To Suggest That We Can Learn Anything About the Simian Nature from a Study of Man is Sheer Nonsense

ScienceDaily summarizes a paper from PNAS:

Socially-learned cultural behaviour thought to be unique to humans is also found among chimpanzees colonies, scientists at the University of Liverpool have found.

Historically, scientists believed that behavioural differences between colonies of chimpanzees were due to variations in genetics. A team at Liverpool, however, has now discovered that variations in behaviour are down to chimpanzees migrating to other colonies, proving that they build their 'cultures' in a similar way to humans.

The paper itself is available only to PNAS subscribers, but the abstract is open to all.

Comments

[P Brooks]

Two consecutive posts about chimpanzee societies.

[Pet chimpazee of Taktix?]

Oooh oooh ooh...

[J.R.]

Enough is Enough: A Thinking Ape's Critique of Trans-Simianism

[J.R.]

Dammit. Foiled by my inability to remember the HTML markup for links.
Working link

[Chimpy Dan T]

If you don't like our tick-grooming policy, you can just move to another colony.

[Kolohe]

Socially-learned cultural behaviour thought to be unique to humans is also found among chimpanzees colonies

I am surprised that this result is surprising. I mean, on a micro-level, how it was raised has a effect on a dog's behavior; so, why shouldn't environment, and not just genes, affect many or all social animals' behavioral patterns?

[VM]

hier was on WGN radio extension 720:
Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World
by Dario Maestripieri
# Publisher: University of Chicago Press
# Pub. Date: October 2007
# ISBN-13: 9780226501178

[Episiarch]

All I want out of life is to be a monkey of moderate intelligence who wears a suit. That's why I've decided to transfer to business school.

[Abdul]

Soon, Canadian bureaucrats will investigate Charlton Heston for his insensitive comments about "dammned dirty apes."

[Stephen Colbert]

Sorry Darwin huggers, but the Bible says quite clearly that "In the beginning God created man," not, "in the beginning monkeys evolutioned gay marriage."

This article is yet another blatant attempt by evolutionists to advance their agenda to force us all to marry monkeys.

Luckily I am here to stop them with my book, "I am America and So Can You", which is available in fine patriotic bookstores nation-wide.

[Episiarch]

Stephen, do some Chuck Noblet for us!

[P Brooks]

All I want out of life is to be a monkey of moderate intelligence who wears a suit. That's why I've decided to transfer to business school.

Lesson number one: If you can't get your hand back out of the jar, let go of the cookies. It will be hard, but you have to do it. Pull your paw out, and smash the jar. You may then munch away at your leisure.

[highnumber]

I think Colbert's character did Jellineck.

[Dr. Zaius]

Experimental brain surgery on these creatures is one thing, and I'm all in favor of it.

[Professor Farnsworth]

All I want out of life is to be a monkey of moderate intelligence who wears a suit. That's why I've decided to transfer to business school.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Episiarch]

I think Colbert's character did Jellineck.

"He's just kidding, we're not lovers. We just have sex."

"Hot, ass-thumping sex."

[J sub D]

And they practice prostitution, and use tools.
The creationist "scientists" will deny the research. They won't do any of their own. Why bother when it's all been answered by God's word as revealed in the KJV bible?

Chimpanzees may be more like us than even this research indicates.

[Fluffy]

At what point will Catholics begin seeking to convert chimps to save their eternal souls?

"Speak, and I will baptize thee." Well, sucka, how about some sign language, some warmaking, some lying, and some office politics instead?

[de stijl]

In the original Planet Of the Apes did you ever notice that there are no female gorillas or orangutans?

[Reinmoose as an uncreative cre]

The creationist "scientists" will deny the research. They won't do any of their own. Why bother when it's all been answered by God's word as revealed in the KJV bible?

If Man evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys? Hmmm? *raises eyebrows*

[Neu Mejican]

An unsurprising finding.

Killer whales also seem to have cultural transmission...

http://mattdowling.blogspot.com/2007/12/unique-orca-hunting-technique.html
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16067641

[dead horse walking]

Jeez, you cosmolibs will endorse any culture whatsoever, won't you? I am terminating my subscription!

[Ken Shultz]

I've read of evidence suggesting that the adaptation we call morality has an instinctive basis as well, which would make it an evolutionary adaptation as well, wouldn't it?

More ammunition for the anti-creationist crowd, perhaps, but it certainly doesn't bode well for those who would deny that animals have some claim to what we call rights.

...especially if we have to go all the way back before whatever common ancestor we share with chimpanzees to find the State of Nature.

What says Ron Bailey? Does he believe in the Monkey Social Contract?

[David]

If Man evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys? Hmmm? *raises eyebrows*

Those monkeys used to be lemurs. 😛

[Neu Mejican]

JsubD,

I like that video.

Here's another.
Seems these behaviors may even be found in fish...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tVQJuEREXk8

[VM]

anti creationist?

fuck me. (while dressed as a functional equivalent of a female from Planet of the Apes)

[Episiarch]

fuck me. (while dressed as a functional equivalent of a female from Planet of the Apes)

VM's a furry? YIFFY

[VM]

Hay - once you get sucked in to CSI, you're all in...

[ktc2]

Love the Futurama references.

I still think the Urkobol is really Morbo.

[James B.]

"Man is Evil, capable of nothing but destruction!"

[The Man From Utopia]

What's with the scientific temptation to attribute behavioral variations to genetics?

Makes me think of folks who suppose that a clone of Einstein would be certain to be a genius.

It's not the hardware, it's the software. The flesh and bone is pretty much universal, but the lessons learned, and the sequence they're learned in, is what dictates variances in social behavior.

[hale]

"Nature versus nurture" is a false dilemma.

[Mister Eugenics]

What's with the scientific temptation to attribute behavioral variations to genetics?

What do you mean by that? I thought it was obvious.

[edna]

damn you all to hell.

The flesh and bone is pretty much universal

one visit to a nude beach will quickly dispel that notion.

[Syd]

"Fluffy | January 14, 2008, 11:13am | #
At what point will Catholics begin seeking to convert chimps to save their eternal souls?"

"Give us an ape when it is young and it is ours forever." Pope Cheeta VII

[Ken Shultz]

"What's with the scientific temptation to attribute behavioral variations to genetics?"

Help me out here, behavioral adaptations are adaptations nonetheless, right?

[Stevo Darkly]

Big shout-out to Jesse Walker for the Dr. Zaius quote! You can never have too many Dr. Zaius quotes.

[Schempf]

VM - Once you go monkey there's no going back!

[Cactus Jack]

"It's not the hardware, it's the software. The flesh and bone is pretty much universal, but the lessons learned, and the sequence they're learned in, is what dictates variances in social behavior."

How do you explain identical twins raised apart? They end up with very much the same personalities. My cats have different personalities. Our genes pretty much impel us towards different personalities. That doesn't mean environment doesn't influence also. It's a combination of both nature and nurture.