The Cultivated Chimpanzee: How Animals mind Traditions– Prof. Dr. Volker Sommer / Renovación

07. April 2016
> 19:00

‚Human beings’ are considered both cultivated and civilized. ‘Beasts,’ meanwhile, are wild and animalistic. This criterion is supportable until the monkey does what is supposed to be reserved for humans: adding numbers or forming sentences. At this moment, our closest relations become ‘cultured.’ In this case, human qualities suddenly apply to certain chimpanzee populations’ habits and mannerisms concerning technology, as well as to social customs or semi-religious food taboos that exist among these apes.

Sommer’s lecture illustrates the amazing accomplishments of non-human animals with the help of his own research on wild primates, and ultimate advocates for a new worldview of an evolutionary humanism.