Date:
Location:
Speaker:
Professor Christian Rutz, Harvard Radcliffe Fellow 2019-2020 & Professor of Biology, University of St. Andrews
Abstract:
Within a mere ~100,000 years, human technology has advanced from basic, hand-crafted hunting and subsistence tools, to truly mind-boggling feats of engineering, like super computers and space shuttles. This astonishing progress, towards ever-more complex and efficient designs, is driven by the gradual accumulation of innovations. Although often considered a uniquely human phenomenon, at least two non-human species appear to exhibit signs of cumulative technological advancement – our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, and a tropical bird species, the New Caledonian crow. In this talk, I will examine the possibility that New Caledonian crows may possess a rudimentary form of “cumulative material culture”, taking stock of several decades of observational and experimental evidence. If you are curious about my verdict, you feel that chimpanzees provide a compelling case, you are doubtful that any non-human species exhibits cumulative material culture, or you are generally interested in cumulative culture and technological evolution, please come to my talk – I look forward to a lively debate.