Anthropology Midterm Part 5

Question 1

only humans have something we call language

Answer 1

but all animals communicate.

Question 2

why is communication in animal species universal?

Answer 2

because it is necessary for their survival. It enables animals to create and maintain social relationships with one another that are advantageous to them both individually and as a species.

Question 3

communication definition?

Answer 3

some form of signals are sent and received.

Question 4

what are the five components of communication?

Answer 4

• The sender (who does the communicating)
• The message (the meaning of the message being sent)
• The channel (how it is sent)
• The receiver (who receives the communicated message)
• The effect (how it affects the behavior of the receiver and sender)

Question 5

Messages can be sent using various channels. These include:

Answer 5

Acoustic Channel, Optical Channel, Tactical Channel, and Olfactory Channel.

Question 6

Acoustic Channel

Answer 6

or sound. This includes speech, of course, but also the sounds animals make such as barking, whining, chirping, croaking, etc. This is the main channel of language, but communication is not limited to this channel.

Question 7

Optical Channel

Answer 7

or visual. This includes gesture, writing, pictorial signs, tail wagging, displays (such as gorilla chest beating or chameleon color changing). This channel is also used quite frequently in human communication.

Question 8

Tactical Channel

Answer 8

or touch. This includes Braille, handshakes, pats on the back, stroking, holding, social grooming, etc.

Question 9

Olfactory Channel

Answer 9

or smell. This includes pheromones (scent hormones), food, perfume, marking (with urine or by scent sacs), spraying (such as by skunks), etc.

Question 10

A few groups of animals are famous for their communication systems

Answer 10

Social insects, which include bees, wasps, ants, and termites, are one of these groups.

Question 11

The honeybee

Answer 11

has the most elaborate system, and it is used for mating, swarming, and food foraging.

Question 12

For mating purposes, bees use the olfactory channel

Answer 12

The queen bee secretes a pheromone that causes other bees to constantly attend to and groom her. This pheromone also prevents the ovarian development of other female bees, so she is the only female bee that can mate. After she dies and the pheromones stop being secreted, new queens can develop.

Question 13

For food foraging, bees use the visual channel.

Answer 13

Scout bees will use a waggle dance to indicate the location of food to other bees in the hive. If it is close, the bees will dance in a circle. If it is 100 yards or more, they dance in a figure eight.

Question 14

what other messages are communicated in the waggle dance?

Answer 14

• Distance – the longer the dance, the greater the distance.
• Location – tail wagging indicates the direction of the food using the angle of the sun relative to
  the nectar source.
• Quality – the richness of the food source is indicated by the liveliness of the dance.

Question 15

is the waggle dance learned or innate?

Answer 15

The waggle dance is innate to honeybees, but it is also learned. The more experienced the bee, the more accurate is its reporting. Also, “dialectical” differences have been noted in different groups of honeybees.
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Question 16

The other group of animals famous for their communication skills are birds.

Answer 16

These include both calls and songs.

Question 17

birdcalls

Answer 17

short in duration and are used to signal alarm, feeding, distress, etc. they are innate to a particular species of bird.

Question 18

Birdsongs and sexual selection.

Answer 18

longer in duration and more elaborate. They are typically used by males to establish their territory and to attract females. In Darwinian terms, this is known as sexual selection, which is a characteristic that evolved for the purpose of attracting mates. Birdsongs, like the waggle dance, are both innate and learned. The ability is innate to a particular species, but some individuals can learn to master it better than others.

Question 19

birds can also mimic human language (as well as other sounds).

Answer 19

This stems from their ability to learn birdsongs. In fact, we now know that some birds have a similar FOXP2 gene to humans, as discussed last week. They also have a vocal apparatus which allows them to make sounds that resemble human speech.

Question 20

Some species, such as parrots, can learn as many as 2,000 words, and even associate them with meaning.

Answer 20

This, however, is not considered language. It is largely based on mimicry and does include the creativity and complexity of human language. The “failure” of the studies to teach birds to use human language, however, does not mean that birdsongs are not a complex system of communication in their own right.

