The Cultured Chimpanzee : Reflections on Cultural Primatology / W.C. McGrew.
Short of inventing a time machine, we will never see our extinct forebears in action and be able to determine directly how human behaviour and culture has developed. However, we can learn from our closest living relatives, the African great apes. The Cultured Chimpanzee explores the astonishing vari...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via Cambridge) |
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| Other title: | Cambridge books online. |
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press,
2004.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Short of inventing a time machine, we will never see our extinct forebears in action and be able to determine directly how human behaviour and culture has developed. However, we can learn from our closest living relatives, the African great apes. The Cultured Chimpanzee explores the astonishing variation in chimpanzee behaviour across their range, which cannot be explained by individual learning, genetic or environmental influences. It promotes the view that this rich diversity in social life and material culture reflects social learning of traditions, and more closely resembles cultural variety in humans than the simpler behaviour of other animal species. This stimulating book shows that the field of cultural primatology may therefore help us to reconstruct the cultural evolution of Homo sapiens from earlier forms, and that it is essential for anthropologists, archaeologists and zoologists to work together to develop a stronger understanding of human and primate cultural evolution. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (262 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-223) and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780511617355 0511617356 9780521828413 0521828414 9780521535434 0521535433 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/CBO9780511617355 |