Culture and society in matrilineal whales

文化是人类的标志性特征。然而，文化被定义为从其他个体学习并在社区内共享的行为，也是非人类生物学的一部分。与基因从父母到后代的遗传相比，文化以多种方式传播，例如从同伴到同伴或从老师到学生。这样的对比意味着，具有重要文化背景的物种与那些基因在信息传递中占绝对主导地位的物种相比，其行为可能截然不同。关于动物文化的一些最有力的证据来自鲸鱼和海豚，而一些最令人信服的结果来自我对抹香鲸的长期研究项目。了解文化在鲸鱼中的作用是我研究的长期目标。**我们对东太平洋和北大西洋的抹香鲸进行了实地研究。雌抹香鲸和幼抹香鲸以家庭为单位生活和活动。在太平洋，我们发现每个社会单位都是一个氏族的成员。每个部落都有数千只动物，它们的发音方言、动作、觅食成功率和出生率都各不相同。然而，两个氏族可能使用相同的区域，并且它们在基因上没有区别。这意味着氏族之间的差异是文化的，并使氏族成为评估动物文化意义的理想系统。**在我研究的下一阶段，我们将使用吸盘标签，在鲸鱼身上停留数小时，记录发声和动作，看看不同部落的动物在移动和对环境的反应方式上是否存在一致的细微差异，就像人类种族群体之间存在的差异一样。我们还将测量不同氏族动物的激素水平，以测试文化是否会影响抹香鲸的生理机能，就像它对人类一样。符号标记，即文化符号标记社会群体，从而增加群体之间的区别，有时被认为是人类文化的标志。我们将记录社会单位的行为和发声，因为我们广播了来自不同单位、氏族和地理区域的抹香鲸的发声，以检验尾语被用作氏族成员的象征性标志的假设。**在加勒比海东部，多米尼克岛附近，我们有一个更密切关注的研究，在那里，我们详细了解了单个鲸鱼和它们的社会单位，每个单位大约有9只动物。这里的重点是社会单位层面的文化差异，以及个人的角色和个性。**在新斯科舍省，我们研究了第二种母系鲸鱼，长鳍领航鲸。随着这个项目的发展，我们将首先检查他们的社会制度是基于亲属关系的程度。然后，我们将寻找不同社会单位的文化行为特征，尤其是发声。**为了增加社会结构研究的价值，我计划开发一种表征动物社会网络的新方法。在考虑了其他影响个体关联率的因素（如范围重叠和亲属关系）之后，它将直接衡量个体对之间的关系。**我的研究计划增加了一个关键组成部分，一个额外的文化维度，因为我们既试图了解鲸鱼本身作为个体的文化和社会角色，也试图保护它们的种群。此外，当考虑到人类文化的非凡进化时，我对鲸鱼的研究提供了一个不寻常但有力的背景，即在一个非常不同的环境中复杂文化的平行进化。

Culture is the signature characteristic of humans. However culture, defined as behaviour that is learned from other individuals and shared within a community, is also a part of the biology of non-humans. Compared with the parent-to-offspring inheritance of genes, culture moves in a diversity of ways, for instance from peer to peer or teacher to pupil. Such contrasts mean that species with important cultures may behave quite differently compared with those for which genes overwhelmingly dominate the transmission of information from one individual to another. Some of the strongest evidence for animal culture is among the whales and dolphins, and some of the most compelling results come from my long-term research programme on sperm whales. Understanding the role of culture among whales is the long-term goal of my research.**We have field studies of sperm whales in both the eastern Pacific and North Atlantic. Female and young sperm whales live and move in family social units. In the Pacific we have found that each social unit is a member of a clan. Clans, each containing thousands of animals, differ in their vocal dialects, movements, success in foraging and birth rates. However, two clans may use the same area, and they are not genetically distinct. This implies that the differences between the clans are cultural, and makes the clans an ideal system within which to assess the significance of culture in animals.**In the next phase of my research we will use suction-cup tags that stay on the whales for periods of hours, recording vocalizations and movements, to see whether there are consistent fine-scale differences between the ways animals from the different clans move and respond to their environment, as there are between human ethnic groups. We will also measure hormonal levels of animals in different clans to test whether culture affects physiology in sperm whales, again as it does with humans. Symbolic marking, in which cultural symbols mark social groups, so increasing the distinctions between the groups, is sometimes considered to be the hallmark of human culture. We will record the behaviour and vocalizations of social units as we broadcast the vocalizations of sperm whales from different units, clans and geographic areas in order to test the hypothesis that the codas are used as symbolic markers of clan membership.**In the eastern Caribbean, off the island of Dominica, we have a more closely-focussed study where individual whales and their social units, with about nine animals in each, are known in detail. Here the focus will be on cultural differences at the level of the social unit, as well as the role and personality of individuals.**Off Nova Scotia, we study a second matrilineal whale species, the long-finned pilot whale. As this project develops, we will first examine the extent to which their social system is based upon kinship. We will then look for cultural behaviour that is characteristic of different social units, especially vocalizations.**To add value to studies of social structure, I plan to develop a new approach for characterizing animal social networks. It will give a direct measure of affiliation between pairs of individuals, after accounting for other factors that affect the rates at which they associate, factors such as range overlap and kinship.**My research programme adds a key component, an additional cultural dimension, as we try both to understand the whales themselves as individuals with cultures and roles in society, as well as to conserve their populations. Moreover, when considering the extraordinary evolution of human culture, my studies of whales provide an unusual but potent context, that of the parallel evolution of complex cultures in a very different environment.