Social Processes and Mental Abilities in Non-human Primates - Evidences from Longitudinal Field Studies (Paperback)

This anthropological inquiry into the nature of non-human primates considers group social dynamics, organization and behaviour as local phenomena with transcendent properties. It rejects the neo-Darwinian view that social behaviour is subject to natural selection and that genetic determinism underlies manifest patterns. New models are introduced concerning: where behaviour lies (Paterson, Hornshaw); what the meaning of proximal domain of behaviour is to the actors (Burton); problems of epistemology within primate studies that have sent primatologists off track (Chan, Hornshaw, Burton, Zeller); nature of interaction among young female orangutans and the history of the development of solitary patterns (Galdikas); and how patterns of communication code intricate, complex information of social significance (Burton, Zeller).