Question of Animal Culture

Kevin N. Laland is a Professor in the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews. Bennett G. Galef is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, McMaster University, and past editor of Animal Behaviour. William C. McGrew is Professor of Anthropology and Zoology at Miami University, Ohio. Susan Perry is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Carel van Schaik is Professor and Director of the Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zürich. Michael Tomasello is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. From 1998 to 2018 he was Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and in 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His scientific work has been recognized by institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Netherlands, and the German National Academy of Sciences.

The Question of Animal Culture, edited by Kevin N. Laland and Bennett G. Galef, is the first, most scientific, and challenging look at what culture means for animals ranging from birds to nonhuman primates… The Question of Animal Culture is well written and well organized, the authors are the giants in the field, the research is rigorous, the issues and topics are discussed and argued convincingly, and the book is fun and interesting to read. This landmark compendium of current thought describes well the serious debate about culture in animals. I recommend it highly.

• * Introduction Kevin N. Laland and Bennett G. Galef * In Tune with Others: The Social Side of Primate Culture Frans B. M. de Waal and Kristin E. Bonnie * Ten Dispatches from the Chimpanzee Culture Wars, plus Revisiting the Battlefronts. W. C. Mcgrew * Geographical Variation in the Behavior of Wild Great Apes: Is It Really Cultural? Carel P. Van Schaik * The Identification and Differentiation of Culture in Chimpanzees and Other Animals: From Natural History to Diffusion Experiments Andrew Whiten * How Might We Study Culture? A Perspective from the Ocean. Hal Whitehead * Acquiring Culture: Individual Variation and Behavioural Development in Bottlenose Dolphins Brooke L. Sargeant and Janet Mann * Animal Culture: Problems and Solutions Kevin N. Laland, Jeremy R. Kendal and Rachel L. Kendal * The Question of Chimpanzee Culture, plus Postscript. Michael Tomasello * Culture in Animals? Bennett G. Galef * Are Nonhuman Primates Likely to Exhibit Cultural Capacities like Those of Humans, and If So, How Can This Be Demonstrated? Susan Perry * Animal "Culture"? Kim Hill * Peace Keeping in the Culture Wars Kim Sterelny * References * Contributors * Index