Fun_People Archive
26 Oct
Chimps, Toolmaking, & Dumb Men Jokes?

Date: Wed, 26 Oct 94 18:10:38 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Chimps, Toolmaking, & Dumb Men Jokes?

Forwarded-by: lanih@info.Berkeley.EDU (J. Lani Herrmann)
Forwarded-by: Cal Herrmann <arminius@nature.Berkeley.EDU>
From: huston@access.digex.net (Herb Huston)

 In article <371uje$b4a@access4.digex.net> is written:

 >In article <1994Sep30.071745.5696@totsyssoft.com>,
 >Richard Jacoby <rick@TotSysSoft.com> wrote:
 }I've read about this also. It was a macaque named Imo, and she started out  
 }washing sand off sweet patatoes. Next her playmate learned how to do this,  
 }then her mother. After that, many of her young peers learend how to do it.   
 }Within seven years, many of the mothers were washing, so most of the  
 }infants picked it up.  After that virtually everyone did it.
 
 Not quite everyone.  See below.
 
 }The same macaque figured out you can throw sandy wheat in the ocean, the  
 }wheat will float, the sand sink, then the wheat can be skimmed of the  
 }surface.
 
 Yes, Imo had discovered placer mining, the technique that's used in panning
 for gold.  She has been called the Archimedes of the Macaques.
 
 }In both cases other females were the first to copy, then children of both  
 }sexes then adult males..
 
 Actually the adult males never picked up either potato-washing or placer
 mining.  That's why some primatologists refer to senior faculty members who
 can't quite pickup on word processing or posting to Usenet as "macaque
 males."
 
 There's a highly readable account of Imo in Carl Sagan's and Ann Druyan's
 _Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors_ with references to the technical
 literature.  Also, David Attenborough visits the monkeys of Koshima Island
 in the penultimate episode of _Life on Earth_.  Finally, about 2.5 years
 ago I had the opportunity to converse with a Japanese primatologist; my
 first question for him was whether the Koshima macaques were still washing
 their sweet potatoes, and his reply was that they were.

© 1994 Peter Langston