The latest volume in this multidisciplinary series on key topics in evolutionary studies, Evolutionary Perspectives on Death provides an evolutionary analysis of mortality and the consideration of death. We argue for systematic cross-site comparisons by viewing communicative exchanges as negotiations, enabling a unique perspective onto the evolutionary trajectory of culture and communication. We conclude that the field has been hampered by misconstruing great ape gestures as FAP’s, a strong research bias on the perspective of signalers only, and a lack of coherent methodology to assess the meaning and context of gestures across sites. We also introduce latest findings on chimpanzees’ gestural diversity, providing further evidence for the role social negotiation plays in gestural acquisition. We will focus particularly on well-established behaviours being customary in some and absent in other chimpanzee communities, and recently discovered social customs that have been suggested to differ in their form, and/or meaning across populations. Here, we will stir new interest into this topic by (i) briefly summarizing the current knowledge of animal culture, and (ii) presenting the current knowledge on gesture cultures, diversity and usage in the most common model for early hominid behaviour, the chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ). However, the question of communicative culture in our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates, is relatively unexplored. More than a hundred years later, there is a considerable body of work describing human gestural diversity across languages and cultures. Scientific interest in the diversity of gestural signalling dates back to the figure of Charles Darwin. We hope this review will provide a resource for researchers interested in the study of innovation in chimpanzees and other animals, as well as emphasising the need for consistency in the way in which innovations are reported. Secondly, we provide an up‐to‐date review of accounts of innovations in both wild and captive chimpanzees. First, we discuss some of the most prevalent definitions of ‘innovation’ from different fields, highlighting similarities and differences between them. Here, we fill two gaps in the literature. The field is yet to settle on a definition of the term ‘innovation’, leading to studies being incomparable across and even within the same species. Whilst the animal innovation field is rife with potential for expanding our knowledge of human and non‐human cognition and problem‐solving, it is undermined by a lack of consistency across studies. Both wild and captive chimpanzees demonstrate an impressive ability to innovate solutions to novel problems, but also a striking level of conservatism in some contexts, creating a unique and at times puzzling, picture of animal innovation. Especially relevant to the study of human culture is one of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Examining the rate of innovations, and the cognitive mechanisms driving these innovations across species, can provide insights into the evolution of human culture. The study of innovation in non‐human animals (henceforth: animals) has recently gained momentum across fields including primatology, animal behaviour and cultural evolution.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |