| Autor: |
Wilke C; Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.; Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland.; Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland., Lahiff NJ; Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.; Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland.; Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland., Sabbi KH; Department of Anthropology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155.; Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131., Watts DP; Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511., Townsend SW; Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland.; Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland.; Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom., Slocombe KE; Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom. |
| Abstrakt: |
Humans are argued to be unique in their ability and motivation to share attention with others about external entities-sharing attention for sharing's sake. Indeed, in humans, using referential gestures declaratively to direct the attention of others toward external objects and events emerges in the first year of life. In contrast, wild great apes seldom use referential gestures, and when they do, it seems to be exclusively for imperative purposes. This apparent species difference has fueled the argument that the motivation and ability to share attention with others is a human-specific trait with important downstream consequences for the evolution of our complex cognition [M. Tomasello, Becoming Human (2019)]. Here, we report evidence of a wild ape showing a conspecific an item of interest. We provide video evidence of an adult female chimpanzee, Fiona, showing a leaf to her mother, Sutherland, in the context of leaf grooming in Kibale Forest, Uganda. We use a dataset of 84 similar leaf-grooming events to explore alternative explanations for the behavior, including food sharing and initiating dyadic grooming or playing. Our observations suggest that in highly specific social conditions, wild chimpanzees, like humans, may use referential showing gestures to direct others' attention to objects simply for the sake of sharing. The difference between humans and our closest living relatives in this regard may be quantitative rather than qualitative, with ramifications for our understanding of the evolution of human social cognition. |
