Social Cultures among Nonhuman Primates

Abstract

The study of nonhuman species often challenges our notions of what makes humans unique. These challenges include the growing recognition that other species possess rudiments of cultureregional variation in behavior that is not rooted in genetics or ecology and is transmitted beyond its originators. Such studies have hinted at the existence in nonhuman species of social culture, in which a particular style of sociality permeates an array of behaviors, collectively constituting a culture. A recent case in which a distinctive social tradition of low aggression and high affiliation was established in a troop of wild baboons appears to represent an instance of social culture in that the social style has been transmitted across generations for nearly two decades. The behavioral features of this troop culture and its likely mechanisms of transmission are reviewed and some of its evolutionary implications discussed.