Natural communication in bonobos: Insights into social awareness and the evolution of language

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zanna Clay ◽  
Emilie Genty
Keyword(s):  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Social Awareness ◽  
Gestural Communication ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Central Aspect

Our capacity for language is a central aspect of what it means to be human and sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Given that language does not fossilize, one way to understand how and when it first evolved is to examine the communicative capacities of our closest living relatives, the great apes. This chapter reviews recent research exploring natural communication in our least understood but closest living relative, the bonobo (Pan paniscus). It primarily focuses on what natural bonobo communication can tell us about their underlying social awareness and how this relates to the evolution of language. Examining vocal and gestural communication, we report findings that highlight considerable communicative complexity, flexibility, and intentionality which, cumulatively, suggest that many of the building blocks for language are deeply rooted in our primate past. Notre qualité de langage est un aspect central d’être humain, et nous sépare du reste de l’univers animal. Vu que le langage ne fige pas, les qualités communicatives des grands singes nous peuvent aider à expliquer comment et quand est-ce-que nos langues ont évolué. Ici nous révisons les recherches plus récentes explorant la communication naturelle chez notre plus proche relatif vivant, le bonobo (Pan paniscus). Nous nous concentrons sur ce que la communication naturelle des bonobos nous peut dire à propos de leur conscience sociale et comment cela se rapporte à l’évolution des langues. En examinant la communication vocale et gestuelle, nous signalons des trouvailles qui soulignent la complexité, la flexibilité et l’intentionnalité dans la communication. Ces aspects suggèrent que les fondations de notre langue sont enracinées dans notre passé primate.

Gestural phrases and gestural exchanges by a pair of zoo-living lowland gorillas

Gesture ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne E. Tanner
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Gestural Communication ◽  
Visual Data ◽  
Electronic Edition ◽  
Partial Picture ◽  
Lowland Gorillas

Previous study of the spontaneous gestural communication of the great apes has been primarily of individual gestures and their sequels. Such analysis gives only a partial picture of the quality of gorilla interaction. The repertoire of gestures of a pair of gorillas at San Francisco Zoo have been described by Tanner and Byrne (1993, 1996, 1999). These gorillas often used gestures in continuous sequences or phrases. Both single gestures and phrases were used in exchanges between gorillas. Phrases included a variety of syntactic functions, and exchanges seemed to negotiate matters such as location, initiator, and type of play. Both single gestures and phrases could be modified by “negative’ gestures. Detailed transcription of gorilla communicative events show that gestures are continually being modified and varied by the communicative partners, rather than being ritualized elements of a finite repertoire. The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.

Cradle Under the Canopy The Forest Origins of our Ape and Hominin Ancestors and the Tropical Forest Forays of the Genus Homo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Tropical Environments ◽  
Genus Homo ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
The Tropics

The evolutionary proximity of the non-human great apes to us is often stressed in studies of animals, such as Kanzi, a bonobo (Pan paniscus) bred in captivity, that demonstrate their capacity to undertake tool-use and even utilize and comprehend language (Toth et al., 1993; Savage-Rumbaugh and Lewin, 1996; Schick et al., 1999). Likewise, studies of chimpanzees (Pan spp.) have highlighted the similarity of their emotional and empathetic capacities to those of humans (Parr et al., 2005; Campbell and de Waal, 2014). However, as noted by Savage- Rumbaugh and Lewin (1996), in palaeoanthropology and archaeology more broadly, the emergence of the hominin clade and, later, our species, is referenced in terms of the ‘chasm’ between ourselves and other extant great apes. Indeed, despite our genetic and behavioural proximity, extant non-human great ape taxa are often popularly characterized as living fossils of how we used to be. They are used as analogues for the subsistence and behaviour of the Last Common Ancestor (LCA) of humans and non-human great apes (Clutton-Brock and Harvey, 1977; Goodall, 1986; Foley and Lewin, 2004) and it is almost as if the fact that they still occupy the tropical environments in which these hominoids likely evolved (though see Elton, 2008) allows them to be treated as static comparisons (Figure 3.1). Since Darwin wrote the Descent of Man in 1871, the forests of the tropics, and their modern non-human great ape inhabitants, have tended to be perceived as being left behind as the hominin clade gained increasingly ‘human’ traits of tool-use, medium to large game hunting, and upright locomotion on open ‘savanna’ landscapes (Dart, 1925; Potts, 1998; Klein, 1999). From this perspective it is perhaps unsurprising that tropical forests are seen as alien to the genus Homo and its closest hominin ancestors.

