Fifty years ago, a troop of Japanese macaques was observed washing sandy sweet potatoes in a stream, sending ripples through the fields of ethology, comparative psychology, and cultural anthropology. The issue of animal culture has been hotly debated ever since. Now Kevin Laland and Bennett Galef have gathered key voices in the often rancorous debate to summarize the views along the continuum from “Culture? Of course!” to “Culture? Of course not!” The result is essential reading for anyone interested in the validity of animal culture, and what it might say about our own.

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Table of Contents

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

Kevin N. Laland is Professor, School of Biology, St. Andrews University.

Bennett G. Galef is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, McMaster University, and past editor of Animal Behaviour.