Collective knowledge and the dynamics of culture in chimpanzees.

Details

Ressource 1Download: 34894742_BIB_E420CEF1E89D.pdf (635.37 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_E420CEF1E89D
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Collective knowledge and the dynamics of culture in chimpanzees.
Journal
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Author(s)
Whiten A., Harrison R.A., McGuigan N., Vale G.L., Watson S.K.
ISSN
1471-2970 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0962-8436
Publication state
Published
Issued date
31/01/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
377
Number
1843
Pages
20200321
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Social learning in non-human primates has been studied experimentally for over 120 years, yet until the present century this was limited to what one individual learns from a single other. Evidence of group-wide traditions in the wild then highlighted the collective context for social learning, and broader 'diffusion experiments' have since demonstrated transmission at the community level. In the present article, we describe and set in comparative perspective three strands of our recent research that further explore the collective dimensions of culture and cumulative culture in chimpanzees. First, exposing small communities of chimpanzees to contexts incorporating increasingly challenging, but more rewarding tool use opportunities revealed solutions arising through the combination of different individuals' discoveries, spreading to become shared innovations. The second series of experiments yielded evidence of conformist changes from habitual techniques to alternatives displayed by a unanimous majority of others but implicating a form of quorum decision-making. Third, we found that between-group differences in social tolerance were associated with differential success in developing more complex tool use to exploit an increasingly inaccessible resource. We discuss the implications of this array of findings in the wider context of related studies of humans, other primates and non-primate species. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
Keywords
chimpanzee, collective knowledge, culture, cumulative culture, innovation, social learning
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
20/12/2021 13:17
Last modification date
23/01/2024 7:36
Usage data