Abstract
In this paper I consider whether traditional behaviors of animals, like traditions of humans, are transmitted by imitation learning. Review of the literature on problem solving by captive primates, and detailed consideration of two widely cited instances of purported learning by imitation and of culture in free-living primates (sweet-potato washing by Japanese macaques and termite fishing by chimpanzees), suggests that nonhuman primates do not learn to solve problems by imitation. It may, therefore, be misleading to treat animal traditions and human culture as homologous (rather than analogous) and to refer to animal traditions as cultural.
This is a preview of subscription content, to check access.
Access this article
Subscribe and save
- Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
- Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
- Cancel anytime
Buy Now
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.
Instant access to the full article PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Introduction
Tool transfers are a form of teaching among chimpanzees
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, books and news in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.References
Altmann, J. 1980Baboon Mothers and Infants. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Aristotle 1941The Basic Works of Aristotle. New York: Random House.
Bandura, A. 1977Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Bard, K. A., and J. Vauclair 1984 The Communicative Context of Object Manipulation in Ape and Human Adult-Infant Pairs.Journal of Human Evolution 13:181β190.
Barnett, S. A. 1968 The Instinct to Teach.Nature [London] 220:747.
1981Modern Ethology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Birch, H. G. 1945 The Relation of Previous Experience to Insightful Problem-Solving.Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 38:367.
Boesch, C. 1991 Teaching among Wild Chimpanzees.Animal Behaviour 41:530β532.
Bonner, J. T. 1980The Evolution of Culture in Animals. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Boyd, R., and P. J. Richerson 1985Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Burghardt, G. M. 1991 Cognitive Ethology and Critical Anthropomorphism: A Snake with Two Heads and Hog-nose Snakes That Play Dead. InCognitive Ethology, C. A. Ristau, ed. Pp. 53β90. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Caro, T. M., and M. D. Hauser 1991 Is There Evidence of Teaching in Animals?Quarterly Review of Biology, in press.
Clayton, D. A. 1978 Socially Facilitated Behavior.Quarterly Review of Biology 53:373β391.
Collins, D. A., and W. C. McGrew 1987 Termite Fauna Related to Differences in Tool Use between Groups of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).Primates 28:457β471.
Darwin, C. 1871The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: Murray.
de Waal, F. 1982Chimpanzee Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
in press Behavioral Contrasts between the Two Species ofPan with Special Attention to Tension Regulation Among Captive Bonobos. InUnderstanding Chimpanzees, P. Heltne, ed. Chicago: Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Ewer, R. F. 1969 The βInstinct to Teach.βNature 222:698.
Fisher, J., and R. A. Hinde 1949 The Opening of Milk Bottles by Birds.British Birds 42:347β357.
Galef, B. G., Jr. 1976 Social Transmission of Acquired Behavior: A Discussion of Tradition and Social Learning in Vertebrates. InAdvances in the Study of Behavior, vol. 6, J. S. Rosenblatt, R. A. Hinde, E. Shaw, and C. Beer, eds. Pp. 77β100. New York: Academic Press.
1980 Diving for Food: Analysis of a Possible Case of Social Learning in Rats (Rattus norvegicus).Journal of Comparative Psychology 94:416β425.
1988 Imitation in Animals: History, Definition, and Interpretation of Data from the Psychological Laboratory. InSocial Learning: Psychological and Biological Perspectives, T. R. Zentall and B. G. Galef, Jr., eds. Pp. 3β28. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1990 Tradition in Animals: Field Observations and Laboratory Analysis. InInterpretation and Explanation in the Study of Animal Behavior, M. Beckoff and D. Jamieson, eds. Pp. 74β95. Boulder: Westview Press.
Goodall, J. 1970 Tool-Using in Primates and Other Vertebrates.Advances in the Study of Behavior 3:195β250.
1973 Cultural Elements in a Chimpanzee Community. InPrecultural Primate Behavior, W. Montagna, ed. Pp. 144β184. Symposia of the Fourth International Congress of Primatology, Vol. 1. Basel: Karger.
1986The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behaviour. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.
Gove, P. B., ed. 1971Websterβs Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam.
Green, S. 1975 Dialects in Japanese Monkeys.Zeitschrift fΓΌr Tierpsychologie 38:305β314.
Gyger, M., and P. Marler 1988 Food Calling in Domestic Fowl (Gallus gallus): The Role of External Referents and Deception.Animal Behaviour 36:358β365.
Hinde, R. A. 1971 Development of Social Behavior. InBehavior of Nonhuman Primates, Vol. 3, A. M. Schrier and F. Stollnitz, eds. Pp. 1β78. New York: Academic Press.
Hodos, W., and C. B. G. Campbell 1969Scala naturae: Why There Is No Theory in Comparative Psychology.Psychological Review 76:337β350.
Itani, J., and A. Nishimura 1973 The Study of Infrahuman Culture in Japan. InPrecultural Primate Behavior, W. Montagna, ed. Pp. 26β50. Symposium of the Fourth International Congress of Primatology, Vol. 1. Basel: Karger.
Kawai, M. 1965 Newly Acquired Pre-Cultural Behavior of the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys on Koshima Islet.Primates 6:1β30.
Kawamura, S. 1959 The Process of Sub-Culture Propagation among Japanese Macaques.Primates 2:43β54.
KΓΆhler, W. 1959The Mentality of Apes. New York: Vintage Books.
Kummer, H. 1971Primate Societies. Chicago: Aldine.
