Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 368, Issue 1630, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0410
Keywords
niche construction; artefact; tools; expertise; Sapajus libidinosus; Pan troglodytes
Categories
Funding
- National Geographic Society
- FAPESP [2008/55684-3]
- University of Georgia
- CNPq of Brazil
- Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan [07102010, 12002009, 10CE2005]
- Leakey Foundation
- NIH Kirschstein-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Royal Society University
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [12002009, 07102010, 10CE2005] Funding Source: KAKEN
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All investigated cases of habitual tool use in wild chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys include youngsters encountering durable artefacts, most often in a supportive social context. We propose that enduring artefacts associated with tool use, such as previously used tools, partly processed food items and residual material from previous activity, aid non-human primates to learn to use tools, and to develop expertise in their use, thus contributing to traditional technologies in non-humans. Therefore, social contributions to tool use can be considered as situated in the three dimensions of Euclidean space, and in the fourth dimension of time. This notion expands the contribution of social context to learning a skill beyond the immediate presence of a model nearby. We provide examples supporting this hypothesis from wild bearded capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees, and suggest avenues for future research.
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