Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:53:51.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The cooperative breeding perspective helps in pinning down when uniquely human evolutionary processes are necessary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Judith Maria Burkart  and
Carel P. van Schaik
Judith Maria Burkart
Affiliation:
Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich.Judith.Burkart@aim.uzh.chvschaik@aim.uzh.chwww.aim.uzh.ch
Carel P. van Schaik
Affiliation:
Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich.Judith.Burkart@aim.uzh.chvschaik@aim.uzh.chwww.aim.uzh.ch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The cultural group selection (CGS) approach provides a compelling explanation for recent changes in human societies, but has trouble explaining why our ancestors, rather than any other great ape, evolved into a hyper-cooperative niche. The cooperative breeding hypothesis can plug this gap and thus complement CGS, because recent comparative evidence suggests that it promoted proactive prosociality, social transmission, and communication in Pleistocene hominins.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e34
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boesch, C. (1991) Teaching among wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 41:530–32.Google Scholar
Burkart, J. M., Allon, O., Amici, F., Fichtel, C., Finkenwirth, C., Heschl, A., Huber, J., Isler, K., Kosonen, Z. K., Martins, E., Meulman, E. J., Richiger, R., Rueth, K., Spillmann, B., Wiesendanger, S. & van Schaik, C. P. (2014) The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation. Nature Communications 5, Article no. 4747. (Online article, published August 27, 2014).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burkart, J. M., Hrdy, S. B. & Van Schaik, C. P. (2009) Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 18:175–86.Google Scholar
Burkart, J. M. & van Schaik, C. P. (2010) Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates. Animal Cognition 13:1–19.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. W. & Rapaport, L. G. (2011) What are we learning from teaching? Animal Behaviour 82(5):1207–11. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.08.018.Google Scholar
Coussi-Korbel, S. & Fragaszy, D. M. (1995) On the relation between social dynamics and social learning. Animal Behaviour 50:1441–53.Google Scholar
Dell'Mour, V., Range, F. & Huber, L. (2009) Social learning and mother's behavior in manipulative tasks in infant marmosets. American Journal of Primatology 71(6):503–509.Google Scholar
Hrdy, S. B. (2009) Mothers and others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Humle, T. & Snowdon, C. T. (2008) Socially biased learning in the acquisition of a complex foraging task in juvenile cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Animal Behaviour 27(1):267–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humle, T., Snowdon, C. T. & Matsuzawa, T. (2009) Social influences on ant-dipping acquisition in the wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Bossou, Guinea, West Africa. Animal Cognition 12(1):37–48.Google Scholar
Kline, M. A. (2015) How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching in humans and other animals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38:e31. Available at: dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14000090 Google Scholar
Kramer, K. L. (2010) Cooperative breeding and its significance to the demographic success of humans. Annual Review of Anthropology 39:417–36.Google Scholar
Lonsdorf, E. (2006) What is the role of mothers in the acquisition of termite-fishing behaviors in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)? Animal Cognition 9(1):36–46.Google Scholar
Rapaport, L. G. (2011) Progressive parenting behavior in wild golden lion tamarins. Behavioral Ecology 22(4):745–54.Google Scholar
Roy, S., Miller, C. T., Gottsch, D. & Wang, X. (2011) Vocal control by the common marmoset in the presence of interfering noise. The Journal of Experimental Biology 214(21):3619–29.Google Scholar
Rukstalis, M., Fite, J. E. & French, J. A. (2003) Social change affects vocal structure in a callitrichid primate (Callithrix kuhlii). Ethology 109:327–40.Google Scholar
Snowdon, C. T. (2001) Social processes in communication and cognition in callitrichid monkeys: A review. Animal Cognition 4:247–57.Google Scholar
Snowdon, C. T. (2013) Language parallels in New World primates. In: Animal models of speech and language disorders, ed. Helekar, S. H., pp. 241–61. Springer.Google Scholar
Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., Brown, P., Englert, C., Hayashi, M., Heinemann, T., Hoymann, G., Rossario, F., de Ruiter, J. P., Yoon, K.-E. & Levinson, S. C. (2009) Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106(26):10587–92.Google Scholar
Takahashi, D. Y., Narayanan, D. Z. & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2013) Coupled oscillator dynamics of vocal turn-taking in monkeys. Current Biology 23(21):2162–68.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2007) If they're so good at grammar, then why don't they talk? Hints from apes' and humans' use of gestures. Language Learning and Development 3(2):133–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Schaik, C. P. & Burkart, J. M. (2010) Mind the gap: Cooperative breeding and the evolution of our unique features. In: Mind the gap: Tracing the origins of human universals, ed. Kappeler, P. M. & Silk, J., pp. 477–96. Springer.Google Scholar
Vitale, A., Zanzoni, M., Queyras, A. & Chiarotti, F. (2003) Degree of social contact affects the emission of food calls in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). American Journal of Primatology 59:21–28.Google Scholar
Zuberbühler, K. (2012) Cooperative breeding and the evolution of vocal flexibility. In: The Oxford handbook of language evolution, ed. Tallerman, M. & Gibson, K., pp. 71–81. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar