The evolution of the concepts of ‘primate culture’ in Western science

While most scholars across the social and biological sciences acknowledge that human culture is distinctive in the comparative context there is widespread acknowledgment that some form of culture does occur in other animals, including in many species of primates. Here we outline key historical patterns and the changes in primatology and the behavioural sciences regarding the concepts of primate culture. In the contemporary moment new methods and approaches are emerging as the field of inquiry matures. Our assessment is that continued and expanded inclusion of methods and theory from both the social and the natural sciences is beneficial, and that a further development of a form of primate ethnology for the comparison and analysis of primate cultures is needed. With a better understanding of the complexities of the primate cultural dynamic, scientists may better be able to model their evolutionary dynamics and consider aspects of primate cultures in conservation action.