Question 21

One study that claims to challenge the bird mimicry theory is that of the Avian Language EXperiment (or ALEX for short)

Answer 21

This was based on research done by Dr. Irene Pepperberg with Alex, the grey parrot, who lived from 1977 to 2007.
According to Dr. Pepperberg, he made up his own words, such as “banerry” for red apple, which was a combination of banana and cherry, words he already knew. She also claims that he knew what a key was no matter what the size or the shape. Because of this she argues that he was not simply mimicking or “parroting” words, but was actually using language.
While these examples may show that parrots are more intelligent than previously thought, most linguists are pretty skeptical about this study and the claims it makes about language based on just a few examples of word use

Question 22

communication among the Cetaceans, such as dolphins and whales, is becoming an important area of research in animal communication.

Answer 22

Starting from birth, dolphins squawk, whistle, click, and squeak. They also appear to take turns making sounds, as if they are in dialogue with one another. Dolphins also use non-verbal cues such as posture, bubbles, jaw claps, and fin caresses to communicate. Moreover, whales learn complicated songs which are believed to have a grammatical, or hierarchical, structure, with some of these songs being up to 30 minutes in length.

Question 23

monkeys and apes use a variety of visual signals and vocal sounds to communicate.

Answer 23

these include grunts, pants, barks, whimpers, screams, squeaks, and hoots.

Question 24

how open is monkey communication? Are they limited in what they can communicate in relation to time and space? A significant amount of research has gone into studying primate language in the wild, but it is difficult to get any concrete answers.

Answer 24

One significant finding was that non-human primate communication is probably not as closed as we once believed, meaning they can communicate about things that are removed from their immediate view.

Question 25

vervet monkeys

Answer 25

have different predator calls which cause the receiver of the message to react in different ways, even if they cannot directly see the predator in question. So, beyond just conveying fear, these calls tell the receiver the kind of predator that is nearby.

Question 26

3 vervet monkey calls

Answer 26

The three calls include:
* The snake alarm which causes the receivers to stand on their hind legs and look at the ground.
* The leopard alarm which causes the receivers to run to the top of the nearest tree.
* The eagle alarm which causes the receivers to run under a bush for cover.

Question 27

how do researchers research monkeys?

Answer 27

Current researchers do not interact with the chimpanzees, as Goodall often did, but instead study them from a distance using “shotgun” microphones and digital cameras as they attempt to document their natural interactions.
It is believed that chimp calls aren’t particularly word-like, but they do play an important role in communication. Like many wordless sounds that people make – laughs, screams, cries – listeners hearing the sounds can infer quite a bit about the caller’s situation.

Question 28

According to primatologist Michael Wilson…

Answer 28

while there is some variation in different locations, “chimpanzees make lots of different calls – pant-hoots, pant-barks, waa-barks, pant-grunts, rough- grunts, and so on – but across Africa, all chimpanzees produce a pretty similar set of calls in similar circumstances. In this respect, chimpanzee calls resemble human sounds like laughter and crying more than they resemble human words, which can vary drastically from place to place.”

Question 29

Descent of Man

Answer 29

Darwin commented on babbling in songbirds, singing in gibbons (a type of ape), and “the intimate connection between the brain, as it is now developed in us, and the faculty of speech.”

Question 30

While we have certainly learned a significant amount about our evolutionary connections, in part due to communication capabilities of various species, there is still much that is unknown

Answer 30

A growing number of scientists, however, are currently engaged in comparative studies of animal communication in diverse species and are using innovative new methods to do so. While some of this work is still observational or behavioral in nature (watching and attempting to interpret interactions), much of it is also based on genetics and neurobiology.

Question 31

In addition to studying primates in the wild, some researchers, especially in the 1960s through the 1960s, attempted to teach…

Answer 31

primates forms of human language in order to determine the similarity of our brain structures and abilities.
If they worked, it was believed that these studies would also allow us to get inside the “mind” of another species in a way we never could before. Imagine if we could have long conversations with another species to see what and how they think?

Question 32

when did attempts to teach apes language begin?

Answer 32

in the 1930s when two scientists, Winthrop and Luella Kellogg, tried to raise a chimpanzee as a human child in order to learn if he had the same innate potential as a human being, including the use of language. Thus, they attempted to turn the Tarzan scenario on its head – instead of a human raised in the wild, they wanted to raise a wild chimp in “civilization.” So, the Kelloggs raised Gua, the chimp, together with their son, Donald.

