The above description is likely one of the first known instances in which the word culture was attributed to a non-human species. Believe it or not, in this earliest of papers, Jane was already developing a theory of non-human culture and the social transmission of behavior. To me, maybe even more significant were the words she wrote a year earlier in a report for the Zoological Society of London. Our belief that humans were the only species capable of manipulating objects and constructing tools came crumbling down and our eyes and minds were opened to the idea that we are not separate from, but connected to, the rest of the animal kingdom. In 1964, Jane wrote a paper for Nature, detailing her observation over her first years in Gombe.Ĭan you imagine the thrill and excitement she felt as she saw these behaviors for the first time? This is one of the most significant moments in modern scientific history. How exciting it is to read in Jane’s own words, her first clear observation of a chimpanzee using a tool to fish for termites. The straw was then raised to the mouth and the insects picked off with the lips, along the length of the straw, starting in the middle. It was held in the left hand, poked o nto the g r ound, and then removed coated with termites. I could see a little better the use of the piece of straw. Jane’s field notebook:īy the termite hill were two chimps, both male. Who indeed! This was the prevailing belief – until Jane. It is this which so essentially distinguishes man from the lower creation. But we have no evidence that he ever selects special forms for special uses. The ape employs both sticks and stones as missiles and as hammers to crack the shells of nuts. “ But who has ever seen any of the lower animals construct a tool and use it? The conception of man not as a tool using but as a tool-making animal is clear, defined, and unassailable. To set the stage, previous to Jane’s research, non-human animals were presumed to be functioning on an almost mechanical basis and their behavior was thought to be based on ‘preprogrammed’ instinct. In 1875 in his speech to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Colonel A Lane Fox, President of the Anthropological Institute decreed: This groundbreaking moment has been referenced time and time again, but what can we learn from Jane’s earliest findings and writings on the subject, and what we continue to discover today? In 1960, Jane Goodall transformed our understanding of what differentiates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom through the observation that chimpanzees make and use tools.
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