Chimpanzees Assignment
Wesley Nguyen
Anthro 2; MWF 10:30
Professor Scully
6 Nov 2015
Paper Assignment
Introduction
Chimpanzees, otherwise known as Pan Troglodytes, are a species of higher primates that inhabits the tropical forests of central Africa (Shefferly). According to Shefferly, the common chimpanzees are found from Gambia to Uganda, excluding the region bordered by the Congo and Lualaba rivers. Shefferly goes on writing about how chimpanzees can make a habitat out of various types of forests, ranging from tropical rainforest to forest-savanna to mountain forests. Adult chimpanzees possess a head and body length of around 635-925mm, 25-36.42in for those not versed in the metric system (Shefferly). There is sexual dimorphism in regards to the weight and size …show more content…
Shefferly notes that captive chimpanzees tend to accumulate more weight; the top weight recorded was 80kg, 176.37lbs, for a male and 68kg, 149.91lbs, for a female. In general, the male chimpanzees are larger than the female chimpanzees. The chimpanzee is capable of brachiating through the trees, as hinted by their long hands and fingers. Shefferly notes that they possess short thumbs in addition to the longer hands and thumbs. When on the ground, they exhibit knuckle-walking, where they would, as one would assume, walk on all fours, using its hand’s knuckles to support its upper body. The face of adult chimpanzees, according to Shefferly, is usually black, or smeared with some brown; the hair color ranges from black to brown, with white hairs scattered about around the face. …show more content…
Firstly we can take care of the most obvious things that chimpanzees do not have. Chimpanzees do not have experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, nor material objects (well, as far as we know anyways). The only two traits that are left to define culture are simply the aspects of knowledge and hierarchies. The passage of knowledge is noted in chimpanzees, such as the skill of termite fishing is passed down from the mother (Lonsdorf) or other behaviors, like leaf sponges (Tonooka) or stone uses (Benito-Calvo). Hierarchy indeed exists amongst the male chimpanzees, but there isn’t much to say about the hierarchy system as it isn’t as complicated as human’s hierarchy system. Chimpanzees possess some aspects of culture, which was defined by humanity for humanity, but only makes the cut for only two of the thirteen requirements of the definition of
Anthro 2; MWF 10:30
Professor Scully
6 Nov 2015
Paper Assignment
Introduction
Chimpanzees, otherwise known as Pan Troglodytes, are a species of higher primates that inhabits the tropical forests of central Africa (Shefferly). According to Shefferly, the common chimpanzees are found from Gambia to Uganda, excluding the region bordered by the Congo and Lualaba rivers. Shefferly goes on writing about how chimpanzees can make a habitat out of various types of forests, ranging from tropical rainforest to forest-savanna to mountain forests. Adult chimpanzees possess a head and body length of around 635-925mm, 25-36.42in for those not versed in the metric system (Shefferly). There is sexual dimorphism in regards to the weight and size …show more content…
Shefferly notes that captive chimpanzees tend to accumulate more weight; the top weight recorded was 80kg, 176.37lbs, for a male and 68kg, 149.91lbs, for a female. In general, the male chimpanzees are larger than the female chimpanzees. The chimpanzee is capable of brachiating through the trees, as hinted by their long hands and fingers. Shefferly notes that they possess short thumbs in addition to the longer hands and thumbs. When on the ground, they exhibit knuckle-walking, where they would, as one would assume, walk on all fours, using its hand’s knuckles to support its upper body. The face of adult chimpanzees, according to Shefferly, is usually black, or smeared with some brown; the hair color ranges from black to brown, with white hairs scattered about around the face. …show more content…
Firstly we can take care of the most obvious things that chimpanzees do not have. Chimpanzees do not have experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, nor material objects (well, as far as we know anyways). The only two traits that are left to define culture are simply the aspects of knowledge and hierarchies. The passage of knowledge is noted in chimpanzees, such as the skill of termite fishing is passed down from the mother (Lonsdorf) or other behaviors, like leaf sponges (Tonooka) or stone uses (Benito-Calvo). Hierarchy indeed exists amongst the male chimpanzees, but there isn’t much to say about the hierarchy system as it isn’t as complicated as human’s hierarchy system. Chimpanzees possess some aspects of culture, which was defined by humanity for humanity, but only makes the cut for only two of the thirteen requirements of the definition of