Japanese Macaque

Species

Macken Murphy

Anthropology, Social Sciences, Species, Science, Animals, Nature

4.8 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Humans don't have a monopoly on culture, innovation, accents, great ideas, or even using other animals as forms of transport; the Japanese macaque has all these things and more! Come learn about the history of macaque innovation on this episode of Species.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One thing that seems to set humans apart from other animals is culture. Now, I'll say up front that I think
0:07.5	culture gets way too much credit when talking about human behaviors. Most human behaviors are biological
0:13.8	in nature. Eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping, basic essential behaviors you don't even really think about
0:20.7	are dictated by biology.
0:23.4	And even stuff that is somewhat flexible is also biological in origin, oftentimes.
0:29.0	All human cultures are diurnal, all of us cook our food, all of us use tools, all of us communicate
0:34.7	with verbal signals, all of us walk on two feet, all of us wear clothes,
0:39.6	all of us like to eat a diverse diet, none of us like sleeping in trees. I could list human
0:45.9	universal behaviors all day, behaviors that are so universal that we don't even think about them.
0:52.3	And these universal behaviors are likely biologically
0:57.0	determined, even if you could resist them. And there are some less obvious things, of course,
1:02.9	that might seem cultural, but if you dig a little deeper, they turn out to be universal and
1:08.8	biological. For example, it might seem cultural that humans expect reciprocity from
1:15.4	one another, but there's actually strong evidence that humans have a compelling instinct for fairness
1:21.1	that was naturally selected for. All that said, though, culture is still unbelievably effective at manipulating behaviors and
1:31.2	creating new ones, and this might strike you as unique in the animal kingdom. Other animals,
1:37.4	most other animals, appear to be biology all the way down. If I give you a squirrel from the East Coast and a squirrel from the West Coast,
1:47.2	you won't be able to tell the difference. A conversation about squirrel culture, in that context,
1:54.2	maybe in any context, would seem absurd. But I can probably tell you when someone grew up in Boston and when they're from 50 miles out of town,
2:05.5	just based on the sound of their voice, maybe the pace they walk, their attitude, or their driving style.
2:12.4	Think about that.
2:14.0	50-mile geographic difference, and certainly no relevant biological differences, and after a
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