The animal cultures debate

Laland, Kevin N.; Janik, Vincent M.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2006.06.005

Cited by 385 publications

(303 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The initial 'culture' claim for sponging proved contentious [16][17][18] , largely stemming from application of the exclusion method 15 to demonstrate social learning, and hence cultural behaviour. This method involves trying to eliminate genetic and environmental explanations for a behavioural variant in a wild population, thus leaving social learning as the most plausible explanation for the variant 19 .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This method involves trying to eliminate genetic and environmental explanations for a behavioural variant in a wild population, thus leaving social learning as the most plausible explanation for the variant 19 . The main critique of the exclusion method is that it tries to prove the null and produces false negatives because ecological factors often contribute to cultural behaviour 16,20 . Regardless, this method is not appropriate for identifying sponge tool-use as cultural behaviour, as environmental factors cannot be excluded; the deep channels where sponging occurs have high basket sponge density 21 and prey that are difficult to detect without sponge tools 12 .…”

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Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

et al. 2012

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Animal tool use is of inherent interest given its relationship to intelligence, innovation and cultural behaviour. Here we investigate whether shark Bay bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges as hunting tools (spongers) are culturally distinct from other dolphins in the population based on the criteria that sponging is both socially learned and distinguishes between groups. We use social network analysis to determine social preferences among 36 spongers and 69 non-spongers sampled over a 22-year period while controlling for location, sex and matrilineal relatedness. Homophily (the tendency to associate with similar others) based on tool-using status was evident in every analysis, although maternal kinship, sex and location also contributed to social preference. Female spongers were more cliquish and preferentially associated with other spongers over non-spongers. Like humans who preferentially associate with others who share their subculture, tool-using dolphins prefer others like themselves, strongly suggesting that sponge tool-use is a cultural behaviour.

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Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

et al. 2012

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“…Common approaches include laboratory experiments with captive animals and observational studies of variation in behavioural repertoires among populations of wild animals (Galef 2004). However, both approaches have been criticized for the inability to reflect social and ecological conditions in the wild (van Schaik et al 2003), or to reliably identify social learning (Galef 2004;Laland & Janik 2006). …”

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confidence: 99%

Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning

2009

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Social learning has been documented in a wide diversity of animals. In free-living animals, however, it has been difficult to discern whether animals learn socially by observing other group members or asocially by acquiring a new behaviour independently. We addressed this challenge by developing network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA), which analyses the spread of traits through animal groups and takes into account that social network structure directs social learning opportunities. NBDA fits agent-based models of social and asocial learning to the observed data using maximum-likelihood estimation. The underlying learning mechanism can then be identified using model selection based on the Akaike information criterion. We tested our method with artificially created learning data that are based on a real-world co-feeding network of macaques. NBDA is better able to discriminate between social and asocial learning in comparison with diffusion curve analysis, the main method that was previously applied in this context. NBDA thus offers a new, more reliable statistical test of learning mechanisms. In addition, it can be used to address a wide range of questions related to social learning, such as identifying behavioural strategies used by animals when deciding whom to copy.

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“…The authors argued that these patterns could not be explained by differences in ecology, and hence concluded that at least some of these traits are likely to be culturally inherited. Considerable controversy has surrounded the problem of cultural transmission in chimpanzees, as some have argued that observed patterns could also be consistent with a genetic basis for behaviours (Laland & Janik 2006), while additional evidence has been presented based on cladistic analysis suggesting the behaviours are more likely to be culturally inherited (Lycett et al 2007(Lycett et al , 2010. As other research on chimpanzees has failed to find significant differences between patterns of variation among groups for genetic loci versus behavioural traits (Langergraber et al 2011), the extent to which these behaviours are culturally inherited remains unclear.…”

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The effect of innovation and sex-specific migration on neutral cultural differentiation

Yeaman¹,

Bshary²,

Lehmann³

2011

Animal Behaviour

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Keywords cultural trait population structure sex-biased migration sex-biased social learning Studies of behaviour are increasingly focusing on acquisition of traits through cultural inheritance. Comparison of patterns of spatial population structure (F ST ) between neutral genetic loci and behavioural or cultural traits can been used to test hypotheses about demography, life history, and the mechanisms of inheritance/transmission of these traits in humans, chimpanzees and other animals. Here, we develop analytical expectations to show how F ST in cultural traits can differ strongly from that measured at neutral genetic markers if migration is largely restricted to one sex but social learning is predominantly modelled on the other (e.g. males migrate, females serve as models for cultural traits), if one individual is the learning model for many, or if rates of innovation (individual learning) are high or rates of social learning are low. We discuss how comparisons of F ST between genetic loci and behavioural traits can be applied to evaluate the importance of innovation in shaping patterns of cultural differentiation, as even low rates of innovation can considerably reduce F ST , relative to observed structure at neutral genetic loci. Our results also suggest that differentiation in neutral cultural traits should occur over much smaller scales in species with male migration and female enculturation (or the reverse).

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The animal cultures debate

Cited by 385 publications

References 51 publications

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning

The effect of innovation and sex-specific migration on neutral cultural differentiation

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