Human Universals and Primate Symplesiomorphies: Establishing the Lemur Baseline

摘要: Social behavior, culture, and cognition are domains where presumably most human universals exist. Identification of these derived traits depends relies on comparisons with other primates, notably chimpanzees. This approach can also be used to reconstruct primate behavioral evolution. Accordingly, found in both Homo Pan inferred have existed their last common ancestor as well. By analogy, shared between humans primates traced back even further down our family tree. Here, we look at the side universals, i.e., cognitive basal living which ought represent legacy upon later taxon-specific specializations were built. Specifically, review studies investigating abilities social behavior lemuriform Madagascar. The Malagasy lemurs particularly important for this purpose because they alone, among strepsirrhine evolved group-living, characterizes haplorrhines. Even though relatively smaller brains than New Old World monkeys great apes, ability solve problems that require technical intelligence is qualitatively par In domain intelligence, however, deviate from better-known haplorrhine models (i.e., cercopithecines) several respects. Most importantly, strategies reflect an emphasis within-group competition, rather cooperation, may lemur-specific adaptations ecologically unpredictable environment, fundamental deficits intelligence. any event, a broad comparative perspective including best earliest gregarious enrich reconstructions evolutionary analyzes humans.