(Nut) Cracking the Code of Primate Cognition

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Old Technology, New Methodology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The use of percussive actions to access encased foods—e.g., nuts—has been proposed as a viable hypothesis to explain the emergence of stone tool technology in the hominin lineage. Observations of extant nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) or black-striped capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) nut-cracking have been used to support the aforementioned hypothesis. However, there are no systematic cross-taxa comparative studies looking at the cognitive abilities required to undertake foraging percussive behaviors—e.g., nut-cracking—and early knapping techniques. Here, we computationally measure the structural complexity of chimpanzee and bonobo nut-cracking using context-free grammar (CFG) modeling and compare it to early stone tool percussive behaviors. Nut-cracking data were obtained from chimpanzee groups at Bossou (Guinea) and the Taï Forest (Côte d’Ivoire), as well as bonobos (Pan paniscus) from the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Stone tool experiments were run with present-day human knappers replicating the earliest percussive techniques: passive hammer, bipolar, and freehand knapping. Results suggest that the cognitive abilities involved in the manufacturing of early stone tools are distinct to those required to crack nuts. Nonetheless, differences between nut-cracking and the passive hammer technique seem to be less pronounced.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Old Technology, New Methodology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37184.0