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Fri, 3 Feb 2006 18:36:45 -0800 |
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On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 23:15:16 +0000, Ashley Moran <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>This is the sort of thing I don't like to discuss with paleo-
>sceptics, as it's a prime example of something that is easily
>manipulated to make the whole diet look unsound. But I've often
>wondered if one of the reasons for our success as a species is that
>our language lets us describe foods in exceptional detail. We can
>tell the difference between an edible mushroom and deadly one that
>look almost identical. On the other hand, I think chimps have been
>observed using plants for medicinal purposes (eg flushing out
>parasites), so perhaps we aren't that much more advanced after all.
Chimps have been shown to have words for various foods - I've seen a video of a
chimp selecting the picture of a food, after hearing a recording of another
chimp saying their word for that food (this sound was recorded when that chimp
was given that particular food). For example, a chimp was given grapes and
made a sound which was recorded. When the sound was later played back to
another chimp, he selected the picture of grapes from among many pictures.
Remember chimps have over 99% of our DNA, and are considered to be more similar
to humans than they are to other primates or apes.
--
Cheers,
Ken
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