Reviews Barbara J. King's detailed observations of free-ranging baboons in Amboseli, Kenya; these observations contain a mass of recent research and report studies of divergent theories in primatology and paleontology. King's studies supply direct evidence about primate behavior that conveys information and show how natural information transfer is…

Theories of animal and human society based on sex and reproduction have been powerful in legitimating beliefs in the natural necessity of aggression, competition, and hierarchy. Feminists attempting to answer this bias are caught in a political-scientific struggle to formulate and articulate adequate biosocial theories. (Author/KR)

Discusses some of the new physical dating methods being used by archaeologists and paleoanthropologists to study the material remains of ancient primates. Describes the quaternary physical dating techniques, advances in radiocarbon dating, and the radiocalcium data method. (TW)

A human demonstrator showed human children and captive chimpanzees how to drag food or toys closer using a rakelike tool. One side of the rake was less efficient than the other for dragging. Chimps tried to reproduce results rather than methods while children imitated and used the more efficient rake side. Concludes that imitation leads to…

Discusses the question of whether nonhuman species, such as apes, possess rudimentary language, focusing on the ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Noam Chomsky in regard to the development of oral language in young children and apes. (51 references) (MDM)

Human toddlers demonstrate striking failures when searching for hidden objects that interact with other objects, yet successfully locate hidden objects that do not undergo mechanical interactions. This pattern hints at a developmental dissociation between contact-mechanical and spatiotemporal knowledge. Recent studies suggest that adult non-human…

The term "deep map" is the invention of writer William Least Heat-Moon, whose extended essay "PrairyErth (a deep map)" has given definition to this form. Deep-map writing is marked by its intertextual, interdisciplinary, and multivocal nature. It is also self-consciously cartographic, presenting maps, following maps, and redrawing maps. Deep…

This study examined children's conflict interactions in an attempt to provide evidence for the evolutionary continuity of the organization of power relations within primate societies and childhood peer groups. A total of 17 children, ages 3 - 5, were observed daily at their preschool over a three month period. Two one-half hour video samples were…

Justification of male dominance in society has been based frequently on findings in biobehavioral sciences, especially the science of animal groups. The natural and social sciences must be remade and forged in a dialectical understanding of social relations that is not based on domination. (Author/KR)

Reports on structural asymmetrics between the hemispheres which are found in the human brain. Auditory region and Sylvian Fissure asymmetry have also been observed in the fetus and in other primates. Describes research which has correlated asymmetries with hand preference, certain childhood learning disabilities and some dementing illnesses of…

Infant abuse and neglect were investigated in five families of group-living pigtail macaques over five generations. Neglect was mostly limited to first-born and newborns; closely related rather than distantly related females were more prone to abuse; and infants with siblings previously abused were at highest risk. Results provide evidence of…

A fundamental question in developmental science is how brains with and without language compute numbers. Measuring young children's verbal reactions in Spain and Finland, we show that, although there is a general arithmetic ability for small numbers that is shared by monkeys and preverbal infants, the development of such initial knowledge in…

Studies of the biology of music (as of language) are highly interdisciplinary and demand the integration of diverse strands of evidence. In this paper, I present a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of music, stressing the value of comparisons both with human language, and with those animal communication systems traditionally…

Linguistics retains from its antecedents, philology and the study of sacred writings, some of their apologetic and theological bias. Thus it has not been able to face squarely the question how linguistic function may have evolved from animal communication. Chimpanzees' use of signs from American Sign Language forces re-examination of language…

A model of human language requires a theory of meaningful marks. Humans are the only species who use marks to think. A theory of marks identifies children's scribbles as significant behavior, while hypothesizing the importance of notational systems to hominid brain evolution. By recognizing the importance of children's scribbles and drawings in…