Communication, Animal

Abstract

Communication between humans and nonhuman animals has been complicated by traditional assumptions that human language is preeminent. While some anthropologists have explored communication in nonhuman primates to inform our understanding of the evolution of human language, there has been reluctance within sociocultural anthropology to consider the communicative competencies of other species as intrinsically valuable. However, spoken language is just one of many communicative forms. Other animals also possess complex systems of communication, some displaying social aspects of human discourse such as turn‐taking, and some with such requisite criteria for language as a shared system of representational signs. Nonverbal communication is another feature of human and nonhuman social life, facilitating trans‐species empathy, while in systems of communication which utilize capacities humans lack, the precise meanings and mechanisms currently elude human understanding. This entry presents some representative examples of nonhuman and of human–nonhuman communication systems in relation to assumptions about human language.