, and revitalizing the Louver, the Comade Francaise, and
Speaker 1: other great insctitutions. Malroe moved easily in circles of power.
Speaker 1: He formed a close attachment to the Kennedys, escorted the
Speaker 1: First Lady during trips to Paris, and visited her in
Speaker 1: the United States after her husband's assassination. He bade a
Speaker 1: memorable state trip to China in nineteen sixty five, where
Speaker 1: he was feted by Premier Jean Lai and met with
Speaker 1: Chairman Mau Zidong for several hours. Malroe came away impressed
Speaker 1: by Mao's mastery of global affairs, and before Nixon's groundbreaking
Speaker 1: tripp to China seven years later, the President conferred with
Speaker 1: Malroe in the White House about Mao's character and mindset.
Speaker 1: One of the few places Malroe found himself unwelcome was Cambodia.
Speaker 1: A planned visit with de gaul in nineteen sixty eight
Speaker 1: had to be aborted after George Gralier's son, Bernard Philippe,
Speaker 1: then the Conservatory of Encor, threatened to quit in protest.
Speaker 1: Despite his accomplishments, Malroe remained something of the hustler and
Speaker 1: prevaricator of his youth. He had an endless capacity for
Speaker 1: self mythologizing. In the introduction to the first edition of
Speaker 1: Man's Fate, he claimed falsely that he had served on
Speaker 1: a twelve man revolutionary committee in Canton in nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: four and participated in hand to hand fighting. In his biography,
Speaker 1: Olivier Todd wrote that Malroe exaggerated his relationship with Mao
Speaker 1: as well as his heroics during World War II, and
Speaker 1: may even have made off with resistance funds after the
Speaker 1: Nazi surrender. By then, he was separated from Clara, who
Speaker 1: survived World War II in hiding and later carved out
Speaker 1: a successful career as a novelist and memoirist. She died
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, half a century after Andrea Malroe's
Speaker 1: death in nineteen seventy six. The Cambodian Misadventure divides opinion
Speaker 1: about him. Was he a con man and a scoundrel,
Speaker 1: a renegade romantic. Many Cambodians still view him as epitomizing
Speaker 1: the greed and arrogance of the colonial system. Yuk Chang,
Speaker 1: the founding director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in
Speaker 1: Pennon Pen, which records Cambodia's turbulent recent history, says Malro's
Speaker 1: lack of contrition and rise to the top of the
Speaker 1: French establishment sent the message from the country's former colonizer
Speaker 1: that Cambodia still belongs to us. Nor did the theft
Speaker 1: of Cambodian antiquities end with Malroe. Far from it. Artifacts
Speaker 1: were misappropriated throughout the French colonial period, which ended in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four. The murderous Khmer Rouge regime officially prohibited
Speaker 1: the destruction of temples, but cadres often trafficked in antiquities
Speaker 1: to finance their activities. After the regime fell in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine, lawlessness and civil strife engulfed the country, and
Speaker 1: looting continued without rest for twenty or more years. Late
Speaker 1: last year, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art returned
Speaker 1: three Khmer sculptures to Cambodia after determining that they were
Speaker 1: likely looted during the nineteen sixties or seventies. In twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: prosecutors in New York indicted Douglas Latchford, a British expat
Speaker 1: living in Thailand, charging him with using New York Bank
Speaker 1: accounts to facilitate a wide scale theft and smuggling operation
Speaker 1: dating to the nineteen nineties. Latchford employed dozens of thieves
Speaker 1: to chisel off hundreds of sculptures and snatch bronze figurines
Speaker 1: from Khmer temples. He reportedly earned tens of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars faking providences and selling the art to private collectors
Speaker 1: and Western museums. Latchford died in twenty twenty before standing trial,
Speaker 1: and the extent of his crimes is only now coming
Speaker 1: to light. Malrose Vanishing Act in nineteen two twenty three
Speaker 1: stopped at the border, but Lashford's did not, says Brad Gordon,
Speaker 1: an American lawyer who was assisting Cambodia in tracking down
Speaker 1: its lost art. He proudly trafficked Cambodia's treasures into prestigious
Speaker 1: Western institutions and into the living rooms of billionaires. Genevese,
Speaker 1: reflecting on what she calls Malroe's juvenile indiscretion, further distinguishes
Speaker 1: between the crimes, arguing that in Malroe's case, the friezes
Speaker 1: were returned without lasting damage to Bonte Srie unwilling to
Speaker 1: be generous toward Malroe, she says. Today, Bonte Srie has
Speaker 1: emerged as one of Cambodia's most popular attractions. Perhaps ironically,
Speaker 1: its fortunes improved profoundly as a result of Malroe's desecration.
