Socially Mediated Learning among Monkeys and Apes: Some Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

As an order, the group primates is markedly diverse for its size of some 300 species. The group includes adult male gorillas that weigh up to 5–6,000 times that of the smallest primates, the dwarf and mouse lemurs of Madagascar. There is also much diversity in locomotion and in diet, encompassing small carnivorous species such as tarsiers, and much larger folivores such as howler monkeys. A critical distinction between these taxa, as within the order as a whole, is that of nocturnal and diurnal living and their respective sensory adaptations and social organization. Such diversity clearly cautions against simplistic generalizations about the order as a whole. We should be aware that taxonomic relatedness-including the fact that we look like many other primate species-may lead to unsubstantiated assumptions; by our relatedness, we may be tempted to consider characteristics and propensities with biological, social, and political implications,but we should be careful about making generalizations on the basis of taxonomic relatedness alone (Rowell,1999). Rowell has argued, for example, that generalizations about behavior on the basis that species are primates would, in some case, be less useful than comparisons among groups of animals that are niche equivalents (Rowell,1999).