Question

Culture may be defined as the learned rules of a society that goverll tile De havior of the individuals of that society. Culture has both functional (obtain- ing food, rearing offspring) and symbolic (language, ritual behavior) elements. Many anthropologists believe that nonhumans do not exhibit culture but rather learned behaviors. However, many others who study the evolution of culture in humans, look to our primate relatives for the behavioral patterns that may lead to the rise of culture. Japanese macaques on Koshima Island demonstrated cultural behavior to researchers in the 1950s. The macaques were provisioned with sweet potatoes, and about a year later one young female, Imo, began to wash her sweet potatoes in the ocean. Eventually, the behavior spread through- out the group, with all but a few elderly members washing their sweet potatoes prior to ingesting them. This is an example of a learned behavioral variation that is passed through the group and demonstrates the ability of some primates to display incipient culture. Orangutans are known to use leaves as napkins and sticks to scratch their backs, revealing basic tool use. Numerous studies of chimpanzees show their great capacity for cultural behavior and tool use. DDD Chimpanzees are known to use twigs to "fish" termites out of termite mounds; to while this seems a very simple behavior, chimpanzees are very selective about the size and weight of their sticks, demonstrating an understanding of what tool type will accomplish the task at hand. Chimps also use leaves as sponges and use rocks to break open nuts. More important, primatologists have examined numerous instances of regional variation in tool use, indicating that these local traditions are learned and not instinctual. Figure 12-5 shows a chimpanzee practicing termiting. Do you think these behaviors reflect true culture or just behavioral variation? Why or why not?

Answer 1

According to the question, culture is defined as the learned rules of a society. Based on the definition given above, the examples about the primates seem to reflect true culture.

Culture is the full range of learned behavourial patterns. In case of the Japanese Macaque, Ito acted as the model from whom all the other members in that particular population learned a certain behaviourial pattern. One should always remember that culture is region specific as is abundantly seen in the case of humans. Another evidence is the basic tool use in chimps. As is mentioned the usage of tools show regional variation and hence implying a learned behavourial pattern in a particular population or culture.

These cannot be classified as behavourial variation because these variations then should not be community specific. Behaviour is basically the way an organism responds to stimuli, so behavourial variations are usually either specific to an individual or to a species. This is not the case in the examples given above.

Hence it can be conclusively said that the above mentioned behaviours reflect true culture.