Mangani

Key takeaways

Mangani belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mangani to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mangani from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mangani is a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The name is shared by the invented language used by these apes. In the invented language, Mangani (meaning "great-ape") is the apes' word for their own kind, although the term is also applied (with modifications) to humans. The Mangani are represented as the apes who foster and raise Tarzan.

As a species of ape The Mangani are described by Burroughs as approximately man-sized, and appear to be a species intermediate between gorillas and chimpanzees. He also described them as “man-like apes which the natives of the Gobi speak of in whispers; but which no white man ever had seen [before Tarzan]” (Jungle Tales of Tarzan: "The Battle for Teeka") implying a connection to the Almas or Yeti. In the original Tarzan books gorillas, called Bolgani by the Mangani, are explicitly stated to be a separate species from Mangani. As described by Burroughs, Mangani are organized in tribal bands ruled by dominant males, or "kings", which subsist by foraging for fruit, grubs, insects, and sometimes meat, in localized territories. Tribes are generally identified by the names of their kings. Burroughs portrays the Mangani (and indeed most jungle animals) as susceptible to occasional bouts of madness in which they will lash out violently and unpredictably at other living creatures in their vicinity. Tarzan is raised in the tribe of Kerchak, based in the coastal jungle of equatorial Africa, as shown in Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Tales of Tarzan. As an adult he comes to lead this tribe; later, he becomes accepted in other tribes of Mangani, such as the tribe of Molak in The Beasts of Tarzan. Tarzan continued to associate occasionally with his original tribe until cast out in Tarzan and the Golden Lion, as the result of a Tarzan impersonator having murdered one of its members. Altogether, Mangani appear in 15 of the Tarzan books; the first through seventh (Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan, The Son of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Tarzan the Untamed), the ninth (Tarzan and the Golden Lion), the 11th and 12th (Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Tarzan and the Lost Empire), the 14th (Tarzan the Invincible), the 18th (Tarzan and the Leopard Men), the 20th (Tarzan and the Forbidden City), the 23rd (Tarzan and the Madman published posthumously), and the 26th (Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, published posthumously and expanded from an incomplete Burroughs manuscript). There have been several attempts to identify the fictional Mangani with an actual primate species. Science fiction author Philip José Farmer speculated they might be a variety of australopithecines such as Australopithecus in his pseudo-biography of Tarzan, Tarzan Alive (1972). Farmer's premise is that the Tarzan novels were the biography of a real person, with some details changed or exaggerated by Burroughs. The great apes have no sophisticated spoken language as Burroughs described, therefore Farmer reasoned the Mangani must be Australopithecus or another species which might plausibly have a sophisticated spoken language. Walt Disney Pictures' 1999 animated feature film Tarzan, its sequel Tarzan & Jane and prequel Tarzan II, and the television series The Legend of Tarzan based on it, portray the apes who raised Tarzan as gorillas.

Known Mangani tribes A list of tribal groups of Mangani and individual named Mangani associated with them as portrayed in the Tarzan novels follows, together with the titles of the books in which they appear or are referenced. Individuals associated with more than one tribe may be listed more than once. Tribe of Go-lat

Go-lat ("Black-eye") (m.), king – Tarzan the Untamed Zu-tag ("Big-neck") (m.) – Tarzan the Untamed Tribe of Kerchak (later of Tarzan, Terkoz, Karnath, Pagth)

Chulk ("?") (m.) – Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Gazan ("Red-skin") (m.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Gobu ("Black-male") (m.) – Tarzan and the Golden Lion Go-yad ("Black-ear") (m.), later of the tribe of Toyat – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Tarzan and the Lost Empire Gozan ("Black-skin") (m.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Gunto ("?-purple") (m.) – Tarzan of the Apes; Jungle Tales of Tarzan Kala ("Milk-light") (f.) – Tarzan of the Apes; Jungle Tales of Tarzan Kama ("Milk-child") (f.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Karnath ("?") (m.), king after Tarzan – The Return of Tarzan Kerchak ("?") (m.), king – Tarzan of the Apes; Jungle Tales of Tarzan Mamka ("?-milk") (f.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Mumga ("?-red") (f.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Mungo ("?-black") (m.) – Tarzan of the Apes Neeta ("Duck-little") (f.) – Tarzan of the Apes; Tarzan and the Golden Lion Numgo ("?-black") (m.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Pagth ("?") (m.), king after Karnath – Tarzan and the Golden Lion Taglat ("Neck-nose") (m.) – Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Tana ("Warrior-light") (f.) – Tarzan of the Apes Taug ("Tall-bottom") (m.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Teeka ("?") (f.) – Jungle Tales of Tarzan Terkoz ("?") (m.), king between Tarzan's stints as king – Tarzan of the Apes Thaka ("?") (m.) – Tarzan of the Apes, Jungle Tales of Tarzan Tublat ("Broken-nose") (m.) – Tarzan of the Apes; Jungle Tales of Tarzan Tribe of Mal-gash (also called the tribe of Ho-den and the Servants of God)

Fernando (m.), mangani name unknown – Tarzan and the Madman Mal-gash ("Yellow-Tooth") (m.), king – Tarzan and the Madman Sancho (m.), mangani name unknown – Tarzan and the Madman Tribe of Molak

Akut ("Light-hole") (m.), later solitary – The Beasts of Tarzan; The Son of Tarzan Molak ("Short-?") (m.), king – The Beasts of Tarzan Tribe of Toyat

Gayat or Ga-yat ("Red-eye") (m.) – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Tarzan and the Lost Empire; Tarzan the Invincible; Tarzan and the Leopard Men Go-yad ("Black-ear") (m.), formerly of the tribe of Kerchak – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Tarzan and the Lost Empire M'walot ("Blue-face") (m.) – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle Toyat or To-yat ("Purple-eye") (m.), king – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Tarzan the Invincible Zutho or Zu-tho ("Big-mouth") (m.), later king of the tribe of Zutho, later of the tribe of Ungo – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Tarzan and the Lost Empire; Tarzan the Invincible; Tarzan and the Leopard Men; Tarzan and the Forbidden City; Tarzan and the Madman Tribe of Ungo (possibly the same as the later tribe of Zutho)

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mangani

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mangani claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mangani before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mangani ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mangani

In research: Mangani appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mangani in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mangani is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fictional apes, Fictional languages, Fictional species and races, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mangani outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Mangani in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mangani means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mangani out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mangani in simple terms?

Mangani is a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The name is shared by the invented language used by these apes.

Why does Mangani matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mangani?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mangani.