gesturing language. researchers who ve spent years observing great apes closely in the wild have recorded a whole gesture dictionary dozens of signals, expressions and movements that chimps and bonobos use to communicate. by showing videos of these gestures to volunteers, scientists discovered that more than half the time, people are able to understand the message that a wild chimp or bonobo is trying to convey. here s how a chimpanzee says groom me, please . and this is a bonobo silently demanding food from a companion. some gestures are easier for us to understand than others. this display is apparently flirtation. but the fact that we can derive meaning from these gestures suggests they provided a foundation for our own language. our last common ancestors with bonobos and chimpanzees probably used quite similar gestures. and these gestures may then have gone on to scaffold the evolution of human gesture and human language
recorded a whole gesture dictionary dozens of signals, expressions and movements that chimps and bonobos use to communicate. by showing videos of these gestures to volunteers, scientists discovered that more than half the time, people are able to understand the message that a wild chimp or bonobo is trying to convey. here s how a chimpanzee says groom me, please . and this is a bonobo silently demanding food from a companion. some gestures are easier for us to understand than others. this display is apparently flirtation. but the fact that we can derive meaning from these gestures suggest they provided a foundation for our own language. our last common ancestors with bonobos and chimpanzees probably used quite similar gestures. and these gestures may then have gone on to scaffold the evolution of human gesture and human language as we know it now. gorillas, orangutans and other great apes also use some of these same signals.
seems we can also figure out how apes are communicating. volunteers watched videos of chimps and bonobos and were asked what they were trying to convey. 0ur science correspondent victoria gill has the results. grooming builds bonds of friendship. 0ur closest living relatives. social, intelligent primates that communicate without speaking. and it seems that we humans can tune into this silent gesturing language. researchers who ve spent years observing great apes closely in the wild have recorded a whole gesture dictionary dozens of signals, expressions and movements that chimps and bonobos use to communicate. by showing videos of these gestures to volunteers, scientists discovered that more than half the time, people are able to understand the message that a wild chimp or bonobo is trying to convey. here s how a chimpanzee says groom me, please . and this is a bonobo silently demanding food from a companion. some gestures are easier for us to understand than others. this display is
this is kind of a starting point if we are thinking about how human gesture and language evolved. we know we are starting with this set of gestures or this gesture ability which is shared with living great apes. we are looking at some pictures as you are talking and the stroking of the mouth, for example, means, give me food, and then tearing strips from a leaf with teeth is a sign of flirtation. i am just wondering how that works in the human world instead of the chimpanzee or bonobo world! yes, that is an interesting one. they take leaves like this and they will just tear them off. there is some community differences so there is a nice new bit of research that there are community differences in how the chimps do this, and bonobos will pick off leaves and drop them. i don t know, i am not sure whether to recommend people try