Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T02:20:39.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Away from ethnocentrism and anthropocentrism: Towards a scientific understanding of “what makes us human”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2010

Christophe Boesch
Affiliation:
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. boesch@eva.mpg.dehttp://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/staff/boesch/index.html

Abstract

The quest to understand “what makes us human” has been heading towards an impasse, when comparative psychology compares primarily individuals that are not representative of their species. Captives experience such divergent socioecological niches that they cannot stand for their wild counterparts. Only after removing ethnocentrism and anthropocentrism will we be able to progress in our understanding of “what makes us human.”

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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. (2007) What makes us human (Homo sapiens)? The challenge of cognitive cross-species comparison. Journal of Comparative Psychology 121(3):227–40.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. (2008) Taking development and ecology seriously when comparing cognition. Journal of Comparative Psychology 122(4):453–55.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. (2009) The real chimpanzee: Sex strategies in the forest. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. & Boesch, H. (1984) Mental map in wild chimpanzees: An analysis of hammer transports for nut cracking. Primates 25:160–70.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. & Boesch, H. (1989) Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78:547–73.Google Scholar
Boesch, C., Crockford, C., Herbinger, I., Wittig, R., Moebius, Y. & Normand, E. (2008) Intergroup conflicts among chimpanzees in Taï National Park: Lethal violence and the female perspective. American Journal of Primatology 70:114.Google Scholar
Boesch, C., Eckhard, N., Bolé, C. & Boesch, H. (2010) Altruism in forest chimpanzees: The case of adoption. PLoS One 5(1):e8901.Google Scholar
Boesch, C., Head, J. & Robbins, M. (2009) Complex tool sets for honey extraction among chimpanzees in Loango National Park, Gabon. Journal of Human Evolution 56:560–69.Google Scholar
Carpendale, J. & Lewis, C. (2004) Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:79151.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (2001) The ape and the sushi master: Cultural reflections of a primatologist. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Goodall, J. (1986) The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behavior. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Ensminger, J., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D. & Ziker, J. (2006) Costly punishment across human societies. Science 312(5868):1767–70.Google Scholar
Herrmann, E., Call, J., Lloreda, M., Hare, B. & Tomasello, M. (2007) Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis. Science 317:1360–66.Google Scholar
Mitani, J. & Watts, D. (2001) Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? Animal Behaviour 61:110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitani, J. & Watts, D. (2005) Correlates of territorial boundary patrol behaviour in wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 70:1079–86.Google Scholar
Mitani, J., Watts, D. & Muller, M. (2002) Recent development in the study of wild chimpanzee behaviour. Evolutionary Anthropology 11(1):925.Google Scholar
Nelson, C., Zeanah, C., Fox, N., Marshall, P., Smyke, A. & Guthrie, D. (2007) Cognitive recovery in socially deprived young children: The Bucharest early intervention project. Science 318:1937–40.Google Scholar
Povinelli, D. J. (2000) Folk physics for apes: The chimpanzee's theory of how the world works. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Povinelli, D. J. & Vonk, J. (2003) Chimpanzee minds: Suspiciously human? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(4):157–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanz, C., Morgan, D. & Gulick, S. (2004) New insights into chimpanzees, tools, and termites from the Congo Basin. American Naturalist 164(5):567–81.Google Scholar
Silk, J. B., Brosnan, S. F., Vonk, J., Henrich, J., Povinelli, D. J., Richardson, A. S., Lambeth, S. P., Mascaro, J. & Shapiro, S. J. (2005) Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members. Nature 437:1357–59.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. & Moll, H. (2005) Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28:675–91.Google Scholar
Vonk, J., Brosnan, S., Silk, J., Henrich, J., Richardson, A., Lambeth, S., Schapiro, S. & Povinelli, D. (2008) Chimpanzees do not take advantage of very low cost opportunities to deliver food to unrelated group members. Animal Behaviour 75(5):1757–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2006) Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science 311:1301–03.Google Scholar