Whiten et al (1999) Reading: Cultures in Chimpanzees

Question 1

How many different behaviour patterns were studied in Chimpanzees? Give some examples.

Answer 1

39 different behaviour patterns

-tool usage, grooming and courtship behaviours,

Question 2

How is culture defined in the biological sciences?

Answer 2

1. inter-generation transmission of behaviour may occur either genetically or through social learning, with processes of variation and selection shaping biological evolution
2. cultural evolution

Question 3

Define cultural behaviour.

Answer 3

behaviour that is transmitted repeatedly through social or observational learning to become a population level characteristic

Question 4

What are the three reasons that Whiten et. al give for how the tabulations of population differences amongst chimpanzees are problematic?

Answer 4

1. incomplete
2. do not clarify the extent to which each behaviour pattern is habitual in the community
3. do not systematically document the absence of behaviour patterns present elsewhere

Question 5

What was the main way that chimpanzees learn?

Answer 5

copy the methods used by others

i.e. how to manipulate and open artificial ‘fruits’ designed as analogues of wild foods

Question 6

What have experimental studies on the acquisition of tool use and food processing skills by both children and captive chimpanzees indicate?

Answer 6

there is a complex mix of imitation, other forms of social learning, and individual learning

Question 7

What was Phase 1 of the Whiten et. al. study?

Answer 7

established a comprehensive list of candidate cultural variants, which are behaviours suspected by research workers to be specific to particular chimpanzee populations

Question 8

What were the main results of the Whiten et. al (1999) study?

Answer 8

1. some customary and habitual patterns are unique to certain communities, but others are shared between two or more communities
2. profiles of each community are distinctively different, each with a pattern comprising many behavioural variants
3. chimpanzees have rich, behavioural complexity

Question 9

What is the only major difference between the western and eastern populations of chimpanzees? (Whiten et. al 1999)

Answer 9

nutcracking occurs in the west

Question 10

How are differences between cultures constituted?

Answer 10

constituted by a multiplicity of variations in technology and social customs

Question 11

What do chimpanzees do when giving artificial ‘fruit’? (Whiten et. al)

Answer 11

copy the methods used by others to manipulated and open artificial fruits

Question 12

Whiten et. al concluded that chimpanzees have what?

Answer 12

rich behavioural complexity

Question 13

Cultural differences (often known as ________) are well established phenomena in the animal kingdom and are maintained through what?

Answer 13

traditions, maintained through a variety of social transmission mechanisms

Question 14

Some customary and habitual patterns are _______ to certain chimpanzee communities but others are ______ between two or more communities

Answer 14

unique, shared

Question 15

The profiles of each chimp community (Whiten et. al) are _______ _______, each with a pattern comprising many ______ _______

Answer 15

distinctively different, behavioral variants