Living Differences

Abstract

Variation in behavioural patterns between populations is a trademark characteristic of Homo sapiens. Indeed, it constitutes the basis of “cultural diversity”. Social anthropologists tend to resort to a “humanist” stance, reserving the label “culture” for our own species, whereas biological anthropologists tend to be “universalists”, assuming an evolutionary continuum of traits that constitute culture. A definition that aims to be species-inclusive would view culture simply as “socially transmitted behaviour”. Field researchers have uncovered numerous examples of non-human animal cultures, in which members of different populations of the same species were found to possess dissimilar behavioural portfolios. The greatest degree of behavioural diversity amongst non-humans is perhaps exhibited by chimpanzees. Studies across Africa revealed that each chimpanzee community exhibits a unique combination of traits related to social customs, communication, territorial aggression, war-like raiding, hunting strategies, food processing and consumption, and ingestion of plant matter for self-medication. However, local traditions have also been described for other taxa as diverse as triggerfish, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, capuchin monkeys, Hanuman langurs, Japanese macaques and orangutans. At least in primates, population-typical behaviours are not always due to different local ecologies, but may be idiosyncratic expressions of “social identity” that allow individuals to distinguish “us” from “them”. Cultural diversity can thus be understood as a reflection of inter-group competition and strategies of resource acquisition. Human and animal cultures are also linked in a rather sad way: the current mass-extinctions of other animals caused by humans lead not only to a loss of genetic diversity, but likewise cultural diversity.