Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies

by Frans de Waal (Editor), Peter L. Tyack (Editor), Christophe Boesch (Contribution by), Jack W. Bradbury (Contribution by), Richard Connor (Contribution by)

Overview

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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674419124
Publisher:	Harvard
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.38(d)

About the Author

de Waal Frans B. M. :

Frans B. M. de Waal is C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Psychology Department and Director of Living Links, part of the Yerkes Primate Center, Emory University.Tyack Peter L. :

Peter L. Tyack is Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.McGrew W.C. :

William McGrew is Professor of Anthropology and Zoology at Miami University(Ohio).Perry Susan :

Susan Perry is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.van Schaik Carel :

Carel van Schaik is Professor and Director of the Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zürich.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I. Life History and Brain Evolution

1. Life History and Cognitive Evolution in Primates
Carel P. van Schaik and Robert O. Deaner

Case Study 1A. Sociality and Disease Risk: A Comparative Study of Leukocyte Counts in Primates
Charles L. Nunn

2. Dolphin Social Complexity: Lessons from Long-Term Study and Life History
Randall S. Wells

3. Sources of Social Complexity in the Three Elephant Species
Katy Payne

Part II. Evolution of Cooperative Strategies

4. Complex Cooperation among Taï Chimpanzees
Christophe Boesch

Case Study 4A. Coalitionary Aggression in White-Faced Capuchins
Susan Perry

Case Study 4B. Levels and Patterns in Dolphin Alliance Formation
Richard C. Connor and Michael Krützen

5. The Social Complexity of Spotted Hyenas
Christine M. Drea and Laurence G. Frank

Case Study 5A. Maternal Rank "Inheritance" in the Spotted Hyena
Anne Engh and Kay E. Holekamp

6. Is Social Stress a Consequence of Subordination or a Cost of Dominance?
Scott Creel and Jennifer L. Sands

Case Study 6A. Sperm Whale Social Structure: Why It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Sarah L. Mesnick, Karen Evans, Barbara L. Taylor, John Hyde, Sergio Escorza-Treviño, and Andrew E. Dizon

Part III. Social Cognition

7. Equivalence Classification as an Approach to Social Knowledge: From Sea Lions to Simians
Ronald J. Schusterman, Colleen Reichmuth Kastak, and David Kastak

8. The Structure of Social Knowledge in Monkeys
Robert M. Seyfarth and Dorothy L. Cheney

9. Social Syntax: The If-Then Structure of Social Problem Solving
Frans B. M. de Waal

Case Study 9A. Conflict Resolution in the Spotted Hyena
Sofia A. Wahaj and Kay E. Holekamp

Part IV. Communication

10. Laughter and Smiling: The Intertwining of Nature and Culture
Jan A. R. A. M. van Hooff and Signe Preuschoft

Case Study 10A. Emotional Recognition by Chimpanzees
Lisa A. Parr

11. Vocal Communication in Wild Parrots
Jack W. Bradbury

Case Study 11A. Representational Vocal Signaling in the Chimpanzee
Karen I. Hallberg, Douglas A. Nelson, and Sarah T. Boysen

12. Social and Vocal Complexity in Bats
Gerald S. Wilkinson

13. Dolphins Communicate about Individual-Specific Social Relationships
Peter L. Tyack

Case Study 13A. Natural Semanticity in Wild Primates
Klaus Zuberbühler

Part V. Cultural Transmission

14. Koshima Monkeys and Bossou Chimpanzees: Long-Term Research on Culture in Nonhuman Primates
Tetsuro Matsuzawa

Case Study 14A. Movement Imitation in Monkeys
Bernhard Voelkl and Ludwig Huber

15. Individuality and Flexibility of Cultural Behavior Patterns in Chimpanzees
Toshisada Nishida

Case Study 15A. Sex Differences in Termite Fishing among Gombe Chimpanzees
Stephanie S. Pandolfi, Carel P. van Schaik, and Anne E. Pusey

16. Ten Dispatches from the Chimpanzee Culture Wars
W. C. McGrew

Case Study 16A. Spontaneous Use of Tools by Semifree-ranging Capuchin Monkeys
Eduardo B. Ottoni and Massimo Mannu

17. Society and Culture in the Deep and Open Ocean: The Sperm Whale and Other Cetaceans
Hal Whitehead

Case Study 17A. Do Killer Whales Have Culture?
Harald Yurk

18. Discovering Culture in Birds: The Role of Learning and Development
Meredith J. West, Andrew P. King, and David J. White

References

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

Be prepared...for a book that is like a small library itself and one that will free you of some illusions about human uniqueness...In summary, this book is an important contribution to our knowledge of intelligence and culture in non-human species.

This excellent collection is the outcome of a conference held in 2000 under the auspices of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Judging by the published results, the conference itself must have been a rich occasion. It must be a rare gathering that draws together for any purpose behavioural scientists specializing in such vastly different animal groups...In this case, the exercise brings a remarkably wide comparative perspective to bear on animal social complexity. Consequently, the reader is given a wealth of fine descriptive detail, but is also encouraged to step back from the detail and reflect in broader evolutionary terms on the relationship between intelligence, culture, and the cognitive demands of social relationships in individualized societies.

This book...is the latest contribution to the debate over what animals understand about their social environments and how this influences their behavior and organisation. It comprises 18 papers and several case studies by 52 prominent scientists or promising young researchers. The topics covered range from life history and cognitive evolution in primates, laughter and smiling in mammals, and vocal communication in wild parrots, to questions of emotional recognition in chimpanzees and the possibility of culture in killer whales. The volume's most notable contribution is that it brings together a collection of studies on a wide range of species and topics in an effort to provide the groundwork for future synthetic work on the organising principles underlying complex animal societies...Credit is due to De Waal and Tyack for putting together this book...It should be of interest to anyone curious about animal behavior.

This book is pure gold. It takes a broad view of the fashionable—and indeed, perpetually interesting question—how animal intelligence relates to social behavior. The contents range from sperm whales to starlings, elephants' treatment of a dead calf, and chimpanzees' use of different barks to identify different kinds of food. From it all emerges the current state of thinking on animal imitation, semantics, and the meaning and origins of culture.

From the Publisher

This excellent collection is the outcome of a conference held in 2000 under the auspices of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Judging by the published results, the conference itself must have been a rich occasion. It must be a rare gathering that draws together for any purpose behavioural scientists specializing in such vastly different animal groups...In this case, the exercise brings a remarkably wide comparative perspective to bear on animal social complexity. Consequently, the reader is given a wealth of fine descriptive detail, but is also encouraged to step back from the detail and reflect in broader evolutionary terms on the relationship between intelligence, culture, and the cognitive demands of social relationships in individualized societies.

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Be prepared...for a book that is like a small library itself and one that will free you of some illusions about human uniqueness...In summary, this book is an important contribution to our knowledge of intelligence and culture in non-human species.

Human Ethology Bulletin

This book...is the latest contribution to the debate over what animals understand about their social environments and how this influences their behavior and organisation. It comprises 18 papers and several case studies by 52 prominent scientists or promising young researchers. The topics covered range from life history and cognitive evolution in primates, laughter and smiling in mammals, and vocal communication in wild parrots, to questions of emotional recognition in chimpanzees and the possibility of culture in killer whales. The volume's most notable contribution is that it brings together a collection of studies on a wide range of species and topics in an effort to provide the groundwork for future synthetic work on the organising principles underlying complex animal societies...Credit is due to De Waal and Tyack for putting together this book...It should be of interest to anyone curious about animal behavior.

Times Higher Education Supplement