Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 8.22

On August 22nd, 565 CE, the earliest known allegation of a “monster” in the River Ness was reported by St. Columbia. Of course, you all know what happens to that story hundreds of years later. In science history, in 1989 the first ring of Neptune was discovered via Voyager 2. (And now I have the Interplanet Janet song in my head.)

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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4 Comments

  1. I <3 Bonobos! They are my favorite non-human primate.

    One anthropologically pedantic nitpick with the article: the author quotes an anthropologist who says that bonobos exhibit culture. This is an ongoing argument among cultural and primatological anthropologists. I tend to think that bonobos do not have culture and that only humans have culture. Some of the great apes (bonobos and chimps specifically) exhibit signs of a sort of proto-culture (e.g., tool making) but they do not have anything even remotely close to the kind of culture humans have.

    1. Since you’re already pedantically nitpicking, is there a precise definition of culture in this context ? Or more simply put, is there some sort of consensus of what constitutes the boundary between non-culture and culture ?

  2. Mary

    That was an interesting video. I never thought of bonobos as tool makers before. Thanks for sharing it.

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