Speaker 1: In January nineteen twenty four, Enrie Parmentier, the Eco Francaise
Speaker 1: Dextreme orient E f e o's head of archaeology, trucked
Speaker 1: to the ruins to verify what malrou had stolen, then
Speaker 1: oversaw the effort to clear vegetation, inventory artifacts and translate
Speaker 1: inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer. Seven years later, Henrey Marshal,
Speaker 1: the conservator of Encor, reassembled the toppled temples, using both
Speaker 1: the original stones and modern materials. I visited the complex
Speaker 1: late on a July afternoon, arriving at the same moment
Speaker 1: as a tour group consisting of dozens of Cambodian women
Speaker 1: wearing identical purple dresses. Following the throng down a stone
Speaker 1: corridor described by Malroe in the Royal Way, I emerged
Speaker 1: into daylight to see the temples directly in front of me.
Speaker 1: The three small prasat that Malroux had defaced intact again
Speaker 1: glowed in the setting sun. The smiling goddesses perched on
Speaker 1: pedestals inside shallow niches, heads tilted, hair pulled tight beneath
Speaker 1: elaborate grounds with dangling lotus petal ear rings. Each wore
Speaker 1: a sarong and an ornamental sash. The frames around the
Speaker 1: niches were rich with curving vines, angelic attendants, crowned birds, scrolls,
Speaker 1: curly cues, and rosettes, all carved from the same reddish
Speaker 1: pink sandstone. The tenth century Khmer sculptors had created these
Speaker 1: devatas with such detailed vibrancy that they seemed ready to
Speaker 1: leap off of the facade. After they carved the eyes
Speaker 1: and finished the statue, they believed that the essence of
Speaker 1: the god was now incarnated. Olivier Cuneen, a French archaeologist
Speaker 1: who had studied the temple for a quarter century, told
Speaker 1: me in sem Reepp Malreaux had snatched away the deities
Speaker 1: in an act of avarice and sacrilege. Now the gods
Speaker 1: were smiling again, and accompanying this article did as you know.
Speaker 1: A timeline of the Khmer Empire. In AD eight oh two, Jayavarman,
Speaker 1: the second united fragmented Cambodian kingdoms, founding the Empire and
Speaker 1: establishing several important settlements. Surya Varman the second dramatically expanded
Speaker 1: the Empire's territory between eleven thirteen and eleven fifty and
Speaker 1: commissioned its architectural masterpiece on Garvat. His cousin, Jayavarman the
Speaker 1: seventh later built the Buddhist Bayon complex major road networks
Speaker 1: and hospitals. In fourteen thirty one, a neighboring Thai kingdom
Speaker 1: based near modern day Bangkok, sacked a weak and already
Speaker 1: declining encore, and within decades the capital was largely abandoned. Next,
Speaker 1: the spirited revolutionary who led the fight for independence in
Speaker 1: Corsica also inspired America as colonial rabble rousers. Pasquale Paoli
Speaker 1: was a small fish fighting an entire empire four thousand
Speaker 1: miles away. The founding fathers were watching and taking notes
Speaker 1: by Anna Richards. In seventeen fifty five, tensions were beginning
Speaker 1: to rise in the American colonies following the outbreak of
Speaker 1: the French and Indian War. Yet one of that year's
Speaker 1: most consequential developments for American independence happened on a Mediterranean
Speaker 1: island more than four thousand miles away. After more than
Speaker 1: two decades of struggle, the Corsican people declared independence from
Speaker 1: their Genoese overlords, who had laid claim to the island
Speaker 1: for five hundred years. Would be revolutionaries in America soon
Speaker 1: followed the situation in Corsica with interest. Colonial rabble rousers
Speaker 1: were especially fired up by the exploits of Pasquale Paoli,
Speaker 1: Chosen as the leader of independent Corsica, particularly in the
Speaker 1: seventeen sixties, Paoli became a media sensation in America, and
Speaker 1: inspired by this Paoli fever, patriots went on to name
Speaker 1: towns and even children after the Great Corsican. In seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, the New York Journal dubbed him the greatest
Speaker 1: man on Earth. Paoli's name thus became a byword in
Speaker 1: the colonies, and with good reason. By any measure, he
Speaker 1: was a courageous innovator. With his return to Corsica, the
Speaker 1: island became independent for the first time since the early
Speaker 1: Middle Ages, and he even helped push through a constitution,
