Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Comparative Approach
- 1 Human–Grey Parrot Comparisons in Cognitive Performance
- 2 Cognitive Abilities in Elephants
- 3 Culture and Communication among Cetaceans
- Part II Sociocultural Anthropology and Evolution
- Part III Evolution and Neuroscience
- Part IV Group Living
- Part V Evolution and Cognition
- Part VI Evolution and Development
- Part VII Sexual Selection and Human Sex Differences
- Part VIII Abnormal Behavior and Evolutionary Psychopathology
- Part IX Applying Evolutionary Principles
- Part X Evolution and the Media
- Index
- References
3 - Culture and Communication among Cetaceans
from Part I - The Comparative Approach
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2020
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Comparative Approach
- 1 Human–Grey Parrot Comparisons in Cognitive Performance
- 2 Cognitive Abilities in Elephants
- 3 Culture and Communication among Cetaceans
- Part II Sociocultural Anthropology and Evolution
- Part III Evolution and Neuroscience
- Part IV Group Living
- Part V Evolution and Cognition
- Part VI Evolution and Development
- Part VII Sexual Selection and Human Sex Differences
- Part VIII Abnormal Behavior and Evolutionary Psychopathology
- Part IX Applying Evolutionary Principles
- Part X Evolution and the Media
- Index
- References
Summary
Cetaceans live in an environment that is alien to us. They are adapted to live in a three-dimensional fluid world that has exerted evolutionary pressures vastly different from those we are shaped by as terrestrial beings, yet they share our mammalian heritage. For these reasons, they are profoundly relevant to any comparative analysis of human behavior, particularly aspects in which both they and we represent relative peaks across the mammalian order. Humans are visual creatures; in contrast, cetaceans rely heavily on their acoustic sensory system because a profound reliance on sound in the ocean for everything from communication to navigation is essential given the very limited light that penetrates more than 100 m or so. Sound travels much faster and further in water than air, allowing communication to occur over tens of kilometers and sometimes across an entire ocean basin. Marine niches vary in time and space in quite different ways to those on land.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
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