Synopses & Reviews
Do chimpanzees have something akin to culture? Bringing together studies of behavioral variation within and among chimpanzees and bonobos --the sibling species of the genus Pan--this book provides the basis for answering this question. In Chimpanzee Cultures, the world's leading authorities on chimpanzees and bonobos chronicle the animals' behaviors from one study site to the next, in both captive and wild groups, in laboratory and field settings.
Review
This book is, quite simply, a wonderful review of current knowledge of the Pangenus.
Review
This volume presents the best up-to-date collection of the current state of knowledge of most aspects of chimpanzee behaviour, and it spells out the dangers now facing the apes and their environments. The study of chimpanzee cultures is crying out for more information from the increasingly isolated and diminishing communities of these apes. This book shows what has to be done, and where. James R. Anderson
Review
This excellent volume introduces the state of the art in primatology. Its lessons are worth learning. There can be no philosophical understanding of what it means to be human apart from understanding what it means to be chimpanzee. Thomas Sambrook - Times Higher Education Supplement
Review
Chimpanzee Cultures beautifully conveys the experience of working with chimpanzees, our closest living relative...[It] gives us a better appreciation of the place of our own species in Nature. Jane Goodall
Review
Chimpanzee Cultures is a title to catch the eye...The aims are made explicit at the outset: to create a discipline of `cultural primatology' by using the tools to the cultural sciences and encouraging the use of ethnography in comparing chimpanzee populations...The quality of material on the subject animals is high. All the papers are original, many containing previously unpublished data, and they do an excellent job of highlighting behavioural diversity...This is a book chiefly aimed at the scholarly community, yet it carries an important message for all of us. Wild chimpanzee populations continue to decline through habitat destruction and hunting for bush-meat: the bare bones of this are made clear in the book's final chapter by Jane Goodall. The dwindling of any species through human short-sightedness is depressing, but chimpanzees present a special case. Chimpanzee Cultures provides ample evidence that chimpanzees are not simply carbon copies of one another. The species may survive but the extinction of cultures may be proceeding as we speak. Animal Behaviour
About the Author
Richard W. Wrangham is Ruth Moore Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.
William McGrew is Professor of Anthropology and Zoology at Miami University (Ohio).Frans B. M. de Waal is C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Psychology Department and Director of Living Links, part of the Yerkes Primate Center, Emory University.Paul G. Heltne is President, Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Table of Contents
Preface
Paul G. Helsne Foreword
Jane Goodall Study Sites in Africa
The Challenge of Behavioral Diversity
Richard W. Wrangham, Frans B.M. de Waal, and W. C. McGrew Section I: Ecology
Overview--Ecology, Diversity, and Culture
Richard W. Wrangham
Tools Compared: The Material of Culture
W. C. McGrew
Party Size in Chimpanzees and Bonobos: A Reevaluation of Theory Based on Two Similarly Forested Sites
Colin A. Chapman, Frances J. White, and Richard W. Wrangham
The Significance of Terrestrial Herbaceous Foods for Bonobos, Chimpanzees, and Gorillas
Richard K. Malenky, Suchisa Kuroda, Evelyn Ono Vineberg, and Richard W. Wrangham
Hunting Strategies of Gombe and Taï Chimpanzees
Christophe Boesch
Comparative Locomotor Behavior of Chimpanzees and Bonobos: Species and Habitat Differences
Diane M. Doran and Kevin D. Hunt
Comparative Analyses of Nest-Building Behavior in Bonobos and Chimpanzees
Barbara Fruth and Gossfried Hohman
Diversity of Medicinal Plant Use by Chimpanzees in the Wild
Michael A. Huffman and Richard W. Wrangham
Section II: Social Relations
Overview--Diversity in Social Relations
W. C. McGrew
Social Role and Development of Noncopulatory Sexual Behavior of Wild Bonobos
Chie Hashimoto and Takeshi Furuichi
Grooming Relationships in Two Species of Chimpanzees
Yasuyuki Muroyama and Yukimaru Sugiyama
Reproductive Sucess Story: Variability Among Chimpanzees and Comparisons with Gorillas
Caroline E.G. Tusin
Ethological Studies of Chimpanzee Vocal Behavior
John C. Mitani
Pacifying Interventions at Arnhem Zoo and Gombe
Christopher Boehm
Social Relationships of Female Chimpanzees: Diversity Between Captive Social Groups
Kate C. Baker and Barbara B. Smuts
Chimpanzee's Adaptive Potential: A Comparison of Social Life Under Captive and Wild Conditions
Frans B.M. de Waal