Overview

Fifty years ago, a troop of Japanese macaques was observed washing sandy sweet potatoes in a stream, sending ripples through the fields of ethology, comparative psychology, and cultural anthropology. The issue of animal culture has been hotly debated ever since. Now Kevin Laland and Bennett Galef have gathered key voices in the often rancorous debate to summarize the views along the continuum from ""Culture? Of course!"" to ""Culture? Of course not!"" The result is essential reading for anyone interested in the validity of animal culture, and what it might say about our own.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kevin N. Laland ,  Bennett G. Galef ,  Kim Hill ,  Kristin E. Bonnie
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.658kg
ISBN:  

9780674031265

ISBN 10:   0674031261
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   01 February 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

* Introduction Kevin N. Laland and Bennett G. Galef * In Tune with Others: The Social Side of Primate Culture Frans B. M. de Waal and Kristin E. Bonnie * Ten Dispatches from the Chimpanzee Culture Wars, plus Revisiting the Battlefronts. W. C. Mcgrew * Geographical Variation in the Behavior of Wild Great Apes: Is It Really Cultural? Carel P. Van Schaik * The Identification and Differentiation of Culture in Chimpanzees and Other Animals: From Natural History to Diffusion Experiments Andrew Whiten * How Might We Study Culture? A Perspective from the Ocean. Hal Whitehead * Acquiring Culture: Individual Variation and Behavioural Development in Bottlenose Dolphins Brooke L. Sargeant and Janet Mann * Animal Culture: Problems and Solutions Kevin N. Laland, Jeremy R. Kendal and Rachel L. Kendal * The Question of Chimpanzee Culture, plus Postscript. Michael Tomasello * Culture in Animals? Bennett G. Galef * Are Nonhuman Primates Likely to Exhibit Cultural Capacities like Those of Humans, and If So, How Can This Be Demonstrated? Susan Perry * Animal Culture ? Kim Hill * Peace Keeping in the Culture Wars Kim Sterelny * References * Contributors * Index

Reviews

Reading this book is like sitting ringside, watching the authors duke it out over the nature and uniqueness of our cultural prowess. - Marc D. Hauser, author of Moral Minds

Author Information

Kevin N. Laland is Professor, School of Biology, St. Andrews University. Bennett G. Galef is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, McMaster University, and past editor of Animal Behaviour. William McGrew is Professor of Anthropology and Zoology at Miami University (Ohio). Susan Perry is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Carel van Schaik is Professor and Director of the Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich. Michael Tomasello is Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He is the author of First Verbs and the coauthor of Primate Cognition.

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