Question 33

cross- fostering

Answer 33

raising an animal to behave like another animal.

Question 34

none of the chimps ever developed any language skills.

Answer 34

true

Question 35

why did the Kelloggs abandon their study?

Answer 35

they became distressed because Donald, their son, began acquiring more chimpanzee sounds than Gua, the chimp, acquired human sounds. Donald, for example, began grunting at the dinner table when he wanted more food.

Question 36

how did Donald’s language differ than Gua’s?

Answer 36

Gua originally started understanding some words at an earlier age than Donald. However, starting at the age of two, Donald’s language ability accelerated rapidly while Gua’s remained very rudimentary.

Question 37

Keith and Cathy Hayes raised a newborn chimp named Vik

Answer 37

In the late 1940s, the psychologists Keith and Cathy Hayes raised a newborn chimp named Viki for the express purpose of teaching her to speak. After six years of intensive language training, Viki could only actually speak four words: mama, papa, cup, and up. We now know, of course, this was largely because she did not have the vocal apparatus to make human speech sounds.

Question 38

human exceptionalism

Answer 38

the belief that humans are apart from all other animals because of our unique and innate capacity for language.

Question 39

In the 1960s, two researchers, Allen and Beatrix Gardner, tried again, in what is probably the most famous of the ape language studies – the case of Washoe the chimp.

Answer 39

They argued that although chimps couldn’t use speech because of the shape and size of their tongue and larynx, they could possibly master other means of utilizing language, such as sign language.

Question 40

Chimps can vocalize… but

Answer 40

they have very little control over most of the sounds they make

Question 41

example of how chimps have little control of the sounds they make

Answer 41

One validation of this was when Viki wanted cookies, she couldn’t try to steal with without giving herself away. Viki would sneak into the kitchen in utter silence in order to steal the cookie, but the moment she took the lid off the cookie jar and saw the cookies inside, she would let out a loud food grunt and give herself away! In other words, she lacked the self-control that is necessary for language.

Question 42

when did the Gardners come up with the idea to teach viki sign language?

Answer 42

Viki did have a lot of control over her hand gestures. When looking at a tape of Viki, the Gardners realized they could understand more of what she wanted by watching her gestures than by listening to her vocalizations. This is when they came up with the idea of teaching a chimp American Sign Language (ASL).

Question 43

But it wasn’t until 1966, after 300 years of speculation, that the Gardners finally attempted this experiment (sign language) with Washoe.

Answer 43

this idea was not new, and as early as 1661, a man by the name of Samuel Pepys, a British writer, had proposed teaching a chimp who had just arrived in London (which he called a great baboon) how to make signs, as he appeared to already “understand much English.” And in 1925, Robert Yerkes, the founder of the Yerkes Regional Primate Centers in Atlanta, Georgia, had proposed essentially the same thing

Question 44

moulding

Answer 44

Washoe, like the others before her, was raised like a human child, only this time she was purposefully taught the signs for things throughout her day. She was taught signs by teachers who moved her hands through the motions of each sign while showing her the object she was learning to name.

Question 45

what was the effect of Washoe

Answer 45

She was able to learn about 135 signs in this way, and she also began to understand these signs as belonging to a class of referents. For example, she used the sign for “more” in a number of different contexts (more food, etc) even though she was taught it only in relation to “more tickling.” She also used the sign for dog when she heard an unseen dog barking.
She was also able to combine the signs into what the Gardners claimed were sentences, such as “you me out.” This meant she wanted to go outside with one of them.

Question 46

Moja, Pili, Tatu and Dar

Answer 46

the other four chimps who learned sign language with washoe

Question 47

The most remarkable thing occurred when Washoe adopted an infant named Loulis

Answer 47

For the next five years, no humans attempted to teach sign language to Loulis, yet at the end of this period he had learned over 50 signs. This was not done by active teaching, but by picking them up from Washoe as she signed with the others. In other words, the transmission of signs was taking place without any human intervention.