Speaker 1: likely the first ever written down in groundbreaking fashion. Paoli's
Speaker 1: constitution separated powers into executive and legislative branches and allowed
Speaker 1: male citizens above the age of twenty five to elect representatives,
Speaker 1: regardless of race and whether they owned property. A woman
Speaker 1: could even vote, as long as she was over twenty
Speaker 1: five and single, or a whims. As Paoli declared in
Speaker 1: the preamble, Corsica's new government, now legitimately master of itself,
Speaker 1: having reconquered its liberty, would ensure the happiness of the
Speaker 1: nation before independence, says Marchandria Perrot, a historian at the
Speaker 1: University of Corsica. Eager American patriots latched onto Paoli. He
Speaker 1: was a symbol, a small fish fighting an entire empire
Speaker 1: outside the island itself. Little remains in public memory of
Speaker 1: the Corsican Revolution today, but Corsica's drive toward freedom proved
Speaker 1: a potent inspiration for independence efforts in the American colonies,
Speaker 1: stirring up revolutionary spirit among rebels. This small island had
Speaker 1: shown that a humble vassal state could throw off an
Speaker 1: empire and write its own rules, building its independence on
Speaker 1: a foundation of inherent universal ideals of equality. Beca's strategic
Speaker 1: location between the Mediterranean, Tyrehnian and Ligurian seas had long
Speaker 1: attracted would be conquerors. The Greeks arrived around five sixty BC.
Speaker 1: Then the Carthaginians and Etruscans vied against the Greeks for
Speaker 1: the island for more than three hundred years before Corsica
Speaker 1: entered the Roman Empire's sphere of influence in two fifty
Speaker 1: nine BC. After the fall of Rome, Corsica was briefly
Speaker 1: part of the Vandal Empire beginning in four fifty five,
Speaker 1: then came under the control of the Byzantine Empire early
Speaker 1: the next century five thirty four. The Lombards, under the
Speaker 1: direction of Charlemagne, then took over in seventy four. During
Speaker 1: the ninth century, Corsica was the subject of a number
Speaker 1: of Saracen invasions. The island then passed through the hands
Speaker 1: of the Pope and the bishop of the city state
Speaker 1: of Pisa, before falling in twelve eighty four under the
Speaker 1: influence of the maritime Republic of Genoa, which held the
Speaker 1: territory for nearly five hundred years. When Paoli's father, Jiacento
Speaker 1: was born at the end of the seventeenth century, Corsican
Speaker 1: autonomy must have been a distant memory. Yet by the
Speaker 1: turn of the eighteenth century, discontent was rife and living
Speaker 1: conditions extremely poor, and Corsicans began to resent Genoese's rule.
Speaker 1: Born in seventeen twenty five, Paoli grew up in a
Speaker 1: land defined by rebellion. In seventeen twenty nine, Corsican peasants
Speaker 1: refused to pay taxes to Genoa after a poor harvest,
Speaker 1: and thus began the Corsican Revolution. Jacento became one of
Speaker 1: its leaders. In seventeen thirty four, when Paoli was just fourteen,
Speaker 1: Jacento went into exile and settled in Naples. Paoli went
Speaker 1: with his father, and in April seventeen fifty five, at
Speaker 1: age thirty, he returned to Corsica. In July of that year,
Speaker 1: leaders of the insurrection appointed him general Chef de la Nacion.
Speaker 1: He then realized his father's dream of making Corsica an
Speaker 1: independent state, and, perhaps most consequentially for his American followers,
Speaker 1: successfully enshrined the Corsican constitution. A young James Boswell, the
Speaker 1: Scottish writer who became famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson,
Speaker 1: first wrote about Corsica during his Grand tour of Europe,
Speaker 1: begun in seventeen sixty four. He set out hoping to
Speaker 1: meet some of the most notable men of the age,
Speaker 1: and secured audiences with two luminaries of French thought and literature,
Speaker 1: visiting Voltaire and France, and Jean Jacques Rousseau in Switzerland. Rousseau,
Speaker 1: an avowed admirer of the Corsican experiment, wrote Boswell a
Speaker 1: letter of recommendation to present to Paoli, which Boswell considered invaluable.
Speaker 1: In October seventeen sixty five, the twenty four year old
Speaker 1: Boswell made for Corsica. He spent just a few days
Speaker 1: in Paoli's company and only a month or so in Corsica. Overall,
Speaker 1: traveling about the island would have been slow and complicated.
