Project description
Challenging uniqueness: understanding the origins of culture
Culture represents the social inheritance of behavioural traits and is a defining human characteristic. However, its origins and universality across species remain insufficiently understood. While complex social and cumulative culture is often considered uniquely human, this likely stems from methodological gaps that underestimate primate sociality. The ERC-funded CULT_ORIGINS project aims to challenge this by identifying cultural variation and cooperative cultures in primates. Using deep learning and naturalistic experiments with macaques and great apes, the project will investigate how culture shapes cooperation and social learning. This study, spanning biology, psychology, ethology and anthropology, aims to demonstrate that these ‘human’ capacities have deep, shared evolutionary roots.
Objective
Culture the inheritance of behavioural phenotypes through social learning is one of the most pervasive and influential characteristics of the human species. However, we lack knowledge about the origins of culture and to what extent its sub-components reflect species universals. Studying primates enables us to identify the evolutionary origins of human culture and the extent of its human uniqueness. Until now, it has largely been assumed that the social and cumulative components of human culture are derived phenomena that emerged after the phylogenetic split with the ape lineages. However, this claim may reflect a lack of adequate methodologies and research attention, leaving primate social culture underestimated. Now, combining novel techniques to investigate primate culture (deep learning) with innovative experiments in naturalistic settings, CULT_ORIGINS will overcome this issue by providing the first systematic study on social culture in primates. Rich datasets on macaques will be compared across an unprecedented number of groups to identify cultural variation in primate sociality and the existence of cooperative cultures. Great apes will be studied for their capacity to adopt cultural information flexibly and generate increasingly adaptive cultures the pinnacles of human culture. Combining the strengths of experimental rigor and naturalistic observation in an unparalleled multi-group approach, CULT_ORIGINS will deliver step-change insights into the origins of human culture that go far beyond the State-of-the-Art. We will test the hypothesis that culture permeates the fabric of primates sociality, where it impacts the expression of cooperation, social learning and cumulative culture, like in humans. By synergizing approaches across biology, psychology, ethology and anthropology, CULT_ORIGINS will advance our understanding of the origins of culture, one of our most remarkable capacities, and challenge current perspectives about its human uniqueness.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy primatology
- social sciences sociology anthropology
- social sciences psychology
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands
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