Wild Cultures: A Comparison between Chimpanzee and Human Cultures
Abstract
How do chimpanzees say, 'I want to have sex with you?' By clipping a leaf or knocking on a tree trunk? How do they eat live aggressive ants? By using a short stick with one hand or long stick with both? Ivorian and Tanzanian chimpanzees answer these questions differently, as would humans from France and China if asked how they eat rice. Christophe Boesch takes readers into the lives of chimpanzees from different African regions, highlighting the debate about culture. His ethnography reveals how simple techniques have evolved into complex ones, how teaching styles differ, how material culture widens access to new food sources and how youngsters learn culture. This journey reveals many parallels between humans and chimpanzees and points to striking differences. Written in a vivid and accessible style, Wild Cultures places the reader in social and ecological contexts that shed light on our twin cultures.
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In primates, females transfer to another group after the onset of puberty, and probably this pattern already existed in australopithecines.
“In primates, females transfer to another group after the onset of puberty (Boesch, 2012: 120), and probably this pattern already existed in australopithecines (Dunbar, 2016: 133), who lived ~3mio.years ago.”
From Durkheim, Indoctrinability and the Moral Ambivalence of Human Sociality (2026) · cites this paper as Boesch, 2012
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Durkheim, Indoctrinability and the Moral Ambivalence of Human Sociality
Windzio, M. (2026) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-026-09531-2
- Authors
- Boesch, C.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Boesch, Christophe
- ORCID
- Boesch, Christophe
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2012-09-06
- OpenAlex
- W4243228633
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 11.10
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- chimpanzees, cultural evolution, animal culture, tool use, teaching styles, material culture, food procurement, cultural transmission, human-chimpanzee comparison
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