Humans vs. Primates

Activity.
Comparing humans with other primates.

There is a large gap between primate society and fully developed human culture.However, studies of primates have revealed many similarities.

Many of the differences between humans and other primates are differences in degree rather than in kind.For example, monkeys learn from experiences, but humans learn much more.

Common to monkeys, apes and humans is the fact that behavior and social life are not rigidly programmed by the genes. All these animals learn throughout their lives.

Monkeys and apes can learn from experience.

For monkeys as for people, the ability to learn, to profit from experience, gives a tremendous adaptive advantage, permiting them to avoid fatal mistakes. Anthropologists used to distinguish humans from other animals as tool users, and there is not doubt that Homo does employ tools much more than any other animal does.

Only humans speak.However, evidence is accumulating that linguistic ability is also a quantitative rather than a qualitative difference between humans and other primates, especially gorillas and chimps.

Like people, chimps communicate through facial expressions, noises and body movements.Other primates also use calls to communicate messages to other members of the group.

Although,wild primates use call systems, the vocal tract of apes is not suitable for speech.

Several apes have learned to converse with people through means of Ameslan, used by deaf and mute people.

Humans appear to be the most cooperative of the primates.Except for meat sharing by chimps, the ape tendency is to forage individually. Monkeys also fend for themselves in getting food.

Another diffenrence between humans and other primates involves mating. Human pair.bonds for mating tend to be more exclusive and longer lasting than are those of chimps.

Related to our more constant sexuality, all human societies have some form of marriage.

Marriage creates another major contrast between humans and nonhumans: exogamy and kinship systems.

The systems of kinship and marriage that preserve these links provide a major contrast between humans and other primates.

Reflection.

Humans are very differents to any kind of life in the world because they have a lot of abilities that others don't have

Source.

Hartmann,Pamela and Blass,Laurie.(2007)Quest 3. Reading and Writing. Mc Graw Hill.