The Discovery And Reach of Animal Culture Andrew Whiten Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution University of St Andrews
CES NIMBios Webinar 2020 The Discovery And Reach of Animal Culture Andrew Whiten Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution University of St Andrews
Part 1 - The Discovery of Animal Culture
Part 2 - The Reach of Animal Culture “Human beings owe their biological supremacy to the possession of a form of inheritance quite unlike that of other animals: exogenetic or exosomatic inheritance.
In this form of heredity information is transmitted from one generation to the next through non-genetic inheritance … in general, by the entire apparatus of culture”
Professor Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel Laureate The New York Review of Books, 1977 1999
British Birds, 1949 pre-1935
1947 Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of Birdsong William. H. Thorpe, Nature, 1954, 1958 2008
Papers referenced on ‘bird song dialect’ n = 84
Approx 40% of bird species are songbirds: N ~ 4,000 species see also Primates, 1963
WILD CHIMPANZEE CULTURES discoveries in the twentieth century
1986 three limitations in charts based on published literature
• Not every observation is published • Frequency often not recorded – habitual or not? • Absence critical, yet often not published
1992 WILD CHIMPANZEE CULTURES discoveries in the twentieth century
1999 A Two-phase Study
1. Establish a list of potential cultural variants - 65 candidates 2. Classify each as: • Customary – done by all able bodied individuals • Habitual – done repeatedly by several individuals • Absent, with or without ecological explanation Multiple, diverse traditions • Food processing • Tool use • Social behaviour • Grooming style • Courtship
Communities display unique arrays of traditions Mesh barrier A Two-Traditions Lift Poke
‘Pan-pipes’ Study Flap Whiten, Horner & de Waal Nature 2005 Chute Will traditions spread from group to group?
? Whiten, A., Spiteri, A. et al. (2007) Transmission of multiple traditions within and between chimpanzee groups. Current Biology 17, 1038-43 Whiten, A., Spiteri, A. et al. (2007) Transmission of multiple traditions within and between chimpanzee groups. Current Biology 17, 1038-43
A Whiten, Annual Review of Psychology 2017 J Mercader et al. 4,300-year-old chimpanzee sites and the origins of percussive stone technology PNAS 2007 Science 2003 Nature 1999
PLOS ONE 2016 1999 2020 The Discovery And Reach of Animal Culture
Part 1 - The Discovery of Animal Culture
Part 2 - The Reach of Animal Culture
“Culture, we believe, is a major part of what the whales are”
Whitehead and Rendell 2015
cites 70 articles on ‘cultural transmission’ or ‘social learning’ in cetaceans EM Arraut & JEM Vielliard An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc. 2004 Ellen Garland, Michael Noad and colleagues 2011
K Laland & Will Hoppitt Ev. Anthropol. 2003
“There is better evidence for culture in fish than in primates” 2016 Science, 2018
The Reach of Animal Culture
1. Phylogenetic reach 2. Psychological Reach: - Pervasiveness within species Phase 1 2. Pervasiveness within species
Phase 2
THE REACH OF ANIMAL CULTURE
Phase 1 2. Pervasiveness within species
Phase 2
THE REACH OF ANIMAL CULTURE 2. Pervasiveness within species
Phase 3
Science, 2013 “Culture, we believe, is a major part of what the whales are”
Whitehead and Rendell 2015 Contents and Context of Animal Culture
dietary profiles feeding techniques predator avoidance mate choice courtship behaviour vocal communication migration routes tool use social customs circadian rhythms locomotion styles The Reach of Animal Culture
1. Phylogenetic reach 2. Pervasive psychological reach 3. Implications for Evolutionary Biology 2017
2017 2019
The Reach of Animal Culture
1. Phylogenetic reach 2. Pervasive psychological reach 3. Implications for Evolutionary Biology 4. Implications for Human Evolution Images: The Ancestor’s Tale Dawkins 2004
The Reach of Animal Culture
1. Phylogenetic reach 2. Pervasive psychological reach 3. Implications for Evolutionary Biology 4. Implications for Human Evolution 5. Implications for Conservation Science, 2019 The Discovery And Reach of Animal Culture
• Phylogenetic reach • Pervasive psychological reach • Implications for Evolutionary Biology • Implications for Human Evolution • Implications for Conservation Thanks to Collaborators, Coauthors, Sponsors Christophe Boesch – MPI Leipzig Nicola McGuigan – Univ W Scotland Kristin Bonnie – Yerkes/Emory Bill McGrew – Cambridge / St Andrews Mark Bowler - St Andrews Sarah Marshall-Pescini – St Andrews Hannah Buchanan-Smith – Stirling Alex Mesoudi – St Andrews/Exeter Christine Caldwell – Stirling Emily Messer – St Andrews Nicolas Claidiere – St Andrews Mark Nielsen – Univ Queensland Debbie Custance – St Andrews Toshisada Nishida – Kyoto Frans de Waal – Yerkes/Emory David Perrett – St Andrews Sarah Davis – St Andrews Bess Price – St Andrews/N’castle Marietta Dindo – St Andrews Andrea Ravigniani – Univ Vienna Valerie Dufour – St Andrews Vernon Reynolds – Oxford Robin Dunbar – Oxford Steve Schapiro – Univ Texas Austin David Erdal – St Andrews Kathy Schick – Stone Age Institute Emma Flynn – St Andrews/Durham Katie Slocombe – York Tamar Fredman – St Andrews Antoine Spiteri – St Andrews Delia Furhmann – St Andrews Tara Stoinski – Smithsonian/National Zoo Jeff Galef – McMaster Chris Stringer – Natural History Museum Jane Goodall – JGI Institute Francys Subiaul – George Washington Univ Rebecca Ham – St Andrews Thomas Suddendorf – Univ Queensland Rachel Harrison – St And’s Bernard Thierry – Strasbourg Robert Hinde – Cambridge Nick Toth – Stone Age Institute Lydia Hopper – St Andrews Gillian Vale – St Andrews Will Hoppitt – St Andrews Erica van de Waal – St Andrews/Lausanne Vicky Horner – St Andrews/Yerkes Carel van Schaik – Zurich Rachel Kendal - Durham Stuart Watson – St Andrews Kevin Laland – St Andrews Justin Williams – Aberdeen Susan Lambeth – Univ Texas Austin Richard Wrangham – Harvard Charlotte MacDonald – RZSS Edinburgh Thomas Zentall – Univ Kentucky
http://www.dysoc.org/cesmodules/animal_cultures_module/