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Pantomime in Great Apes: Evidence and Implications WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 2011 Pantomime in Great Apes: Evidence and Implications Ann E. Russon Kristin Andrews York University Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_asie Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Comparative Psychology Commons, and the Other Animal Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Russon, A. E., & Andrews, K. (2011). Pantomime in great apes: Evidence and implications. Communicative & integrative biology, 4(3), 315-317. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLE ADDENDUM Communicative & Integrative Biology 4:3, 315-317; May/June 2011; ©2011 Landes Bioscience Pantomime in great apes Evidence and implications Anne E. Russon* and Kristin Andrews 1Psychology; Glendon College; Toronto, BC Canada 2Philosophy; York University; Toronto, BC Canada e recently demonstrated, by one deceiving and the other acting as if Wmining observational data, that deceived.14 forest-living orangutans can commu- Orangutans feigned inability to solve a nicate using gestures that qualify as task to solicit help. So did a home-reared pantomime.1 Pantomimes, like other chimpanzee, Viki, when about 18 months iconic gestures, physically resemble their old.15 Viki often pretend-dragged an imag- referents.2,3 More elaborately, panto- inary pull toy and got its imaginary cord mimes involve enacting their referents.4 “stuck” on a handle. She usually “freed” Holding thumb and finger together at it herself and then resumed her pretend- the lips and blowing between them to dragging. One day, in front of Hayes, Ü-BOEFT#JPTDJFODF5 mean “balloon” is one example. Here we Viki made a weaker attempt than usual sketch evidence of pantomime in other to “free” the “stuck” cord, “failed” and great apes, methodological concerns and gave up, looked up at Hayes and called sophisticated cognitive capabilities that “Mama.” Hayes interpreted this as asking %POPUEJTUSJCVUFgreat ape pantomimes suggest. for help, so she “freed” Viki’s “stuck” cord. Viki watched closely, accepted the “freed” Pantomime in Other Great Apes cord and resumed pretend-dragging. Some orangutan pantomimes showed We subsequently identified credible reports the partner how to do something. So does of pantomime in other great apes. These a chimpanzee event reported as demon- extend the distribution of pantomime in stration teaching.16,17 While resting, Ricci, nonhuman species. Resemblances they an adult female, noticed her daughter share with our orangutan pantomimes, in Nina trying unsuccessfully to crack nuts their contexts and messages, also contrib- with an odd-shaped stone hammer. Ricci ute to showing up patterns and enhancing joined Nina, who immediately sat in front validity. We offer several examples. of Ricci and handed her the stone. With Orangutans groomed a partner briefly Nina watching closely, Ricci turned the Key words: pantomime, great apes, to solicit grooming; so do chimpanzees stone to its best position for nut crack- 6-8 gesture, orangutan, language origins, and gorillas. Orangutans feigned eat- ing—much more slowly and deliberately cognition, narrative, communication ing, seemingly to express benign interac- than usual, cracked 10 nuts with it and let tive intent to a reluctant partner.9 Wild Nina eat almost all of them, then dropped Submitted: 01/13/11 mountain gorillas, orangutans and other the stone and left. Nina resumed cracking, Accepted: 01/13/11 primates also use ritualized eating to holding the stone the way Ricci had shown, DOI: 10.4161/cib.4.3/14809 notify their interactive intentions; in some and cracked nuts successfully within 15 species, it can indicate benign intent.10-13 minutes. Boesch interpreted this as Ricci’s *Correspondence to: Anne E. Russon; In one such case, both partners feigned recognizing Nina’s difficulties and helping Email: [email protected] interest in the same non-food item that her correct the hammering technique by Addendum to: Russon A, Andrews K. Orangutan they “ate.” This tactic has been detected showing her how to grip and use the stone pantomime: Elaborating the message. Biol in chimpanzee reconciliation and likened effectively, in a very conspicuous fashion. Letters 2010; 7:627-30; PMID: 20702451; to a collective lie that helps break tension His interpretation of this event as teaching DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0564. and bring adversaries back together, with was hotly contested, partly because it is the www.landesbioscience.com Communicative & Integrative Biology 315 only such case. Interpreted as pantomime, the concurrent and historical contextual In addition, one orangutan panto- it is less anomalous. Importantly here, it data needed for interpretation.34,35 All the mimed complex and sequential informa- shares the “show how” feature we identi- cases we identified were obtained from tion that portrays a story. Kikan re-enacted fied in several orangutan pantomimes. systematically collected data, reported part of a past event: a caregiver had used by observers