1. Students are encouraged to type their observations here.

You can complete

this whilst watching the film or afterwards. Be descriptive where possible.
a. I am going to deliver my notes tomorrow morning, February 15th 2016

2. Before watching the documentary students are to define the idea of culture
based on their present understanding of the term.
a. A culture is the association of all the details representing the members
of a group. We can classify this details in E.g. Traditions, food, dress,
religion, music, language, etc. And all this characteristic can change
depending of the place, country or city. These characteristics define
how the members of the community will act to the other member of his
community and even with members of other communities.
3. Describe the ways in which nonhuman primates exhibit culture.
a. I think they exhibit their culture using the knowledge the acquire
through the years and practice. Known as "cultural heritage" that teach
them how to survive in the jungle for example using the tools as rocks
and wood to access to the food they need to survive. Another way they
use to exhibit their culture is how they're placed inside the family
group, there's a leader and it's he who guides the whole group and
represents the wisdom and experience acquired through the years and
it's in charge to unite and guide the group to survive.

4. Compare nonhuman primate culture to human culture.

a. Both are really similar, both have language, positions inside the group,
task to do, and even they have little familiar links as mother and son.
both have a leader, but this one is not chosen using the democracy, is
the wisest and experimented who guides using the knowledge he got
through the years. Another common point is the territorial division they
have for each different group or family of chimpanzees. But because of
this, it generates conflicts and fights for territory as the same thing
that happens with the humans actually, with the wars the countries
begin because of the resources founded inside other territory.

5. What differences might you observe in how chimpanzees and people present
themselves?
a. I think they present themselves depending on each chimpanzee, if it's
one of their group, they'll just welcome him and make him part of the
group. If not, they'll fight for their territory and their resources. The
people, does the same thing but much more "civilized". For example,
when someone unknown arrives we try to welcome him with the more
courtesy possible, but if this person tries to touch or disturb our

environment we automatically take him out of our lives but without

using the force, because that wont be socially accepted.
6. What factors might shape how chimpanzees communicate and behave
towards one another in comparison to how humans dress and talk?
a. The factors that represents how chimpanzees communicate are the
physical expression, and the noises the patriarchal made to guide the
group when they go search their food. In the humans this is
represented as the way we learned how we have to communicate with
the others, taking care of being polite and respectful with the other
depending of their social status. The chimpanzees use their corporal
language to guide them through precise and complicated movements
like hunt, we see that they use a really basic but effective tactic, using
one "Driver" to guide the hunted to the ambusher, a tactic used by
many military armies in the world.
7. What factors might shape how chimpanzees behave, whether they are alone
or in a group, and how much they work together in comparison to humans?
a. The most important factors are: The environment (as weather,
predators, food, etc.), the territory and the age. The environment, is
because they have to adapt their lives to the conditions of the jungle
so if there's no food, they have to go search it! and to do that they
have to work together, because the jungle is really dangerous for a
lonely chimpanzee because they're many predators looking for food
too. The territory is because if the group controls a territory where the
resources are generous, they have to protect it because as the
humans, the other groups are always looking for a better place to live,
even if they have to fight for it! And the final factor that shapes the
conduct of the chimpanzees is the age, because the older the member
is, the calm he or she will act. This happens with the humans too
because when we are old, we tent to analyse the things before actually
do something, because of the experience. But when we are young we
try the things by the first way we think they have to be done and this
drive us to a lot of failures before we actually succeed anything we do.
8. What is social grooming and why do chimpanzees act this way towards one
another? Do humans behave similarly? Explain.
a. Social grooming is to do something to prepare the group to be unite,
and to solve the conflict that might damage the relations inside the
group. The Alpha does this to prepare the group for any situation that
needs the group to be strong and stay together, for example, in the
video before "Scar" attacked, "Freddie" put his group together to stay
strong against the brute force of scar's group, and at the end the
teamwork defeated the brute force. In the humans we have a similar
way to act but is focused to the personal interest, most of the time we
take care of a person when we need a favor or something from this
person.
9. How is the act of tool use an important part of culture? Give examples of tool
use amongst primates other than human beings.

a. This is important because more than a part of culture is part of the

"survival knowledge" even if this takes many years to master, the
chimpanzees have to learn to be able to take care of themselves and
the other members of the community. For example, the rocks to crack
the shell nuts, the sticks to take the ants from the anthill, and use of
branch to make a bed to pass the night.
10.Compare and contrast the chimpanzees to human beings. Make a
comprehensive list of the similarities and differences between these two
species.
a. First of all, both of the species need to be on group to increase their
chances to survive. They can't live alone and less in an environment
like the jungle, where almost anything can be a predator, because of
this they make groups like family, neighborhoods, etc. Another
similarity it's the need to protect the territory that belongs to the
group, this happens in the humans with the frontiers of every country.
Something that it's similar and different between the species it's the
use of tools, because even if we use gadgets for almost anything,
these are becoming more sophisticated through the years. This
happens too with the communication between the members of the
community, our language it's much more advanced than theirs but
that doesn't mean they don't have a way to communicate and use
their own corporal expression to express their feelings and ideas.
11.How has this exercise changed the way you look at everyday, casual
interactions between humans? Discuss.
a. The exercise helped me to understand that we are not the only living
beings that actually have a way to act according to their environment
and that have an organized society with a leader who is in charge of
guide the group and take care of everyone. Another thing that I see
right now is that event if we "evolve" everyday we still have the little
details that helped us to survive when we lived in the jungle, as the
use of tools to make the task easier to do and this instinct that help us
to protect ourselves and the other members of our little group that
right now we call family.
12.After watching the documentary and reading Keesing's (1974) article,
students are to add to their original definition of culture. What have you
learned? Explain.
a. I think that the culture is everything that, through the years, the
environment made of our way to act face to any situation in our lives.
Is the union of all our rules, traditions and everything that can be used
to identify ourselves as a member of a group, family or society