Animal social complexity : intelligence, culture, and individualized societies
For over 25 years, primatologists have speculated that intelligence, at least in monkeys and apes, evolved as an adaptation to the complicated social milieu of hard-won friendships and bitterly contested rivalries. Yet the Balkanization of animal research has prevented us from studying the same problem in other large-brained, long-lived animals, such as hyenas and elephants, bats and sperm whales. Social complexity turns out to be widespread indeed. For example, in many animal societies one individual's innovation, such as tool use or a hunting technique, may spread within the group, thus creating a distinct culture. As this collection of studies on a wide range of species shows, animals develop a great variety of traditions, which in turn affect fitness and survival. The editors argue that future research into complex animal societies and intelligence will change the perception of animals as gene machines, programmed to act in particular ways and perhaps elevate them to a status much closer to our own. At a time when humans are perceived more biologically than ever before, and animals as more cultural, are we about to witness the dawn of a truly unified social science, one with a distinctly cross-specific perspective?
edited by Frans B.M. de Waal and Peter L. Tyackill., maps ; 24 cmLife history and cognitive evolution in primates / Carel P. van Schaik, Robert O. Deaner -- Case study. Sociality and disease risk : a comparative study of leukocyte counts in primates / Charles L. Nunn -- Dolphin social complexity : lessons from long-term study and life history / Randall S. Wells -- Sources of social complexity in the three elephant species / Katy Payne -- Complex cooperation among Taï chimpanzees / Christophe Boesch -- Case study. Coalitionary aggression in white-faced capuchins / Susan Perry -- Case study. Levels and patterns in dolphin alliance formation / Richard C. Connor, Michael Krützen -- The social complexity of spotted hyenas / Christine M. Drea, Laurence G. Frank -- Case study. Maternal rank "inheritance" in the spotted hyena / Anne Engh, Kay E. Holekamp -- Is social stress a consequence of subordination or a cost of dominance? / Scott Creel, Jennifer L. Sands -- Case study. Sperm whale social structure : why it takes a village to raise a child / Sarah L. Mesnick ... [et al.] -- Equivalence classification as an approach to social knowledge : from sea lions to simians / Ronald J. Schusterman, Colleen Reichmuth Kastak, David Kastak -- The structure of social knowledge in monkeys / Robert M. Seyfarth, Dorothy L. Cheney -- Social syntax : the if-then structure of social problem solving / Frans B.M. de Waal -- Case study. Conflict resolution in the spotted hyena / Sofia A. Wahaj, Kay E. Holekamp -- Laughter and smiling : the intertwining of nature and culture / Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff, Signe Preuschoft -- Case study. Emotional recognition by chimpanzees / Lisa A. Parr -- Vocal communication in wild parrots / Jack W. BradburyCase study. Representational vocal signaling in the chimpanzee / Karen I. Hallberg, Douglas A. Nelson, Sarah T. Boysen -- Social and vocal complexity in bats / Gerald S. Wilkinson -- Dolphins communicate about individual-specific social relationships / Peter L. Tyack -- Case study. Natural semanticity in wild primates / Klaus Zuberbühler -- Koshima monkeys and Bossou chimpanzees : long-term research on culture in nonhuman primates / Tetsuro Matsuzawa -- Case study. Movement imitation in monkeys / Bernhard Voelkl, Ludwig Huber -- Individuality and flexibility of cultural behavior patterns in chimpanzees / Toshisada Nishida -- Case study. Sex differences in termite fishing among Gombe chimpanzees / Stephanie S. Pandolfi, Carel P. van Schaik, Anne E. Pusey -- Ten dispatches from the chimpanzee culture wars / W.C. McGrew -- Case study. Spontaneous use of tools by semifree-ranging capuchin monkeys / Eduardo B. Ottoni, Massimo Mannu -- Society and culture in the deep and open ocean : the sperm whale and other cetaceans / Hal Whitehead -- Case study. Do killer whales have culture? / Harald Yurk -- Discovering culture in birds : the role of learning and development / Meredith J. West, Andrew P. King, David J. White
