Human Behavior Chapter 10

Foragers Band Societies About 50 members Usually monogamous male-female pairs Exogamous Women usually leave their band of birth to marry a member of a neighboring group Division of labor Hunting is almost always a male activity Food collecting is primarily female Age grades Young children are often incapable of obtaining the food they eat The human child is dependent on others Egalitarian Social, political, and gender equality Society based on reciprocity and sharing No notion of private ownership of land or animals

Food Producing Horticulturalists Pastoralists Agriculturalists Makes use of none of the factors of production Slash-and-burn Pastoralists Herders of domesticated animals Often live in symbiosis with the herd Agriculturalists Intensive farmers Utilizes irrigation and rigorous human labor Industrialists Large scale production of goods through manufacturing, industrialized agriculture, mechanization, etc.

Agriculturalists Using land and labor continuously and intensively Greater labor demands Domesticated animals Irrigation Horticulturalists must wait for rain, agriculturalists control water Capital investment that increases land value Pros and Cons Requires human labor Lower yield to labor ratio Does not initially produce more yield Much greater long-term yield No need to maintain/defend unused land

Culture Culture is learned! Cultural knowledge is transmitted from person to person and from generation to generation Humans largely cope with the environment through cultural adjustments Protoculture The beginnings of culture Some non-human primates demonstrate the simplest, most basic aspects of culture Ex: Japanese Macaques, Chimpanzee tool use

Primate Communication Any act that conveys information to another individual Frequently results in behavioral change in the recipient May be the result of involuntary processes or a secondary consequence of an intentional action Types Autonomic – unintentional (raised body hair) Deliberate – intentional (gestures and vocalizations) Fear Grin Seen in all primates Indicates fear and submission Grooming - picking through fur to remove dirt, parasites, etc. Serves to indicate submission Displays – communicate an emotional state

Chimpanzee Facial Expressions

Primate Language Animal vocalizations are referred to as call systems May have up to 60 sounds Even large call systems are restricted to a fixed number of signals Responses to specific environmental stimuli Koko - Female Western Lowland Gorilla More extensive vocabulary - more than 700 ASL signs Apes are physiologically incapable of producing the sounds of human speech Evidence for rudimentary primate language There are skeptics Linguistic Productivity – process of new word formation Swan – Waterbird, Ring – Fingerbracelet Linguistic Displacement – communication on things not present or about the past

Kanzi Kanzi, a Bonobo, began using symbols when he was 2 ½ years old Went to training sessions with his mother but was not taught directly When novely tested against a two-year-old human, Kanzi scored 75% compared to the human’s 65%

Human Communication Nonverbal communication Human language Looks, touches, poses, etc. Human language Full displacement Relies heavily on productivity Is arbitrary (onomatopoeia excluded) Four areas of analysis: Phonology – the study of phonemics and phonetics (speech sounds) Letters, syllables, rhythm Morphology – the study of morphemes, words and their meaningful parts Word construction Lexicon – all the morphemes in a language and their meanings Dictionary or Vocabulary Syntax – arrangement of words into phrases Sentence construction Nouns before or after verbs

Grandmother Hypothesis Primate Life Expectancy Non-human primate females do not live long after menopause Human females may live decades beyond menopause The grandmother hypothesis states: The presence of postmenopausal females increases the survival rate of children Based on the idea of kin selection, a woman can increase her inclusive fitness by helping to provide food for her grandchildren

Intelligence Primates are able to recognize each other as individuals, distinguish kin from non-kin, and behave differently towards those of different dominance ranks Primates can remember past interactions and predict the behavior of others These skills seemed learned and developed from experience Two main hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of intelligence: Response to the challenges primates face living in societies Response to challenges of exploiting new food resources