Anthropological Discussion Social Sciences Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

Anthropological Discussion
Student's Name
Institution Affiliated
Tool-Use in Nonhuman Primates
Nonhuman primates' engage in many activities some of which they manage to do with the help of objects or the tools that are developed by them. This subject matter has in the previous year's assisted the scientist in making a comparison between humans and the nonhuman primates. The main aim of such studies has been to establish the capacities that humans share with the nonhuman primates. The chimpanzees are known for the use of stone tools in opening or cracking hard nuts. They are also known for using sharpened sticks to spear bush babies that always sleep in the tree holes. Chimpanzees also use heavy sticks in the underground bee hives as well as digging in the ground for tubers. Stick tools are commonly used by the gorillas when wading through the water as a way of tasting the depth of the water. On the side of the orangutan, small sticks are for ridding the Neesia fruit to remove the irritant hairs in the process of extracting the seeds in the fruit (Seed & Byrne, 2010).
A behavior can qualify to be a cultural practice in the event the conduct portrayed is witnessed among multiple members of a group of nonhuman primates, and it must also vary between different societies of nonhuman primates. In this respect, chimpanzees in Budongo forest have been found to be using chewed leaves as sponges for getting honey from a fallen log whereas those chimpanzees from Kibale forest have been observed to be using sticks in getting the honey. These groups of chimpanzees choose a different approach in getting the honey from a fallen log yet the option of using a stick or chewed leaves are both at their disposal. Therefore, the observations demonstrate the cultural practice of these groups of chimpanzees, and such cultural traits are as a result of social learning and imitation (Seed & Byrne, 2010).