Question 48

Anne and David Premack’s work with a chimpanzee named Sarah

Answer 48

Instead of sign language, Sarah was taught to communicate by using plastic tokens that represented different words, with the hope being that Sarah would learn how to construct sentences by placing the tokens in a vertical line.
These tokens were abstract symbols, like words, and not pictures of things, and yet Sarah was able to learn them. For example, apple was represented by a blue triangle, and she was able to make the association with the real thing. She was also able to stream together some simple sentences, such as “Sara jam bread take,” but this only came after a lot of training.

Question 49

Herb Terrace, also focused on the creation of sentences with a chimp he called Nim Chimsky,

Answer 49

Nim was also taught ASL, but he was never able to string together a grammatical correct phrase of sentence.

Question 50

What did Terrace conclude?

Answer 50

all of the chimps in these studies are basically just imitating their trainers and not really learning the essence of language, which is grammar and the creation of new utterances.

Others, however, such as the Gardners disagree. They claim, for example, that when Washoe strung together signs to make sentences, 90% of the time the subject and verb were placed in the correct order. She signed things like: “You me out,” “You me go,” and “Baby up.” Once she even signed “Please give me that hot smoke” when asking for a cigarette (we can ask why there were cigarettes around her, but this was the 1960s!). This means, that at least on some level, she understood the grammatical rules.

Question 51

Koko

Answer 51

One of the most well-known and longest studies was done by Francine Patterson with a Gorilla name Koko, which started in 1972 when Koko was just one year old and lasted until she died in 2018, at the age of 46.
Koko was also taught sign language and has a working vocabulary of 1000 signs. She regularly produced sentences that averaged between 3 and 6 words. Koko’s entire life was documented on camera, including her selecting of a mate via video dating, her failure to have offspring, and her adoption of a kitten she named All Ball, who was eventually killed by a truck.

Question 52

Michael

Answer 52

Koko also had a friend named Michael, on the left, with whom she used sign language. He died in 2000 of a heart attack and Koko mourned his loss for several months.

Question 53

Ndume

Answer 53

a “boyfriend” of over ten years named Ndume, on the right, but they never actually mated. This is perhaps because of the unnatural conditions in which they are kept.

Question 54

the most intriguing and successful study

Answer 54

involves a bonobo named Kanzi. Kanzi, who was trained by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, was not taught sign language but learned words by listening to speech and then relating those words to lexigram symbols on a computer keyboard. This study began in 1980 and continues to this day.

Question 55

kanzi

Answer 55

Kanzi was not initially a research subject but the son of Matata, who was the first subject. He was, however, able to pick up far more knowledge of spoken language than his mother, simply by being around it.
Although he cannot produce speech, no matter how hard he tries, he seems to understand much of what is said to him, and can put together sentences on his lexigram board. Click here for a video showing Kanzi following spoken directions, and here for a video showing Kanzi using the lexigram board.
Another surprising fact about Kanzi is that, unbeknownst to anyone, he learned some sign language just by watching videos of Koko. They did not know about it until he signed “You, Gorilla, Question” to a visiting anthropologist who had worked with gorillas.

Question 56

do these primate language studies reveal the use of anything resembling human language in non-human primates?

Answer 56

In the scientific community there seems to be a split into two definitive camps – with some people saying that these experiments prove that apes have a clear but primitive form of language capabilities and others saying that they prove just the opposite and reinforce the notion of human exceptionalism. Clearly, none of these animals use language, if we can call it that, with anything resembling the proficiency of humans. Children, as we will see, learn language with ease and ingenuity whereas even after years of training all of these primates struggle with fairly simple expression. Certainly, these apes don’t weave tales or construct philosophies.

Question 57

On the level of vocabulary too, we see huge differences.

Answer 57

The average adult human has a knowledge of between 45,000 and 60,000 words and a working vocabulary of about 20,000. Toddlers who are learning language, pick up between 10-20 words per week. After 46 years of training, on the other hand, Koko only had a knowledge of 1,000 signs.

Question 58

The fact that they are able to use language at all, however, gives us clues as to our biological connections and evolution.

Answer 58

There is a biological continuum, and non-human primates certainly share many of the cognitive abilities that make language possible.