To unravel the origins of human communication, they should observe those who share with us more than 90% of their DNA: chimpanzees. In the depths of the tropical jungles of Africa, these primates not only climb trees or ripe fruits are disputed. They also communicate and do so with surprising complexity.
They are understood by gestures almost with the same cadence and speed as people. They know how to give clues to each other to warn plans for mutual benefit. As humans learn to observe: they mimic what their peers do and integrate it into their daily lives. Science has focused, for a long time, on these facial expressions, while vocalizations were a less explored aspect. But in those screams and squeaky squeaky, more complex messages are intertwined than one might think. This is stated by an international team of researchers who immersed himself in the thickness of dense and wet forest ecosystem of Ivory Coast (Africa) and recorded more than 4,000 vocalizations of 53 wild chimpanzees (Troglodytes bread) Affiliated with the Conservation Project Chimpanzea taï.
The new analysis of these gasps, grunts and screams published in the magazine Science Advances He revealed a fascinating finding: Chimpanzees combine these sounds in specific vocal sequences to refer to different everyday situations in nature. They use these calls To look for food, make a nest, face a threat or react to aggression. The study, led by Cédric Girard-Buttoz, a researcher at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (France), identified 16 of these vocal or bigram combinations. The authors describe four different mechanisms through which meaning is transformed through these combinations. And the most important thing is that the union of these vocalizations is not random.
“In essence, what we seek is to understand the origin of human language,” says the main author to El País. The research published this Friday suggests that these vocal patterns represent an intermediate stage in the evolution of language. “Chimpanzees use individual calls that seem to function as words,” explains Girard-Buttoz. Chimpanzees cannot speak because they do not have adequate anatomical disposition, but they do communicate.
These combinations of sounds are like small construction blocks. Something comparable, according to the authors, when humans join terms such as “cold” and “rainy” in a single phrase to convey an idea. “The vocalizations are the same in all populations, from Senegal to Tanzania, but the combinations do vary a bit,” he says. Lara Carrasco, a doctor in primatology at the University of Barcelona, believes that it is important that the origins of language are investigated, but recognizes that it is still a complicated task. “In the end we tend to anthropomorphize (attribute human qualities) and everything we lead to our land and way of interpreting,” he says. For her it is something “complicated to interpret.”
This is not the first time that bigrams are studied. So far this phenomenon had always been analyzed in isolation and in different species. Some birds, such as Sumatra’s charlatan (Bicolor Garulax), they also combine sounds, but only in danger situations. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, demonstrate flexibility and wealth that resembles ours more. “Its communication is more versatile and diverse than that of other animals,” adds Girard-Buttoz.
The primatologist Miquel Llorente, a professor at the University of Girona, believes that the study forces us to look again a line of research that had been “a little in the drawer.” “Perhaps it is convenient to see again how chimpanzees use these calls that can help us better understand how the human being has ended up communicating the way he does,” he says.
Messages in the roots of the trees
Gestures and vocalizations are not their only means of expression. Chimpanzees also communicate with the body. They hit hollow roots, branches and stones with hands and feet, generating rhythmic sounds that travel through the jungle. This drum is not accidental. It has rhythm and intends.
Another study of the magazine Current Biology It shows that the eastern and western chimpanzees – two different subspecies – drum with their hands and feet the outer roots of the trees. The research, led by Vesta Eleuteri of the University of Vienna (Austria), analyzed 371 episodes of percussion for 24 years and discovered that chimpanzees do not hit randomly, but with rhythm. “Some even do it with isochrony (temporary regularity),” explains Eleuteri.
Those blows at regular intervals mentioned by the researcher have a percussion similar to the song We will Rock Youof the Queen Group. And again: those blows are still defined rhythms, they are not random. It is not that chimpanzees make music as humans understand it, but use the rhythm to communicate at a distance. Something that also do communities such as Los Los Boras, which inhabit both Colombia and Peru, the Akan (in Ghana) and the Bantu (located from Cameroon to Somalia).
“Although chimpanzees are not making music, the skills they use (such as generating rhythmic patterns in objects) could have been evolutionary blocks for the development of musicality,” he says. Scientists, on the other hand, observed that Western chimpanzees begin to percate before vocalization Pant-Hoot. This call has several phases: an introduction, a crescendo and a climax. “The Orientals perceive during the final cry,” he clarifies.
A window to the past in danger
The studies on the chimpanzees and their ancestors began with the pioneering investigation of Jane Goodall in the sixties, marking a turning point in the understanding of these primates and their place in evolution. All this leads to a key conclusion and that communication is not something exclusive to the human being. It is likely that the ancestors have already owned many of the basic elements of complex communication.
The humans, in the opinion of Cédric Girard-Buttoz, brought that system to the highest level. “The difference between animal communication and human language may not be so much in nature, but of degree,” he reflects; But the conservation of chimpanzees is key for studies on primates communication. These animals are critical of extinction due to the loss of habitat, hunting, pet trade and diseases. It is estimated that approximately between 170,000 and 300,000 chimpanzees are released.
“Conservation should not focus only on numbers, but on preserving their cultural diversity. Each group offers a window to the life of chimpanzees and our own past as humans,” concludes Vesta Eleuteri.
