"Can human sciences be applied to animal societies"

Participants: Florent Kohler, Grant Goodrich, Irina Meketa, Colin Allen and Olivia Sultanescu

The last couple of decades have seen an increased interest in the study of culture in animals. Most studies of culture in animals have been focused on the cultural transmission of behaviors. For the most part, they have not considered whether or how culture influences the concepts that the animals have. Researchers studying animal concepts have also (mostly) not asked whether animals' concepts are socially constructed or otherwise influenced by the animal's culture. In this talk I will argue for the heuristic attribution of socially/culturally constructed concepts to animals, and I will consider how supposing that some animals' concepts are socially constructed can inform both the study of culture in animals and also the study of animal concepts.