Mind the Gap Tracing the Origins of Human Universals
What makes us human? What made us become the way we are? One way to answer these questions is to identify the traits that all humans share, traits that are universal features of all human societies. Another way to do so is to ask how humans differ from ot
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Peter M. Kappeler
l
Joan B. Silk
Editors
Mind the Gap Tracing the Origins of Human Universals
Editors Prof. Dr. Peter M. Kappeler Deutsches Primatenzentrum Abt. Verhaltenso¨kologie & Soziobiologie Kellnerweg 4 37077 Go¨ttingen Germany [email protected]
Dr. Joan B. Silk University of California, Los Angeles Dept. Anthropology Los Angeles CA 90095 USA [email protected]
ISBN: 978-3-642-02724-6 e-ISBN: 978-3-642-02725-3 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-02725-3 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009932123 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover: Photo by Etsuko Nogami, Kyoto University A mother chimpanzee uses a pair of stones to crack open oil-palm nuts; watched by the son, 7 years old, and the daughter, 1.5 years old. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
This volume features a collection of essays by primatologists, anthropologists, biologists, and psychologists who offer some answers to the question of what makes us human, i.e., what is the nature and width of the gap that separates us from other primates? The chapters of this volume summarize the latest research on core aspects of behavioral and cognitive traits that make humans such unusual animals. All contributors adopt an explicitly comparative approach, which is based on the premise that comparative studies of our closest biological relatives, the nonhuman primates, provide the logical foundation for identifying human universals as well as evidence for evolutionary continuity in our social behavior. Each of the chapters in this volume provides comparative analyses of relevant data from primates and humans, or pairs of chapters examine the same topic from a human or primatological perspective, respectively. Together, they cover six broad topics that are relevant to identifying potential human behavioral universals. Family and social organization. Predation pressure is thought to be the main force favoring group-living in primates, but there is great diversity in the size and structure of social groups across the primate order. Research on the behavioral
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