|
Young World
Cultural differences
COMPILED BY NIMI KURIAN
Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
So similar: Socially learned cultural behaviour.
If you think that socially learned cultural behaviour is only unique to humans, you are absolutely wrong. It’s also found in our biological ancestors — chimpanzees, a study has revealed. A team of international researchers has carried out the study and found that chimpanzees build their ‘cultures’ in a way similar to humans. Though it’s believed that behavioural differences between colonies of chimpanzees are due to variations in genetics, acc
ording to the researchers, the variety is due to apes “migrating” to other places.
The team looked at how chimpanzees prepare their food and found that one colony used stone tools to crack nuts whereas another colony used wooden tools as well as stone. They found these methods of preparing food have spread 4000 km from East to West Africa over the more than 100,000 years. The results of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA journal.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
|
