Animal Social Complexity : : Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies / / ed. by Frans B. M. de Waal, Peter L. Tyack.

For over 25 years, primatologists have speculated that intelligence, at least in monkeys and apes, evolved as an adaptation to the complicated social milieu of hard-won friendships and bitterly contested rivalries. Yet the Balkanization of animal research has prevented us from studying the same prob...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP e-dition: Complete eBook Package
MitwirkendeR:
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HerausgeberIn:
Place / Publishing House:Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2013]
©2003
Year of Publication:2013
Edition:Reprint 2014
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (640 p.) :; 49 halftones, 74 line illustrations
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Description
Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
Preface --
I. Life History and Brain Evolution --
1. Life History and Cognitive Evolution in Primates --
CASE STUDY 1Α --
2. Dolphin Social Complexity: Lessons from Long-Term Study and Life History --
3. Sources of Social Complexity in the Three Elephant Species --
II. Evolution of Cooperative Strategies --
4. Complex Cooperation among Taï Chimpanzees --
CASE STUDY 4A --
CASE STUDY 4B --
5. The Social Complexity of Spotted Hyenas --
CASE STUDY 5A --
6. Is Social Stress a Consequence of Subordination or a Cost of Dominance? --
CASE STUDY 6A --
III. Social Cognition --
7. Equivalence Classification as an Approach to Social Knowledge: From Sea Lions to Simians --
8. The Structure of Social Knowledge in Monkeys --
9. Social Syntax: The If-Then Structure of Social Problem Solving --
CASE STUDY 9A --
IV. Communication --
10. Laughter and Smiling: The Intertwining of Nature and Culture --
CASE STUDY 10A --
11. Vocal Communication in Wild Parrots --
CASE STUDY 11A --
12. Social and Vocal Complexity in Bats --
13. Dolphins Communicate about Individual-Specific Social Relationships --
CASE STUDY 13A --
V. Cultural Transmission --
14. Koshima Monkeys and Bossou Chimpanzees: Long-Term Research on Culture in Nonhuman Primates --
CASE STUDY 14A --
15. Individuality and Flexibility of Cultural Behavior Patterns in Chimpanzees --
CASE STUDY 15A --
16. Ten Dispatches from the Chimpanzee Culture Wars --
CASE STUDY 16A --
17. Society and Culture in the Deep and Open Ocean: The Sperm Whale and Other Cetaceans --
CASE STUDY 17A --
18. Discovering Culture in Birds: The Role of Learning and Development --
References --
Acknowledgments --
Contributors --
Index
Summary:For over 25 years, primatologists have speculated that intelligence, at least in monkeys and apes, evolved as an adaptation to the complicated social milieu of hard-won friendships and bitterly contested rivalries. Yet the Balkanization of animal research has prevented us from studying the same problem in other large-brained, long-lived animals, such as hyenas and elephants, bats and sperm whales. Social complexity turns out to be widespread indeed. For example, in many animal societies one individual's innovation, such as tool use or a hunting technique, may spread within the group, thus creating a distinct culture. As this collection of studies on a wide range of species shows, animals develop a great variety of traditions, which in turn affect fitness and survival. The editors argue that future research into complex animal societies and intelligence will change the perception of animals as gene machines, programmed to act in particular ways and perhaps elevate them to a status much closer to our own. At a time when humans are perceived more biologically than ever before, and animals as more cultural, are we about to witness the dawn of a truly unified social science, one with a distinctly cross-specific perspective?
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780674419131
9783110353488
9783110353549
9783110756067
9783110442205
DOI:10.4159/harvard.9780674419131
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: ed. by Frans B. M. de Waal, Peter L. Tyack.