Stone handling by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata): Implications for tool use of stone
- 309 Downloads
- 50 Citations
Abstract
Stone-play, a newly innovated cultural behavior, has been observed among the free-ranging Arashiyama B troop Japanese macaques near Kyoto, Japan since 1979. Conditions in which the non-purposeful handling of stones might possibly give rise to tool behavior are discussed. The progression of this behavior is traced through three phases: transmission, tradition, and transformation. During the first two phases, through social learning, the behavior was established within the group as a regular item of their behavioral repertoire and was most frequently observed after eating provisioned grain. In the third phase, observations suggest a “faddish” shift in the practice of certain behavioral sub-types between 1984 and 1985. During this period young individuals increasingly began to carry stones away from the feeding station, mixing stone manipulation with forage-feeding activities in the forest. Observations suggest under such conditions, stone handling is likely to lead to the occasional use of stone as a tool. This conclusion probably can be applied to species other thanMacaca fuscata. Consideration of the eco-setting and social learning correlates of stone handling suggests how the instrumental use of stone might emerge from a tradition of non-instrumental manipulation.
Key Words
Japanese macaque Play Diet and behavior Tool behavior evolution Cultural transmissionPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- Bard, K. L. &J. Vauclair, 1984. The communicative context of object manipulation in ape and human adult-infant pairs.J. Human Evol., 13: 181–190.Google Scholar
- Beck, B. B., 1980.Animal Tool Behavior: The Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals. Garland, New York.Google Scholar
- Camberfort, V. P., 1981. A comparative study of culturally transmitted patterns of feeding habits in the chacma baboonPapio ursinus and the vervet monkeyCercopithecus aethiops.Folia Primatol., 36: 243–263.Google Scholar
- Candland, D. K., J. A. French, &C. N. Johnson, 1978. Object-play: test of a categorized model by the genesis of object play inMacaca fuscata. In:Social Play in Primates,E. O. Smith (ed.), Academic Press, New York, pp. 259–296.Google Scholar
- Goodall, J., 1968. The behaviour of free-living chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve.Anim. Behav. Monogr., 1: 161–311.Google Scholar
- Hamilton, W., 1973.Life's Color Code. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
- ————,R. Buskirk, &W. Buskirk, 1978. Environmental developmental determinants of object manipulation by chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) in two Southern African environments.J. Human Evol., 7: 205–216.Google Scholar
- Hiraiwa, M., 1975. Pebble-collecting behavior by juvenile Japanese monkeys.Monkey, 19(5–6): 24–25. (in Japanese)Google Scholar
- Huffman, M. A., 1984. Stone-play ofMacaca fuscata in Arashiyama B troop: transmission of a non-adaptive behavior.J. Human Evol., 13: 725–735.Google Scholar
- Isaac, G., 1971. The diet of early man: aspects of archaeological evidence from Lower and Middle Pleistocene sites in Africa.World Archaeol., 2: 278–299.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- ————, 1983. Aspects of human evolution. In:Evolution from Molecules to Man,D. S. Bendall (ed.), Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, pp. 509–543.Google Scholar
- Itani, J., 1958. On the acquisition and propagation of a new food habit in the troop of Japanese monkeys at Takasakiyama.Primates, 1: 84–98. (in Japanese). Translated into English for Japanese Monkeys, a Collection of Translations Selected byKinji Imanishi, S. A. Altmann (ed. & publ.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kawai, M., 1965. Newly acquired pre-cultural behavior of the natural troop of Japanese monkeys on Koshima islet.Primates, 6: 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kawamura, S., 1959. The process of sub-human culture propagation among Japanese macaques.Primates, 2: 43–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kurland, J. A. &S. J. Beckerman, 1985. Optimal foraging and hominid evolution: labor and reciprocity.Amer. Anthropol., 87: 73–93.Google Scholar
- Lancaster, J. B. &C. S. Lancaster, 1983. Parental investment: the hominid adaptation. In:How Humans Adapt, a Biocultural Odyssey,D. J. Ortner (ed.), Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 33–56.Google Scholar
- McGrew, W. C., 1977. Socialization and object manipulation of wild chimpanzees. In:Primate Biosocial Development,S. Chevalier-Skolnikoff &F. E. Poirier (eds.), Garland, New York, pp. 261–288.Google Scholar
- Menzel, Jr. E. W., K. R. Davenport, &C. M. Rogers, 1970. The development of tool using in wild-born and restriction-reared chimpanzees.Folia Primatol., 12: 273–283.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Nishida, T., 1986. Learning and cultural transmission in non-human primates. In:Primate Societies,D. Cheney,L. Leland,L. Seyfarth,B. B. Smuts,T. Strhusaker, &R. W. Wrangham (eds.), Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago. (in press)Google Scholar
- Parker, S. &K. Gibson, 1977. Object manipulation, tool use and sensorimotor intelligence as feeding adaptations inCebus monkeys and great apes.J. Human Evol., 6: 623–641.Google Scholar
- Rumbaugh, D., 1970. Learning skills of anthropoids. In:Primate Behavior, Vol. 1,L. Rosenblum (ed.), Aldine, New York, pp. 1–70.Google Scholar
- Schiller, P. H., 1957. Innate motor action as a basis of learning. In:Instinctive Behavior,C. H. Schiller (ed.), International Univ. Press, New York, pp. 264–287.Google Scholar