Publish at February 15 2022 Updated July 03 2024
"If you spend time with animals you are likely to become a better person."
Oscar Wilde
Culture is defined as "the totality of 'acquired' knowledge or behavior that human or non-human individuals are capable of transmitting to others, a process also known as social learning". For a long time, culture was the exclusive territory of humans, and was opposed to the animal and plant kingdoms by a line dividing intelligence, emotions, intuitions, dreams, rituals, otherness, language and human learning from biological mechanics that were just good enough to be observed and dissected.
It wasn't until the 11th Conference of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in 1990 that animal cultures were officially recognized. This is part of a wider movement to reintegrate humans into the living world, not as predatory and dominant species, but as part of the natural whole.
Animals therefore have cultures that are more difficult to observe, but just as real. These cultures are an inspiration for the evolution of our own.
For example, monkeys might prefer to use tools such as branches or stones to crack nuts, without the abundance of environmental resources predisposing them to one use or another. The preferential choice of tool, followed by imitation by band members and the sharing of uses with juveniles, constitute elements of a culture. The monkeys make choices from this point onwards, and mutual imitation and teaching mechanisms are put in place. This preference/imitation/transmission mechanism is a triptych that can be observed in the living world and in communication registers.
Whales and birds also transmit their vocalizations and songs to their offspring. More than genetic transmission, it's a style that's passed on. Offspring adopt the specific "dialect" they share within the group or a given territory. It's as if it were the preferences of the members of the group with which the animal interacts that ended up becoming its reference for communication. Even if, in our eyes, these languages often remain incomprehensible, they have many functions, such as warning of danger, calling for help, distinguishing themselves in the search for a partner, indicating a path or a source of food, or simply greeting each other.
Even more astonishingly, inter-species language communication has also been documented, as in the case of exchanges between dolphins and belugas, which are capable of learning and reproducing the sounds of the other species. We don't know what they're exchanging, or even if they feel anything when they do it, but listening to their language clearly shows changes in tone and vocalization. Of course, non-verbal communication predominates, but through it, a whole range of meanings takes shape for groups of animals, with calls, babbles, coos and whistles composing soundscapes specific to each species. While they all share a material, objective environment, each one is composed of and participates in a singular, subjective sound environment that has meaning for it.
The same would apply to language preferences, as in the choice of food or the selection of a partner for reproduction. It's not just a question of genetics, but also of appreciation and choice. When syntactic language is lacking, non-verbal communication is an essential part of the animal world.
Sometimes, when humans seek to distinguish themselves from machines, they call upon emotional, irrational, intuitive and unconscious registers, as well as the world of dreams and will. But humans also share this with animals. Animal intuition is well known. Many animals, like elephant matriarchs, can sense routes to waterholes, migratory bird routes or the way to a spawning ground for fish species such as salmon. Others are able to sense climatic events, let themselves be guided by electrical currents or push their perceptive abilities to an exceptional level to find their masters or their paths. What if animals reminded us to push our perceptive skills further, and not just delegate them to our tools and instruments?
Even more astonishingly, animals also dream. Dogs and cats have rich inner worlds, and become agitated in their dreams. For example, dogs go through stages of wakefulness, rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (slow wave sleep). Certain body movements during sleep are interpreted as racing or hunting. Their only psychoanalysts are their masters, who seek to understand them, but their nocturnal brain connections resemble those of humans.
Some animals are self-aware, a reflexive way of thinking previously thought to be the preserve of humans. The mirror test shows that individuals of several species are aware of their uniqueness. They recognize themselves. They perceive their own gestures and the effect these have on their environment. Ethologists use the mirror test to distinguish between those animal species that are solely governed by their genetic programming, and those that are capable of projecting themselves according to singular choices. The animal part of us reminds us that part of who we are escapes us and irrevocably determines us. The genetic programs that form the basis of us remain present, whatever the effects of socialization.
Animals also have rituals. According to some ethologists, the significance of these animal behaviors goes beyond adaptive functionality, but these ethologists make a distinction between phylogenetic rituals and cultural rituals.
In phylogenetic rituals, movements coordinated during phylogenesis (the evolution of a species) are taken up and, not without some modification, reused by the species in a new function: the function of communication. In this new vision of the animal world, it's possible to read an interweaving of genetic programming and social and group uses that are free of programming issues. It's good to know that humans are not only social beings, but also genetically programmed.
Observed behaviors of animal varieties show language skills, preferences, imitations and transmissions, the capacity for intuition, the performance of rituals, the expression of emotions and even feelings, for certain animals, an awareness of their uniqueness, success in solving more or less complex problems.
All these elements put together support the hypothesis of a living world rich in interiorities, interactions and traditions. All these observations argue in favor of a continuum rather than a divide between humans and the rest of the animal world. We're not just at the top of the food chain, we're also part of it.
By dint of concreting over our cities and our lives, we have rendered them incapable of begetting, fertility and connection with living things. If today we are rediscovering this part of culture in animals, perhaps it's also time to cultivate our animal part, made up of instincts, freedoms and a greater closeness to the environment.
Sources
Le devoir. Are there animal cultures? https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/science/177122/y-a-t-il-des-cultures-animales#:
Geo According to a study, animals have their own cultures https://www.geo.fr/environnement/selon-une-etude-les-animaux-ont-leurs-propres-culture-et-traditions-204279
Huffingtonpost https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/pierre-sigler/animaux-culture-sociologie_b_6499768.html
Animals Too Human - Animal Culture - https://youtu.be/FGOdO_OxueU
The conversation. Can animals have a culture? https://theconversation.com/les-animaux-peuvent-ils-avoir-une-culture-167860
MOOC living with other animals https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/actualites/mooc-vivre-avec-les-autres-animaux
Wikipedia. Culture https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_(%C3%A9thology )
Animal Planet https://www.planeteanimal.com/la-communication-inter-especes-1012.html
Our time. Do pets have intuition? https://www.notretemps.com/vie-pratique/animaux/les-animaux-domestiques-sont-ils-doues-d-intuition-16105
Science and the future. Do dogs dream? https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/animaux/chiens/question-de-la-semaine-les-chiens-revent-ils_147044
The roots of religion https://www.cairn.info/les-racines-de-la-religion--9782020173032-page-133.htm
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