The Evolution of Culture in Animals

By J. Bonner. 2018

437 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Animals do have culture, maintains this delightfully illustrated and provocative book, which cites a number of fascinating instances of animal communication and learning. John Bonner traces the origins of culture back to the early biological evolution of animals and provides examples of five categories of behavior leading to nonhuman culture: physical dexterity, relations with other species, auditory communication within a species, geographic locations, and inventions or innovations. Defining culture as the transmission of information by behavioral rather than genetical means, he demonstrates the continuum between the traits we find in animals and those we often consider uniquely human.

Subfields: Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ffa344fd63834ed13ecf8a77f70fb63ece7b1b71

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In Social Psychology

1. Hal Whitehead
2. Luke Rendell
3. J. Zejda
4. Peter A. Corning
5. James R. Carey
6. D. Judge
7. L. Irvine
8. E. Tkadlec

Citations in the corpus

• Three decades of cultural evolution in Savannah sparrow songs (2013, background): “Cultural evolution, defined broadly as the social learning of complex behaviours (see Bonner 1980; Whiten et al. 1999, 2011; Rendell & Whitehead 2001), can be considered to be similar to genetic evolution (Mundinger 1980; Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman 1981; Boyd & Richerson 1985).”
• The Tree of Knowledge System and the Theoretical Unification of Psychology (2003, background): “1 Several authors have suggested that other animals possess culture (e.g., Bonner, 1980; Wrangham & McGrew, 1994).”
• Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: a ‘Basic Needs’ Approach (2000, background): “(See especially Wilson 1975; Barash 1977, 1986; Alexander 1979; Bonner 1980; Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman 1981; Corning 1983; Boyd and Richerson 1985; Durham 1991; Smith and Winterhalder 1992).”
• The role of ``conservatism'' in herring migrations (2002, background): “Traditions occur widespread in the animal kingdom (Bonner, 1980; Mainardi 1980; Helfman and Schultz, 1984; Dodson, 1988).”
• Small rodent population fluctuations: The effects of age structure and seasonality (2004, background): “Other response systems, such as physiological (Boonstra, 1994) or genetic changes (Chitty, 1967), operate in quite di erent time scales (see Bonner, 1980), although both may contribute signi®cantly to the developmental changes described above.”
• Life Span Extension in Humans is Self-Reinforcing: A General Theory of Longevity (2001, background): “The underlying concept is that sociality initially evolved via natural selection to increase survival and/or reproduction through sharing and helping (Bonner 1980; Wilson 1977); that is, the proximate rewards of cooperation (including status, power, sex, access, comfort, and health) are reflected in”
• Culture in whales and dolphins (2001, background): “Rendell and Whitehead’s impressive review of the evidence of culture in whales and dolphins is persuasive and it, along with Boran and Heimlich’s (1999) recent review, allows us to firmly place cetaceans alongside the other mammals and birds for which similarly persuasive evidence is available.”
• A Model of Animal Selfhood: Expanding Interactionist Possibilities (2004, background): “In addition, Alger and Alger’s research in a cat shelter reveals that cats have culture, in that they transmit behaviors socially, as well as instinctually, through symbolic interaction (1999, 2003; see also Bonner 1980; Dawkins 1998).”