Animal Social Complexity - Intelligence and Culture 245
Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence and Culture | |
author | Frans de Waal and Peter Tyack |
pages | 616 pages |
publisher | Harvard University Press |
rating | 9 |
reviewer | Danny Yee |
ISBN | 0674009290 |
summary | 18 papers on primates, cetaceans, other mammals and birds |
How are brain size and intelligence related to social complexity? What are the evolutionary underpinnings of cooperation? How sophisticated are animal communication and social cognition? And do animals have culture? These are some of the broad questions addressed by the eighteen papers in Animal Social Complexity, which look not only at primates and cetaceans, but also at hyenas, elephants, bats, and birds. The common focus is on societies that are individualized, with members recognising each other as individuals, and stable, with long-lived members and on-going relationships, and in which there are learned survival skills and social behaviours. Some of the papers are overviews of particular species or taxa, some address specific questions in the context of a particular species, and some present cross-species comparisons.
Consisting of the papers from a conference held in 2000, Animal Social Complexity is a professional volume, complete with a hundred pages of references. But the topics covered are of widespread interest, and the multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of the papers makes them mostly accessible to the lay reader.
Carel Van Schaik and Robert Deaner present a life history perspective on cognitive evolution: demonstrating a link between social complexity and intelligence/brain size is complicated because both are correlated with long life spans. Randall Wells presents an outline of dolphin social complexity based on long-term studies on the communities in Sarasota Bay, Florida. And Katy Payne gives an overview of social complexity in the three elephant species.
Christophe Boesch describes examples of complex cooperation among Tai chimpanzees, in group hunts for monkeys and in territorial conflict with other chimpanzee groups. Christine Drea and Laurence Frank describe the social system of spotted hyenas and argue that more attention should be paid to social complexity in carnivores. It has commonly been argued that social stress is a consequence of subordination; Scott Creel and Jennifer Sands present evidence suggesting that it may in fact be a cost of domination, at least in some species.
Three of the papers debate the underlying mechanisms of social cognition. Ronald Schusterman et al. argue for equivalence classifications as a basic structure. In contrast, Robert Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney argue that "nonhuman primates are innately predisposed to group other individuals into hierarchical classes". And for Frans de Waal the conditionality of behaviour suggests a role for if-then structures in primate "social syntax".
Taking a comparative approach to laughter and smiling in primates, Jan Van Hoof and Signe Preuschoft find that "laughter has evolved in the context of joyful play, and that the broad smile has evolved as an expression of nonhostility and friendliness, taking its origin in the expression of fearful submission". Looking at vocal learning in four parrot species from Costa Rica, Jack Bradbury suggests that in "ecology, social organization, and vocal communication, parrots appear to be more convergent with dolphins than they are with other birds".
Gerald Wilkinson looks to bats for an independent test of the Machiavellian Intelligence hypothesis, probing the relationships between brain size, vocal complexity, and colony size. And Peter Tyack explores bottlenose dolphins' use of signature whistles in communicating social relationships.
Following in the footsteps of Imanishi, pioneer of Japanese primatology, Tetsuro Matsuzawa considers, as examples of "culture", sweet potato washing among Koshima monkeys and nut cracking using stone tools by Bossou chimpanzees. Toshisada Nishida describes the "flexibility and individuality of cultural behavior patterns" among chimpanzees at Mahale. And in "Ten Dispatches from the Chimpanzee Culture Wars" William McGrew gives an overview of the arguments between cultural anthropologists, psychologists, and primatologists (among others) over chimpanzee culture -- and over the definition of culture.
Hal Whitehead looks at sperm whales, the cetacean culture debate more generally, and the possible effects of "cultural hitchhiking" on genetic diversity. And Meredith West et al. find a critical role for social interaction in learning and development in cowbirds and starlings.
In addition to the eighteen papers, there are a dozen shorter "case studies" which tackle narrower questions. Animal Social Complexity is an important contribution to the scientific literature. And it has a wealth of material for anyone fascinated by social animals and not intimidated by scientific methodology, a little bit of statistics, references and scholarly language.
Danny Yee has written over 700 book reviews. You can purchase Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence and Culture from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Mmm, animals. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mmm, animals. (Score:5, Funny)
Brain Size?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, if we look at ants, bees and termites, we can safely draw the conclusion that brain size and social complexity are inversely proportional.
Re:Brain Size?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Seconded! I have a huge brain, and am above average in intelligence, but my social life is negligible.
Not smiling? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, this must explain why I never felt like smiling during my punk rock days. I was younger, angry and much less secure and could have "evolved" a behavioral approach that prevented my appearing submissive to anybody. (that and I simply thought of myself as one baaaad dude.
Re:on a more serious note (Score:-1, Funny)
Hint: Unprotected sex can transmit a culture in a hurry. Chlamydia, gonnococcus, you name it...
Re:Brain Size?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Communal insects have workers, drones, and queens.
We have all those, plus lawyers, porn stars, and programmers. Yee ha. It's good to be human.
zerg (Score:2, Funny)
Now from Harvard University Press... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mmm, animals. (Score:0, Funny)
Eating off, too.
Re:Yeasts have culture (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. But if you are talking about putting it to use too, remember what Robin Williams said. "God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.".
Re:Interesting idea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pet peeve. (Score:3, Funny)
(yeah, I know we came from apes, not monkeys... but the insult works better)
Re:Brain Size?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interesting idea (Score:3, Funny)
Whew! Re:The final step (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Brain size and cognative/communication ability (Score:2, Funny)
I know that if Elmo asks for a specific object (object "x") and you give object "y" instead, Elmo repeats her original request or ignores object "y". She occasionaly will say "no" when she doesn't get what she wants, but has abandoned that word in favor of the more entertaining (and embarrasing) "son of a b*tch"
Re:Brain size and cognative/communication ability (Score:2, Funny)
And she's probably wondering why you called her "Elmo".
Re:dolphins (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Interesting idea (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sessile animals? (Score:3, Funny)
Sponges, other tunicates, corals and barnacles are free swimming as larvae. They only become sessile as adults.Reminds me of a favorite quote of mine regarding sea squirts (tunicates), which are, incidentally, the closest thing there is to a vertebrate that's not quite a vertebrate:
The juvenile seasquirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it. It's rather like getting tenure.