Defining Culture

Defining Culture
Do Chimpanzees Display Culture?
Amanda Myers
Human Origins 1020
Defining Culture

Most people think of culture as something only humans have the capability of having.

Culture is something we see all around us. We see it in the way we teach our young, in the way

we define our morals, and in the way we live our everyday lives. However, culture has been

something of debate due to the lack of a set definition. Recently, primatologists have been

observing tradition and cultural aspects in apes. Most people don't think of culture as being

something other types of non-human primates can have. We are going to focus on a specific type

of primate, the chimpanzee. I believe non-human primates such as the chimpanzees have the

ability to have a type of culture or cultural aspects.

In the article, "Got Culture?" author, Craig Stanford explores how chimpanzees display

certain types of traits that can be linked to culture. Stanford's argument is for something to have

the ability to have culture they have to meet a certain type of criteria. He supports his argument

by explaining how different groups of chimpanzees display different techniques. He starts off

with a group in Gombe National Park. They insert a blade of grass or a small twig into a termite

mound. The chimps withdraw the grass or twig and eat the termites. While the group in Mahale

National Park have the same termites, but don't use a blade of grass to retrieve the termites. They

use their fingers to dig through the mound to find termites. However, the Mahale group hardly

eats termites. They typically eat ants. They use a similar technique to the Gombe group, to

retrieve the ants from the trunks of trees. In addition, he talks about another group of

chimpanzees located in Ta National Park. This group uses hammers made from rocks and wood

to crack open nuts which is different than the other two groups.

Stanford explains how using rocks and wood to make a hammer is something that is

similar to human technology. Yes, ours is more developed but it is still the same concept.
Defining Culture

Stanford gives reasons as to why there might be differences between the groups use of tools.

First, is it could be genetic. There could have been a mutation in one group and not the other.

Second, is it might be something with the environment. However, he debunked the second one

because in all the regions there were amply supply of rocks and wood but the Gombe and

Mahale groups didn't make the hammers and the Ta group didn't use probes.

Stanford defines culture as the passing on of traditions from one to another. He says

traditions can vary depending on the area. He explains that traditions arise from the innovations

of the young and grow and develop. He gives an example of a new behavior of Japanese

mascaque native monkeys. They were tossed rice onto a beach by observers. They would then

take the rice and throw it into the ocean. This would cause a separation, the sand mixed in with

the rice would sink which left the rice floating on top of the water. This is only a small part of

how innovations effect culture. Stanford explains that we see innovation in humans on a larger

scale but that it is still similar.

Stanford believes chimpanzees have developed a kind of currency. This being that

chimpanzees hunt. They hunt other animals. Depending on the region the prey can be colobus

monkeys, wild pigs and small antelope. Chimpanzees share their catches. They use them as the

currency. They trade for services like grooming and sex. This is what Stanford calls currency

exchange. He talks about how hunting is rarely used for actually getting nutrition from the

catches. Stanford argues this could be seen as a social behavior. He talks about how we see, in

our world, that currency is a reward for cooperation or as a tool to manipulate which is

something also observed in chimpanzees.

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There is a difference between mating in Gombe and Mahale. Gombe chimpanzees

display mating with the males shaking leaves or branches. This technique is used to get any

female to mate with them. It is used to lure the females nearby. At Mahale chimpanzees will rip

the leaves off the branch with their teeth loudly and groom them as if they were grooming

another. This technique is commonly used to mate with a specific female. Stanford describes

how these techniques are commonly practiced in East Africa but does not appear to be practiced

in West Africa. He describes these behaviors as symbolic traits and typically aren't something

most people would pay attention to. Stanford compares a two-year-old human child and a 15-

month-old chimpanzee. He describes them as being very similar in developmental stages.

However, we give two-year-old child culture even though they have little to no symbolism when

they communicate. He says we give them culture because we know two-year-old children will

grow into adults.

Stanford explores the idea that there has to be anatomical prerequisites for culture.

Stanford also believes the problem isn't that apes don't have culture it's that the idea of the word

culture was developed for humans and if scholars are willing to broaden the definition.

While Stanford's idea is precise and clear some of his research and examples are not. He

clearly states that "In a forest filled with twigs, chimpanzees do not use stick tools. Instead,

chimpanzees... use hammers made of rock and wood." But upon reading the article,

"Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees" by

Stephen Lycett, Mark Collard and William C. McGrew, I noticed differences between how they

described the use of twigs and probes. The authors describe the groups in Ta and Gombe to use

sticks to collect ants but the Mahale, Kibale and Budongo groups do not.
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In the previous article, the authors talk about how males typically stay with their "natal"

group and the females are the ones who venture to other groups. But, the females usually dont

have a behavioral effect on the other groups. They give different hypothesis as to why this may

be. The first one would be that many of the females leave behind their behavioral traits. The

second one is that they bring their traits but other members of the new group don't copy them.

The third is a combination of the first two. When tested, the hypotheses are consistent. I believe

this could mean that chimpanzees have the ability to decide if they want to accept a new

technique or behavior.

I noticed while reading Stanford's article he didn't mention the use of cultural

transmission rather he described each group differently. I think there are different views on

whether a chimpanzee can have culture but I believe Stanford's argument is the most logical.

This being that he describes genetics playing a role in the determination of behavioral traits but

doesn't make that the only reason why he thinks so. He bases it off of the actual behavior of the

animals and groups. Stanford compares the chimpanzees to humans. Which gives people the

wrong idea because we would prefer animals not be compare to us. But, when they are so similar

to us it is hard not to. We have a common ancestor which makes chimpanzees and humans

similar. He makes you think about how if chimpanzees display traits that are similar to humans,

are humans really much different from chimps? I think this is how Stanford tries to persuade his

readers to his side of the argument.

In the article, "Genetic and 'cultural' similarity in wild chimpanzees", the authors talk

about genetically similar groups and how the behaviors varied little. They determined that

"...genetic differences cannot be excluded as playing a major role in structuring patterns of

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behavioral variation among chimpanzee groups." They find that the variation is not cultural in

nature. But later explain that if we used the same method of exclusion in humans we would come

to the same conclusion.

In conclusion, I think Stanford's argument is valid but lacks certain piece of evidence to

prove it. I agree with Stanford in the sense that the behavior and technique variation between

groups of chimpanzees display cultural aspects. He defines culture as learned traditions passed

from one to another. He doesn't specify if culture is something only humans can have. Rather he

asks a question of are scholars willing to broaden the definition of culture.

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References

Standford, C. Got Culture?

Langergraber, K. Boesch, C. Inoue, E. Inoue-Murayama, M. Mitani, J. Nishida, T. Pusey, A.

Reynolds, V. Schubert, G. Wrangham, R. Wroblewski, E. Vigilant, L. (2011) Genetic and

'cultural' similarity in wild chimpanzees. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Lycett, S. Collard, M. McGrew, W. (2007) Phylogenetic Analyses of Behavior Support

Existence of Culture among Wild Chimpanzees. Retrieved from JSTOR.