Lewis, C. T., and C. Short 1969A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
McBeath, N., and W. McGrew 1982 Tools Used by Wild Chimpanzees to Obtain Termites at Mt. Assirik, Senegal: The Influence of Habitat.Journal of Human Evolution 11:65.
McFarland, D. 1985Animal Behaviour. Bath: Pitman Press.
McGrew, W. C., and M. Rogers 1983 Chimpanzees, Tools and Termites: New Record from Gabon.American Journal of Primatology 5:171.
McGrew, W. C., C. E. G. Tutin, and P. J. Baldwin 1979 Chimpanzees, Tools and Termites: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Senegal, Tanzania, and Rio Muni.Man 14:185β214.
Mead, M. 1970 Our Educational Emphasis in Primitive Perspective. InFrom Child to Adult: Studies in the Anthropology of Education, J. Middleton, ed. Pp. 120β141. New York: Natural History Press.
Menzel, E. W. 1966 Responsiveness to Objects in Free-Ranging Japanese Monkeys.Behaviour 26:130β149.
Menzel, E. W., R. K. Davenport, Jr., and H. M. Rogers 1970 The Development of Tool Using in Wild-Born and Restriction-Reared Chimpanzees.Folia Primatologia 12:273β283.
Milton, K. 1988 Foraging Behavior and the Evolution of Primate Intelligence. InMachiavellian Intelligance, R. W. Byrne and A. Whiten, eds. Pp. 285β305. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, C. L. 1894An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. London: Walter Scott.
Nishida, T. 1987 Local Traditions and Cultural Tradition. InPrimate Societies, B. B. Smuts, D. L. Cheney, R. M. Seyfarth, R. W. Wrangham, and T. T. Struhsaker, eds. Pp. 462β474. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nishida, T., and S. Uehara 1980 Chimpanzees, Tools, and Termites: Another Example from Tanzania.Current Anthropology 21:671β672.
Nishida, T., R. Wrangham, J. Goodall, and S. Urhara 1983 Local Differences in Plant Feeding Habits of Chimpanzees between the Mahale Mountains and the Gombe National Park, Tanzania.Journal of Human Evolution 12:467β480.
Premack, D. 1991 The Aesthetic Basis of Pedagogy. InCognition and the Symbolic Processes, R. R. Hoffman and D. S. Palermo, eds. Pp. 303β325. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ristau, C. 1991 Aspects of the Cognitive Ethology of an Injury-Feigning Bird, the Piping Plover. InCognitive Ethology, C. Ristau, ed. Pp. 91β152. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rogers, A. R. 1988 Does Biology Constrain Culture?American Anthropologist 90:819β831.
Romanes, G. 1882Animal Intelligence. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench.
1884Mental Evolution in Animals. New York: AMS Press.
Sahlins, M. 1976The Use and Abuse of Biology. London: Tavistock.
Schiller, P. H 1952 Innate Constituents of Complex Responses in Primates.Psychological Review 59:177.
1957 Innate Motor Action as a Basis of Learning. InInstinctive Behavior, C. H. Schiller, ed. Pp. 264β287. New York: International Universities Press.
Sherry, D. F., and B. G. Galef, Jr. 1984 Cultural Transmission without Imitation: Milk Bottle Opening by Birds.Animal Behaviour 32:937β938.
1990 Social Learning without Imitation: More about Milk Bottle Opening by Birds.Animal Behaviour 40:987β989.
Simon, H. A. 1990 A Mechanism for Social Selection and Successful Altruism.Science 250:1665β1668.
Speidel, G. E., and K. E. Nelson 1989The Many Faces of Imitation in Language Learning. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Sumita, K., J. Kitahara-Frisch, and K. Norikoshi 1985 The Acquisition of Stone Tool Use in Captive Chimpanzees.Primates 26:168β181.
Teleki, G. 1974 Chimpanzee Subsistence Technology: Materials and Skills.Journal of Human Evolution 3:575.
Thorpe, W. H. 1963Learning and Instinct in Animals, second ed. London: Methuen.
Tomasello, M. 1990 Cultural Transmission in the Tool Use and Communication Signalling of Chimpanzees. InLanguage and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes, S. Parker and K. Gibson, eds. Pp. 274β311. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tomasello, M., M. Davis-Dasilva, L. Camak, and K. Bard 1987 Observational Learning of Tool-Use by Young Chimpanzees.Human Evolution 2:175β183.
Visalberghi, E., and D. M. Fragaszy 1990a Do Monkeys Ape? InβLanguageβ and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes, S. Parker and K. Gibson, eds. Pp. 247β273. New York: Cambridge University Press.
1990b Food Washing Behaviour in Tufted Capuchin Monkeys,Cebus apella, and Crabeating Macaques,Macaca fascularis.Animal Behaviour 40:829β836.
Vygotsky, L. S. 1962Thought and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Williams, G. C. 1966Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wilson, E. O. 1975Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.
Zajonc, R. B. 1965 Social Facilitation.Science 149:269β274.
Additional information
Preparation of this manuscript was greatly facilitated by funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the McMaster University Research Board.
Dr. Galef is Professor of Psychology and Associate Member of the Department of Biology at McMaster University. Since receiving his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, Dr. Galefβs research and scholarly activities have been focused on studies of social learning and tradition in animals.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Galef, B.G. The question of animal culture. Human Nature 3, 157β178 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692251
Received:
Accepted:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692251
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
