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The meanings of chimpanzee gestures

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Date
21/07/2014
Author
Hobaiter, Cat
Byrne, Richard William
Keywords
QL Zoology
BDC
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Abstract
Chimpanzees’ use of gesture was described in the first detailed field study [1, 2], and natural use of specific gestures has been analyzed [3, 4, 5]. However, it was systematic work with captive groups that revealed compelling evidence that chimpanzees use gestures to communicate in a flexible, goal-oriented, and intentional fashion [6, 7, 8], replicated across all great ape species in captivity [9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17] and chimpanzees in the wild [18, 19]. All of these aspects overlap with human language but are apparently missing in most animal communication systems, including great ape vocalization, where extensive study has produced meager evidence for intentional use ([20], but see [21, 22]). Findings about great ape gestures spurred interest in a potential common ancestral origin with components of human language [23, 24, 25]. Of particular interest, given the relevance to language origins, is the question of what chimpanzees intend their gestures to mean; surprisingly, the matter of what the intentional signals are used to achieve has been largely neglected. Here we present the first systematic study of meaning in chimpanzee gestural communication. Individual gestures have specific meanings, independently of signaler identity, and we provide a partial “lexicon”; flexibility is predominantly in the use of multiple gestures for a specific meaning. We distinguish a range of meanings, from simple requests associated with just a few gestures to broader social negotiation associated with a wider range of gesture types. Access to a range of alternatives may increase communicative subtlety during important social negotiations.
Citation
Hobaiter , C & Byrne , R W 2014 , ' The meanings of chimpanzee gestures ' , Current Biology , vol. 24 , no. 14 , pp. 1596-1600 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.066
Publication
Current Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.066
ISSN
0960-9822
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2014, Elsevier. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.066
Description
The fieldwork of C.H. was generously supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Russell Trust.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4954

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