What humans have learned from other animals: grant for research on interspecies exchange
The Volkswagen Foundation is funding ZOOGESTURES, a new project which investigates learning and technical inventions across species in early human history / 1.3 million euros over four years
An international collaborative research project of the universities of Cologne, Siegen and St Andrews has been successful in the Volkswagen Foundation’s highly competitive funding line “Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown”. The research project “The Zoomorphology of Gestures: Interspecies Learning and Technical Invention in Early Human Evolution (ZOOGESTURES)” will be supported with 1.3 million euros in total over four years from 2026 to 2029, of which approximately 600,000 euros will remain at the University of Cologne. In Cologne, the project is based at the MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) research hub and the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. It is headed by the deep-time archaeologist and palaeoenvironmental scientist Dr Shumon T. Hussain. At St Andrews University, Professor Catherine Hobaiter is responsible for the project, and at the University of Siegen Dr Johannes Schick.
“This international team’s success in the Volkswagen Foundation’s funding line shows that research at the University of Cologne also takes unusual paths and questions old certainties. We can look forward to the new perspectives their work will open up,” said Professor Joybrato Mukherjee, Rector of the University of Cologne.
As part of ZOOGESTURES, the research teams from the three universities are bringing together philosophical, anthropological, archaeological and primatological expertise to investigate how animals and humans communicate via gestures and what role this form of communication has played in early human technological evolution. The project opens up the new research field of so-called Interspecies Gestural Studies and develops previously unconsidered perspectives on the origins of key human technologies as well as novel explanatory approaches to important technical innovations in early human history. The central thesis of the team is that imitation and learning from other organisms in a shared environment already shaped the cultural development of our Ice Age ancestors.
The scientists want to investigate whether humans and animals possibly co-created early technological niches and whether human technological development is therefore significantly influenced by nonhuman actors. Humans may have recognized technological solutions and options for action using the example of certain animals, translated distinct ways of using bodies and objects and adopted them for themselves. The research project is the first to develop a theoretical framework for examining these connections by integrating concepts from anthropology, philosophy of technology, animal studies, ecology and behavioural science as well as drawing on Indigenous knowledges on the relevance of non-human behaviour from North America, Australia and Africa.
The researchers are re-evaluating archaeological data to identify and understand previously overlooked gesture-mediated technological transactions between species. The teams are planning joint anthropological and primatological fieldwork in West and East Africa (Guinea and Uganda) on the behaviour of different chimpanzee and mountain gorilla groups and their coexistence and interactions with local human communities. The aim is to examine whether their knowledge systems and surviving oral history provide evidence of a previously overlooked contribution of these animals to the gestural and technical repertoire of humans. The project also investigates which other creatures the primates pay particular attention to in everyday life and in various communication situations, and what role the observation of other species’ behaviours plays.
“Until now, research has assumed that technicality and technical evolution in early humans can be fully explained by human-specific factors such as cognition and problem-solving skills alone. ZOOGESTURES aims to challenge this view and to show that humans did not evolve into humans in opposition to, but in collaboration with their natural environment,” says Dr Hussain. The nonhuman environment, the researchers believe, constitutes a rich archive of behaviour that can be drawn upon both as a model and inspiration for the development of new tools and technologies. The funding received from the Volkswagen Foundation offers the international team the unique opportunity to explore such unconventional paths in research.
The Volkswagen Foundation’s “Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown” initiative supports radically explorative research projects that break new scientific ground and are highly relevant in the field of basic scientific research. The funded initiatives have considerable potential for fundamental scientific breakthroughs, but also yield heightened risks for failure.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Dr Shumon T. Hussain
Research Hub MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities)
Department for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne
+49 221 470 1293 (MESH office)
s.t.hussain@uni-koeln.de
Weitere Informationen:
https://mesh.uni-koeln.de/
https://ufg.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/
https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/de/foerderung/foerderangebot/pioniervorhaben-explorationen-des-unbekannten-unbekannten
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