The ecology of primate material culture.
Tool use in extant primates may inform our understanding of the conditions that favoured the expansion of hominin technology and material culture. The 'method of exclusion' has, arguably, confirmed the presence of culture in wild animal populations by excluding ecological and genetic explanations for geographical variation in behaviour. However, this method neglects ecological influences on culture, which, ironically, may be critical for understanding technology and thus material culture. We review all the current evidence for the role of ecology in shaping material culture in three habitual tool-using non-human primates: chimpanzees, orangutans and capuchin monkeys. We show that environmental opportunity, rather than necessity, is the main driver. We argue that a better understanding of primate technology requires explicit investigation of the role of ecological conditions. We propose a model in which three sets of factors, namely environment, sociality and cognition, influence invention, transmission and retention of material culture.
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland kk370@cam.ac.uk.
Kathelijne
K
Koops
Unit of Cognitive Primatology and Primate Centre, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Via Aldrovandi 16 b, 00197 Rome, Italy.
Elisabetta
E
Visalberghi
Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
Carel P
CP
van Schaik
D000818:Animals; D002428:Cebus / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D003469:Culture; D004777:Environment; D008954:Models, Biological; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000523:psychology*; D057079:Pongo / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D053001:Tool Use Behavior
material culture; primates; tool use