The Dynamic Dance : : Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes / / Barbara J. KING.

Mother and infant negotiate over food; two high-status males jockey for power; female kin band together to get their way. It happens among humans and it happens among our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom, the great apes of Africa. In this eye-opening book, we see precisely how such eve...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
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Place / Publishing House:Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2022]
©2004
Year of Publication:2022
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (301 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
Illustrations --
1 Social Communication as Dance --
2 Gesture and Dynamic Systems Theory --
3 Gesture in Captive African Great Apes --
4 Gesture in Wild African Great Apes --
5 The Evolution of Gesture --
6 Imagined Futures --
Notes --
Bibliography --
Acknowledgments --
Index
Summary:Mother and infant negotiate over food; two high-status males jockey for power; female kin band together to get their way. It happens among humans and it happens among our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom, the great apes of Africa. In this eye-opening book, we see precisely how such events unfold in chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas: through a spontaneous, mutually choreographed dance of actions, gestures, and vocalizations in which social partners create meaning and come to understand each other. Using dynamic systems theory, an approach employed to study human communication, Barbara King is able to demonstrate the genuine complexity of apes' social communication, and the extent to which their interactions generate meaning. As King describes, apes create meaning primarily through their body movements--and go well beyond conveying messages about food, mating, or predators. Readers come to know the captive apes she has observed, and others across Africa as well, and to understand "the process of creating social meaning." This new perspective not only acquaints us with our closest living relatives, but informs us about a possible pathway for the evolution of language in our own species. King's theory challenges the popular idea that human language is instinctive, with rules and abilities hardwired into our brains. Rather, The Dynamic Dance suggests, language has its roots in the gestural "building up of meaning" that was present in the ancestor we shared with the great apes, and that we continue to practice to this day.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780674039612
9783110756067
9783110442205
DOI:10.4159/9780674039612?locatt=mode:legacy
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Barbara J. KING.