trained in scientific obser- a pencil to remove a sliver from the sole of Eye of the Beholder vation and knowledgeable about these Kikan’s foot and then daubed latex from events’ current and historical context, a fig leaf stem on the wound to dry it. A Critics have claimed that these orang- and supported with extensive background week later, after gaining this caregiver’s utan pantomimes and other great ape information. We also note that the inter- attention, Kikan picked a leaf and poked iconic gestures exist only in the eye of the pretations of critics who are insufficiently its stem at the sole of her (now healed) foot beholder.18-20 We agree in part, but in a dif- knowledgeable about the species, indi- in similar fashion. This suggests rudimen- ferent way than critics probably intended: viduals and situations involved suffer the tary narrative abilities, where narrative is we argue that only certain beholders can same weaknesses as anecdotes, and should defined minimally as “the representation identify and interpret these gestures. be viewed with equal caution. of an event or a series of events.”46 This Gestural meaning is context-dependent case counters the common view that nar- for humans2,21-25 and great apes.26-30 This Implications for Language rative is a uniquely human capacity.46 It is especially true for pantomime and other and Cognition also shows some of the components of epi- iconic gestures, which are often idio- sodic memory or reconstructing one’s own syncratic rather than standardized and Gesture-first theories of language origins past experiences as situated in time,47,48 in sometimes created in the moment from propose that ancestral hominids went that Kikan reconstructed key elements of the actor’s mental content.31-33 Thus inter- through a pantomime stage that enabled a personally important experience. She preting and even detecting pantomimes the evolution of spoken language.36 was only an infant (three years old), so requires beholders who share the actor’s Gesture-first advocates consider several older orangutans may be expected to show immediate and broader context, because properties of pantomime as critical step- greater sophistication. this sharedÜ-BOEFT#JPTDJFODF understanding is the basis for ping stones to language: it is productive Finally, some orangutans pantomimed identifying the contingencies linking the (enables creation of novel messages) and to themselves. An adult female re-enacted pantomime’s imagery with the eliciting it serves as an entryway to syntax and a human’s whittling a stick and cutting communicative encounter. narrative.18,36-38 Even this limited data hair with scissors to herself.49 Similar re- Beholders who do not share this knowl- set on great ape pantomime shows these enactments by human children are con- edge are not equipped to%POPUEJTUSJCVUF recognize the properties. sidered part of understanding the actions localized references expressed, let alone In orangutan pantomimes, we iden- involved50-52 and pantomime, like lan- interpret them. Scientifically, this prob- tified productivity, compositionality guage, may contribute to externalizing lem is not insurmountable. Observers (creation of large meaningful units by cognition.53 Thus this orangutan’s panto- who are highly knowledgeable about the combining smaller ones) and systematicity miming to herself may serve as a way of actor and communicative partners, the (gesture order contributes to meaning).1 explaining the event that she re-enacted. specifics of the communicative exchanges These and other great ape pantomimes Linking self-pantomime to explanation is that elicited pantomime, and the broader also show triadic communication (i.e., important because it has been suggested living context that participants share are communication involving self, other and that chimpanzees, unlike humans, do equipped to identify and interpret some object) in a wider range of situations than not develop a general explanatory drive, pantomimes. For great apes, experienced other evidence suggests.39-43 They com- and that while they make use of empiri- researchers collecting observational field municated messages as complex as what cal generalizations, they are not interested data within a framework of lengthy sam- tool to use, what action to perform with it in uncovering the causal relations that pling periods are examples. The orangutan and on what target, and who should per- underlie them.54 and other great ape evidence we presented form it (e.g., “assistant” use “machete” to meets these requirements. “chop” open “coconut”). In a few cases, Conclusions These pantomimes are also liable to the tool action enacted was itself a com- dismissal as anecdotes. We agree that plex, sequentially organized combination This evidence suggests pantomime could anecdotes should be viewed with caution. of behaviors (e.g., how to hold an awk- have been within the grasp of the com- However, the pantomimes we identified in ward hammer rock, including rotating it mon human-great ape ancestor, so it could great apes are not anecdotes.
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