Speaker 1: There were very few roads on Corsica at the time,
Speaker 1: but the freedom inscribed in the country's document inspired Boswell.
Speaker 1: He wrote a memoir of his trip, An Account of Corsica,
Speaker 1: The Journal of a Tour to that Island and Memoirs
Speaker 1: of Pascal Paoli, was published in London in seventeen sixty eight.
Speaker 1: The book presented a glowing account of Paoli, his constitution,
Speaker 1: the Corsican Revolution, and the island in general. It was
Speaker 1: a sympathetic, warmly propagandistic portrait of a people yearning to
Speaker 1: be free, while its depiction of Paoli was superlative and
Speaker 1: closely observed. As Boswell described their first meeting, I had
Speaker 1: stood in the presence of many a prince, but I
Speaker 1: never had such a trial as in the presence of Paoli.
Speaker 1: In consequence of his being in continued danger from treachery
Speaker 1: and assassination, he has formed a habit of studiously observing
Speaker 1: every new face. For ten minutes, we walked backward and
Speaker 1: forward through the room, hardly saying a word, while he
Speaker 1: looked at me with a steadfast, keen and penetrating eye,
Speaker 1: as if he searched my very soul. The book proved
Speaker 1: a roaring success in Britain. It sold thousands of copies
Speaker 1: and became a bestseller, but its publication in the colonies
Speaker 1: later that year, just three years after the Stamp Act
Speaker 1: was imposed, resonated all the more among a population chafing
Speaker 1: under British taxes. American newspapers reported eagerly on events in Corsica,
Speaker 1: even quoting liberally from Boswell's memoir, but Corsica's independence was
Speaker 1: already slipping. On May fifteenth, seventeen sixty eight, just three
Speaker 1: months after Boswell's account, of Corsica was published, Louis the
Speaker 1: fifteenth of France annexed to the island, and Paoli fled. Yet,
Speaker 1: even while Paoli was on his back foot, support for
Speaker 1: him and the colonies only seemed to increase. Ebenezer Macintosh,
Speaker 1: one of the Boston based leaders of the Stamp Act protests,
Speaker 1: perhaps most famous for parading an effigy of a British
Speaker 1: tax collector through the streets, welcomed a son in seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty nine, naming him Paschal Paoli Macintosh after his revolutionary hero.
Speaker 1: In the same year, an entrepreneur inspired by Corsican independence
Speaker 1: founded the General Paoli Tavern, around which grew a town
Speaker 1: to deign known as Paoli, Pennsylvania. In the century and
Speaker 1: a half that followed, town's Dame Paoli would appear in Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and beyond. Benjamin Franklin offered enthusiastic praise for the rebellious
Speaker 1: spirit of the Corsicans, and lamented that France, while it
Speaker 1: boasts of enjoying freedom itself, would ruin Corsica for vindicating
Speaker 1: their common right to it. George Washington, too, stayed abreast
Speaker 1: of the developments from Corsica, thanks to Andrew Burnaby, the
Speaker 1: English travel writer serving as a chaplain to the British
Speaker 1: mission in Livorno, Tuscany, who sent the future first President
Speaker 1: news of the island, even reporting in one letter that
Speaker 1: the French common soldiers were deserting to Paoli in great numbers.
Speaker 1: Founding Father John Hancock named one of his merchant ships
Speaker 1: the Paoli in seventeen sixty nine. The vogue for Paoli
Speaker 1: gave educated elites in the Western world a new way
Speaker 1: to envision political leadership, writes David A. Bell, a historian
Speaker 1: of France in his twenty twenty book Men on Horseback,
Speaker 1: The Power of Charisma in the us Age of Revolution.