Pantomime and imitation in great apes

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 200-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E. Russon
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Distinct Process ◽  
Action Imitation ◽  
Primitive Forms ◽  
Communicative Abilities

Abstract This paper assesses great apes’ abilities for pantomime and action imitation, two communicative abilities proposed as key contributors to language evolution. Modern great apes, the only surviving nonhuman hominids, are important living models of the communicative platform upon which language evolved. This assessment is based on 62 great ape pantomimes identified via data mining plus published reports of great ape action imitation. Most pantomimes were simple, imperative, and scaffolded by partners’ relationship and scripts; some resemble declaratives, some were sequences of several inter-related elements. Imitation research consistently shows great apes perform action imitation at low fidelity, but also that action imitation may not represent a distinct process or function. Discussion focuses on how findings may advance reconstruction of the evolution of language, including what great apes may contribute to understanding ‘primitive’ forms of pantomime and imitation and how to improve their study.

Human Evolution

1984 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 182-198
Author(s):  
Catherine Badgley
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Sister Group ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Single Living

The evolutionary history of humans is well understood in outline, compared to that of many other groups of mammals. But human evolution remains enigmatic in its details, and these are compelling both scientifically and personally because they relate to the biological uniqueness of humans. Humans are placed in the primate family Hominidae, which, in traditional classifications, contains a single living species, Homo sapiens. The closest living relatives of humans are great apes: the chimpanzees Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes, the gorilla Gorilla gorilla, and the orangutan Pongo pygmaeus. These apes have traditionally been placed in the family Pongidae as the sister group of Hominidae. Living Hominidae and Pongidae, together with Hylobatidae (gibbons) comprise the modern representatives of the primate suborder Hominoidea.

Gestural communication in subadult bonobos (Pan paniscus): Repertoire and use

2005 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Pika ◽  
Katja Liebal ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Gestural Communication

scholarly journals Young children spontaneously invent wild great apes’ tool-use behaviours

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1825) ◽  
pp. 20152402 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Reindl ◽  
S. R. Beck ◽  
I. A. Apperly ◽  
C. Tennie
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Great Similarity ◽  
Physical Cognition ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Over Time

The variety and complexity of human-made tools are unique in the animal kingdom. Research investigating why human tool use is special has focused on the role of social learning: while non-human great apes acquire tool-use behaviours mostly by individual (re-)inventions, modern humans use imitation and teaching to accumulate innovations over time. However, little is known about tool-use behaviours that humans can invent individually, i.e. without cultural knowledge. We presented 2- to 3.5-year-old children with 12 problem-solving tasks based on tool-use behaviours shown by great apes. Spontaneous tool use was observed in 11 tasks. Additionally, tasks which occurred more frequently in wild great apes were also solved more frequently by human children. Our results demonstrate great similarity in the spontaneous tool-use abilities of human children and great apes, indicating that the physical cognition underlying tool use shows large overlaps across the great ape species. This suggests that humans are neither born with special physical cognition skills, nor that these skills have degraded due to our species’ long reliance of social learning in the tool-use domain.

scholarly journals 2011 Dahlberg Award Winner Evaluation of the utility of deciduous molar morphological variation in great ape phylogenetic analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Hardin ◽  
Scott S. Legge
Keyword(s):  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Gorilla Beringei ◽  
Deciduous Molar ◽  
Dental Traits ◽  
Metric Traits ◽  
Deciduous Molars

Non-metric dental traits are well-established tools for anthropologists investigating population affiliation and movement in humans. Nonetheless, similar traits in the great apes have received considerably less attention. The present study provides data on non-metric trait variability in the deciduous molars of great apes from museum context. Twenty-eight traits are observed in the upper and lower deciduous molars in specimens of Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla, and Gorilla beringei. These groups are compared based on trait frequencies and mean measures of divergence. This study demonstrates the variability of non-metric traits in the deciduous molars of chimpanzees and gorillas. These traits could potentially be used in the same way that non-metric traits are in humans, namely group affiliation and population movements through time. Further, this study establishes scoring guidelines and methodology relevant to deciduous dental morphological characteristics found in the great apes, but not necessarily in humans.

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