What makes humans different from other animals? One of the most distinctive features of our species is our ability to create and transmit culture - the accumulated knowledge, skills, and values that shape our behavior and identity.
Culture is not something we are born with, but something we learn from others, especially from our parents, peers, and teachers.
But humans are not the only animals that can learn from others. Recent research has shown that some of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, and some of the most distant, the bumblebees, can also acquire complex skills by observing and imitating their conspecifics.
These findings challenge the long-held assumption that social learning and cultural transmission are unique to humans, and suggest that they may have deeper evolutionary roots than previously thought.
The Secrets of Bees and Chimps (Photo : MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images)
How do bees and chimps learn from each other? Scientists have devised ingenious experiments to test their cognitive abilities and reveal their learning strategies.
For example, researchers at the Queen Mary University of London have shown that bumblebees can learn how to pull a string to access a sugar reward by watching a trained bee perform the task.
They can also learn how to roll a ball to a target by observing a demonstrator, either a live bee or a fake bee moved by a magnet. These tasks are too difficult for bees to figure out on their own, but they can master them with social guidance.
Similarly, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have demonstrated that chimpanzees can learn how to use tools to crack nuts, fish for termites, or extract honey by watching their group members.
They can also learn new behaviors from humans, such as how to open a box with a key, how to play rock-paper-scissors, or how to communicate with symbols. These skills are not innate, but acquired through social learning.
What do these discoveries tell us about human evolution? They suggest that social learning and cultural transmission are not exclusive to humans, but shared with other animals that have similar cognitive capacities and social structures.
They also imply that these abilities may have emerged earlier in our evolutionary history than previously assumed, and that they may have played a key role in the adaptation and survival of our ancestors.
However, this does not mean that human culture is identical to animal culture.
Humans have developed more sophisticated and diverse forms of social learning and cultural transmission, such as language, writing, teaching, and institutions, that enable us to accumulate and transmit more complex and abstract information across time and space.
Humans also have more creativity and innovation, which allow us to generate novel and diverse cultural products, such as art, music, religion, and science.
Therefore, while bees and chimps can teach us a lot about the origins of human culture, they cannot explain the full extent and diversity of human cultural achievements. Human culture is still a unique and remarkable phenomenon that deserves our attention and appreciation.