Speaker 1: For a brief moment in the seventeen sixties and seventeen seventies,
Speaker 1: Paoli stood out as one of the most revered and
Speaker 1: well known figures in the Western world, and the most
Speaker 1: important exemplar before George Washington of a new and potent
Speaker 1: form of political charisma. But ideals require power in order
Speaker 1: to spread, and Corsica's strength was limited. Once French forces
Speaker 1: defeated Paoli's troops at the Battle of Pontinovou in May
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty nine, Paoli fled to Britain in exile. Corsican independence,
Speaker 1: after fourteen short years, was over. France's occupation of Corsica
Speaker 1: didn't dampen American interest in Paoli, including among the future
Speaker 1: Founding Fathers. In seventeen seventy five, Alexander Hamilton and fellow
Speaker 1: students at King's College later Columbia University were part of
Speaker 1: a militia initially known as the Corsicans, and though the
Speaker 1: Founding Fathers didn't explicitly cite Paoli's Constitution as an inspiration,
Speaker 1: the American Constitution, written in seventeen eighty seven, bears marked
Speaker 1: similarities to Paoli's seventeen fifty five document. Both were based
Speaker 1: on Enlightenment principles. Paoli, through his close collaborator Matteo Budifuco,
Speaker 1: had even asked Rousseau to help draft the island's new laws,
Speaker 1: which the Great Thinker undertook but didn't publish during his lifetime,
Speaker 1: and separated powers into executive and legislative branches, with representatives
Speaker 1: elected by a remarkably free vote for the period, enacting
Speaker 1: the will of the people. Of course, the Corsican struggle
Speaker 1: for independence was hardly over. In seventeen ninety After the
Speaker 1: beginning of the French Revolution, Paoli returned to Corsica, where
Speaker 1: he was instated as the president of the regional government
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety two, though his relationship with French revolutionaries was
Speaker 1: turning sour, and in April seventeen ninety three, the French
Speaker 1: government ordered his arrest, alleging that he had conspired to
Speaker 1: hand Corsica over to Britain. Two months later, Corsica was
Speaker 1: in full rebellion against France, and by September seventeen ninety three,
Speaker 1: the Republicans were left with only a few positions on
Speaker 1: the coast. Corsica was clinging to independence by a thread.
Speaker 1: In the Age of Empire, Paoli needed the protection of
Speaker 1: a bigger partner. He wrote to British Prime Minister William Pitt,
Speaker 1: Captain Samuel Hood, then commander of a ship in Britain's fleet,
Speaker 1: and George the Third, asking for military support. Finally, in
Speaker 1: June seventeen ninety four, Paoli allied with Britain to form
Speaker 1: the Anglo Corsican Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under the British Empire.
Speaker 1: Arrangement was not to last. In seventeen ninety five, Paoli
Speaker 1: was forced back into exile in Britain, where he lived
Speaker 1: until his death in eighteen o seven, and the island
Speaker 1: fell back under the Sway of France, which resumed control
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety six. Corsica remains a part of France today.
Speaker 1: News reports on Corsica seem to have dried up in
Speaker 1: the newly formed United States of America after the Revolution. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: four towns named after Paoli are still there. Paoli Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: has kept particularly close links with Corsica, and in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five even organized visits to Marisaglia, where Paoli was born,
Speaker 1: for the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. The American
Speaker 1: visitors donated a plaque on behalf of the town, and
Speaker 1: one of their civic leaders, Edward Abel, declared that Paoli
Speaker 1: had abode embodied an ideal of liberty, an example for
Speaker 1: Americans fighting for their own independence. For US, Paoli's name
Speaker 1: symbolizes democracy and accompanying this article, did you know Corsica?
Speaker 1: During World War II, in November nineteen forty two, the
Speaker 1: Italian Army occupied Corsica, just three days after the Allies
Speaker 1: landed in North Africa for Operation Torch. The following September,
Speaker 1: thanks to Italian and French freedom fighters, Corsica was the
Speaker 1: first French territory freed from axis rule. Finally, ask Smithsonian,
Speaker 1: you've got questions, We've got experts. Why do so few
Speaker 1: bammels go through menopause? The answer is from Janine Brown,
Speaker 1: research physiologist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Menopause happens
Speaker 1: when the older female of a species remain physically capable
Speaker 1: of contributing to their group's survival even as their ovarian
Speaker 1: follicles become depleted. This is a rare occurrence among wild
Speaker 1: animals because natural selection favors continued reproduction. More offspring means
Speaker 1: more descendants in the gene pool. According to the dominant theory,
Speaker 1: menopause is believed to evolve only in species where the
Speaker 1: payoff from helping existing children and grandchildren exceeds the benefits
Speaker 1: of producing more offspring. These are species that have long
Speaker 1: life spans, extended periods of offspring dependency, and stable multi
Speaker 1: generational social groups, where post reproductive females can meaningfully increase
Speaker 1: their descendant's survival. Menopause has been found in one population
Speaker 1: of chimpanzees and in one individual captive orangutan generally, though
Speaker 1: only humans and certain toothed whales meet the stringent requirements.
Speaker 1: This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine for today. Your
Speaker 1: reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening, and
Speaker 1: have a great day.