There is evidence suggesting that nonhuman primates have a culture but they are not aware of it. It has been proven that some ape behaviors can be transmitted socially and this can result in group-specific traditions (Gruber, Zuberbühler, Clément, & van Schaik, 2015). The traditions depicted by nonhuman primates greatly differ from the human cultures due to lack of evidence for cumulative processes and normative conformity. Primate cultures are generated because of lower-level social learning such as emulation and stimulus enhancement. For example, human culture is cumulative and there are some nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees, which have evidence for basic cumulative phenomena (Gruber et al., 2015). There are things done by nonhuman primates, which are also done by humans, such as washing potatoes, and this is an evidence of culture among them. Additionally, nonhuman primates have a sense of some culture as compared to other animals (Gruber et al., 2015).
On the other hand, some arguments claim that nonhuman primates do not have obvious traditional cultures. Human beings have definite cultures as compared to the nonhuman primates such as mode of dressing. According to primatologist, there are varied ranges of practices among communities, which are being transmitted through social learning (Gruber et al., 2015). Therefore, for nonhuman primates to be considered to have culture, their behaviour must meet a certain condition. First, multiple members of the community must be in a position to practice the behaviour (Gruber et al., 2015). Secondly, the behaviour should vary between societies and it should exist among other communities of the nonhuman primates. Among the nonhuman primates, the above-mentioned conditions have not been met and this supports the concept that they do not have a culture (Gruber et al., 2015). Analyzing both sides it is evident that there are valid arguments, which supports why and why not nonhuman primates have culture.
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Gruber, T., Zuberbühler, K., Clément, F., & van Schaik, C. (2015). Apes have culture but may not know that they do. Frontiers in Psychology , 6 , 91.
