Culture

Culture

1. What is culture

   • 2 key critera
     • Populations within species differ in behaviours
     • Behaviours are transmitted via social learning
     • ^ chimpanzee populations compared over 151 years
       • Presence and absence of behaviours - 65 total
       • 39 behaviours appeared to fit critera
         • But maybe genetics no excluded - mostly seen in one subspecies
           • But still leaves 26 behaviours
             • Perhaps ecological behaviours not taken into account - ant hunting dependent on ant species
   • Learned
     • Not innate or genetic
     • Bower birds
       • Bower construction improves with age - not innate
         • Only adult style by 4-7 years
       • Birds under 3 make mistakes with bower decor
         • Satin bowerbirds - sticks of wrong shape
   • Learned Socially
     • Not by trial/error or insight
     • Chimpanzees
       • Intergroup differences taught to leaders - token in bucket or pipe
         • Same outcome for groups no matter what
           • Only lowest ranking female did oppositein one group
     • BowerBirds
       • Stain bowerbirds visit adult bowers
       • Spotted bowers do a 1 year apprentiship
       • spotted bowers inbetween two cultures combine them
   • Normative
     • Very few unusual bowers
     • Innappropriate objects removed when placed in by experimenters
     • Innovation punished, - if too many berries added others destroy the bower
   • Collective
     • Female chouce is different between groups
       • Some choose because of bower paint or number of coloured decoractions
       • Some depend more on the male display
       • Some depend more on strucutre quality
     • Vagelkops bowerbirds have different structures within thier groups some like tent some like pole and different colours

2. Do animals exhbit cultures

   • Japanese Macaques
     • Beach
       • Potato washing
     • Anecdotal
   • Always look for alternative explanation
     • Be skeptical

3. Consequences of culture (differences in culture)

   • Can decoupe selective forces from the phenotyple
     • Wrasse
       • Drefend mating sites
         • riginally based on resources - but can be fixed even though resources change
   • Generate population differences
     • Bower structures vary wideley
       • imit female choice
       • mate isolation
   • Propogate maladaptive behaviours
     • Sage grouse
       • copying by female sage grouse leads them to select males with less elaborate displayes
   • Alter selection pressure
     • Kestresls nested in trees
       • Monkey population introduced - eat kestrels
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