Animal cultures: A triumph or pitfall of naturalism?

Abstract

The central concern of this article is the phenomenon of so-called animal cultures, which are proving to be a critically sensitive point in the problem of the relationship of nature and culture. The discovery of cultural diversification in the behavioral manifestations of apes and other higher animals is considered by evolutionary biologists as a triumph of naturalism: biological science has shown that humans and their culture do not represent an anomaly, as tradition, in the form of handing down skills and customs, also exists among non-human creatures. Empirical findings on the variability of traditions among individual groups of chimpanzees – the species genetically and behaviorally closest to humans – accord well with Darwin’s conception of evolution as incremental changes that can be seen in both the physical and mental aspect. At the same time, however, doubts of a theoretical and philosophical nature rise up, exposing the pitfalls of naturalism. Is it admissible to speak of a mental aspect in “full-blooded” naturalism? Is not the concept of animal culture itself somewhat dubious, if naturalism is understood as a transfer of phenomena to the level of physical processes? How does the agenda of naturalism account for the fact that studying the diversity of traditions used by chimpanzee societies in inhabiting the natural world requires an ethnographic approach? Doesn’t the use of methods from the domain of the social sciences in the study of chimpanzee societies suggest that this animal has achieved a certain degree of freedom as opposed to natural necessity?