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Do animals have culture?
Author(s) -
Laland Kevin N.,
Hoppitt William
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
evolutionary anthropology: issues, news, and reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1520-6505
pISSN - 1060-1538
DOI - 10.1002/evan.10111
Subject(s) - imitation , perspective (graphical) , human culture , biology , psychology , environmental ethics , sociology , anthropology , neuroscience , philosophy , art , visual arts
Culture is probably not rare in animals, although hard experimental evidence is lacking. The strongest case for culture is found in the species most amenable to experimental manipulation, rather than in nonhuman primates. Human culture is much more likely to be cumulative than animal culture, but the reasons for this are not well established. At this point, there is no reason to assume that cumulative culture depends critically on teaching, imitation, language, or perspective‐taking. Currently, animals are being judged according to stricter criteria than humans.