Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.

<h4>Background</h4>Human societies exhibit a rich array of gestures with cultural origins. Often these gestures are found exclusively in local populations, where their meaning has been crafted by a community into a shared convention. In nonhuman primates like African monkeys, little evid...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Mark E Laidre
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5962366eb7904760b4d770e88e6464bf
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:5962366eb7904760b4d770e88e6464bf
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5962366eb7904760b4d770e88e6464bf2021-11-18T06:59:21ZMeaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0014610https://doaj.org/article/5962366eb7904760b4d770e88e6464bf2011-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21311591/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4>Human societies exhibit a rich array of gestures with cultural origins. Often these gestures are found exclusively in local populations, where their meaning has been crafted by a community into a shared convention. In nonhuman primates like African monkeys, little evidence exists for such culturally-conventionalized gestures.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Here I report a striking gesture unique to a single community of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) among nineteen studied across North America, Africa, and Europe. The gesture was found within a community of 23 mandrills where individuals old and young, female and male covered their eyes with their hands for periods which could exceed 30 min, often while simultaneously raising their elbow prominently into the air. This 'Eye covering' gesture has been performed within the community for a decade, enduring deaths, removals, and births, and it persists into the present. Differential responses to Eye covering versus controls suggested that the gesture might have a locally-respected meaning, potentially functioning over a distance to inhibit interruptions as a 'do not disturb' sign operates.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>The creation of this gesture by monkeys suggests that the ability to cultivate shared meanings using novel manual acts may be distributed more broadly beyond the human species. Although logistically difficult with primates, the translocation of gesturers between communities remains critical to experimentally establishing the possible cultural origin and transmission of nonhuman gestures.Mark E LaidrePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 2, p e14610 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Mark E Laidre Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
description	<h4>Background</h4>Human societies exhibit a rich array of gestures with cultural origins. Often these gestures are found exclusively in local populations, where their meaning has been crafted by a community into a shared convention. In nonhuman primates like African monkeys, little evidence exists for such culturally-conventionalized gestures.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Here I report a striking gesture unique to a single community of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) among nineteen studied across North America, Africa, and Europe. The gesture was found within a community of 23 mandrills where individuals old and young, female and male covered their eyes with their hands for periods which could exceed 30 min, often while simultaneously raising their elbow prominently into the air. This 'Eye covering' gesture has been performed within the community for a decade, enduring deaths, removals, and births, and it persists into the present. Differential responses to Eye covering versus controls suggested that the gesture might have a locally-respected meaning, potentially functioning over a distance to inhibit interruptions as a 'do not disturb' sign operates.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>The creation of this gesture by monkeys suggests that the ability to cultivate shared meanings using novel manual acts may be distributed more broadly beyond the human species. Although logistically difficult with primates, the translocation of gesturers between communities remains critical to experimentally establishing the possible cultural origin and transmission of nonhuman gestures.
format	article
author	Mark E Laidre
author_facet	Mark E Laidre
author_sort	Mark E Laidre
title	Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
title_short	Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
title_full	Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
title_fullStr	Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
title_full_unstemmed	Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
title_sort	meaningful gesture in monkeys? investigating whether mandrills create social culture.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/5962366eb7904760b4d770e88e6464bf
work_keys_str_mv	AT markelaidre meaningfulgestureinmonkeysinvestigatingwhethermandrillscreatesocialculture
_version_	1718424104703361024

Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture.

Ejemplares similares