Jan 19 2010
Chimpanzee Chopsticks: Culture Feels Natural
The behaviors we acquire through enculturation feel right, they feel natural. To shake someone’s hand upon meeting him or her feels natural. At least for people in most cultures. Waving goodbye . . . eating with a fork while seated at a table . . . waiting in line . . . wearing pants . . . and on and on the list could go. Interrupt and disrupt these behaviors or travel to a place where they aren’t the norm . . . and your emotions will tell you “something is off.”
Culture is so deeply ingrained in us it feels natural. Call it second nature.
What is culture? Here’s one way of looking at it:
“Culture” in this sense refers to a population-specific set of behaviors acquired through social learning, such as imitation.
That from the ScienceDaily post, New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees.
Yes, chimpanzee populations have their own, distinct cultures. Okay, maybe those cultures a very rudimentary — relative to ours — and they lack the startling array of accoutrements and fashion accessories our own culture colors and clutters our lives with.
While chimpanzees use neither a fork nor a set of chopsticks to eat, there are differences in what individual chimps from different populations will do when honey is on the menu.
Kibale Forest chimpanzees use sticks to get at the honey, whereas Budongo Forest chimpanzees rely on leaf sponges — absorbent wedges that they make out of chewed leaves.
That’s culture all right. I imagine that were you to take a honey-eating chimpanzee’s stick away and place a leaf sponge in its hand instead, the chimp would respond, “Huh?” Just as I image that were you to visit a very foreign culture and attend a ritual of some sort and, at the door, discover that “oh no, we don’t wear clothes during the ceremony — you’ll have to take yours off,” your response would likewise be “Huh?” What, no clothes in public? Why that’s not . . . natural?
