From this article alone, I would say it's a bit early to be calling it a funeral rite. It could simply be a longing for him to still be alive. The article also says “To date, this behaviour has never been reported in chimpanzees or any other non-human animal species." Well not the specific behaviour perhaps but elephants are known to mourn the deaths of other elephants' children.
Humans, and especially including myself, may be poor at tenses in grammar. This should not be confused with concepts of the future and past.
These chimps are also picking at the mouth of a dead chimp, smelling and tasting.
Somebody was teaching chimps a vocabulary through sign language (can't remember who). He found they could not grasp the future (tense), everything was in the 'now', I want this, I want that, they had no concept of what they might like to do later.
I just thought that to hold a funeral, one would need these past and future concepts. The short clip looks like the tasting, smelling behavior again, something social, like grooming.
Conclusions/Significance
The findings suggest that chimpanzees can represent the future behaviours of others while those others are not present, as well as take actions in the current situation towards such potential future behaviours. Importantly, the behaviour of the chimpanzee produced a future event, rather than merely prepared for an event that had been reliably re-occurring in the past. These findings might indicate that the chimpanzee recombined episodic memories in perceptual simulations.
Humans, and especially including myself, may be poor at tenses in grammar. This should not be confused with concepts of the future and past.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0036782
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada uses the same logic to prove that animals do have souls. I certainly think we have underestimated animals in the past in many ways.What it "proves beyond doubt" is that Chimpanzees are just the same as us and because they can't have a soul, neither can we. Is that about right, Malf ? ;)
Who said chimpanzees can't have a soul? :)What it "proves beyond doubt" is that Chimpanzees are just the same as us and because they can't have a soul, neither can we. Is that about right, Malf ? ;)
Humans, and especially including myself, may be poor at tenses in grammar. This should not be confused with concepts of the future and past.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0036782
I've always suspected that creativity is involved in just about all intelligent thought.It seems really clear to me, that this paper suggests once again, that creativity (somehow making one's unique patterns), tools (the patterns one has created), and thinking temporally (accessing past and future) are intimately entwined.
I've always suspected that creativity is involved in just about all intelligent thought.
Hmmmm - I was thinking of the ability to consciously solve problems, but maybe that's a narrow definition?I'm not really sure, after you've spent some time reading about slime mold's amazing capabilities, I find it quite hard to understand what intelligence really is.
Absolutely!It's why I have a potential problem with the distribution of mass produced patterns, as well as the restrictions society imposes either directly or indirectly on the individuals ability to create their own patterns. Mass production and dissemination of patterns seems to have to potential to disrupt the balance between the individual and the group, (a vital balance).
In my view, this is the number one issue in the world today.