Wild Cultures

Christophe Boesch is Professor and Director of the Department of Primatology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. He has studied the chimpanzees of Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire for the last thirty-three years and those of Loango National Park in Gabon for six years. The author of two published books and the founding president of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, he fights for a better future for the remaining wild ape populations at a grassroots level.

• Introduction; 1. Studying culture in the wild; 2. From human culture to wild culture; 3. Shaping nature into home: about material culture; 4. One for all and all for one: about social culture; 5. I want to have sex with you: about symbolic culture; 6. Learning culture: from pupils to teachers; 7. Dead or alive? Towards a notion of death and empathy; 8. Wild culture - wild intelligence; 9. Uniquely chimpanzee - uniquely human; Epilogue: will we have the time to study chimpanzee culture?; References; Index.

'We have long been searching for the key to answering the question: 'What makes us human?' In this fascinating and engaging book, Boesch asks if the answer is 'Culture' … [He] synthesizes current knowledge of the psychology of wild and captive chimpanzees with current knowledge of the psychology of humans from diverse cultures. We arrive at a compelling new understanding of the diversity and influence of 'wild cultures', and only realize afterward that Boesch has taught us about following the scientific path to address such comparative questions. This path is important, in part, because there is still much that we do not know, and investigations in the wild are needed urgently … Boesch has provided my developmental comparative psychology students, lay people, and chimpanzee enthusiasts with greater insight into what makes us human, and what makes chimpanzees uniquely themselves.' Kim A. Bard, Director, Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Portsmouth