Monkey Games

Play behavior has been viewed as a mixture of elements drawn from "serious" behavior, interspersed by ritualized play signals. Two other types of play behaviors have been overlooked: patterns that are dissimilar from any serious behavior and patterns with self-handicapping character, that is, those that put the animal into unnecessary disadvantageous positions or situations. Here the authors show that these 2 types of patterns can constitute a major part of play repertoire. From our own videorecordings and observations, we constructed play ethograms of 5 monkey species (Semnopithecus entellus, Erythrocebus patas, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, Cercopithecus neglectus, and Cercopithecus diana). The authors evaluated the self-handicapping character of each pattern and in Hanuman langurs also the (dis)similarity to serious behavior. Of the 74 patterns in the 5 species, 33 (45%) were judged to have a self-handicapping character. Of 48 patterns observed in langurs, 16 (33%) were totally dissimilar to any serious langur behavior known to us. The authors discuss the possibility that the different types of play elements may have different functions in play. We owe a special thanks to the Rajawat family for their care during the several months of data collection in India. Special thanks to the friendly and helpful staff in the zoos-for their hospitality and for providing us with valuable information and support. We thank Vratislav Kšáda for his skilful and generous technical help with the videoprocessing. We thank Alena Kozlová and Richard Š tochl for their help with the videorecording in the zoos and with the preparation of the preliminary versions of the play ethogram. Thanks also goes to Petr Š ípek and several the other colleagues for their help during the data collection in

Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2009

Play behavior has been viewed as a mixture of elements drawn from "serious" behavior, interspersed by ritualized play signals. Two other types of play behaviors have been overlooked: patterns that are dissimilar from any serious behavior and patterns with self-handicapping character, that is, those that put the animal into unnecessary disadvantageous positions or situations. Here the authors show that these 2 types of patterns can constitute a major part of play repertoire. From our own videorecordings and observations, we constructed play ethograms of 5 monkey species (Semnopithecus entellus, Erythrocebus patas, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, Cercopithecus neglectus, and Cercopithecus diana). The authors evaluated the self-handicapping character of each pattern and in Hanuman langurs also the (dis)similarity to serious behavior. Of the 74 patterns in the 5 species, 33 (45%) were judged to have a self-handicapping character. Of 48 patterns observed in langurs, 16 (33%) were totally dissimilar to any serious langur behavior known to us. The authors discuss the possibility that the different types of play elements may have different functions in play. We owe a special thanks to the Rajawat family for their care during the several months of data collection in India. Special thanks to the friendly and helpful staff in the zoos-for their hospitality and for providing us with valuable information and support. We thank Vratislav Kšáda for his skilful and generous technical help with the videoprocessing. We thank Alena Kozlová and Richard Š tochl for their help with the videorecording in the zoos and with the preparation of the preliminary versions of the play ethogram. Thanks also goes to Petr Š ípek and several the other colleagues for their help during the data collection in

Human Nature, 2012

People are notoriously reluctant to acknowledge their inner primate and the degree to which "evolutionary baggage" influences their everyday lives. Games Primates Play serves as a wake-up call for readers to recognize how many of the most basic aspects of human social relationships parallel the interactions of our primate relatives. This is not a new theme, and for most readers of this review, Maestripieri would be preaching to the choir. However, scientists are losing the battle of effectively communicating evolutionary ideas about human behavior to a broader audience. Maestripieri's attempt is noteworthy for its engaging, light, and often self-reflective style. With a few interesting exceptions, Maestripieri steers clear of controversy and academic infighting to focus in on a handful of simple, yet powerful, principles that organize the social lives of animals. He presents these not as arguments to be debated, but almost like a handbook for some of the unwritten rules for life, love, and success. So, while the information content of Games Primates Play is not particularly novel (even for Maestripieri, whose previous work, Machiavellian Intelligence (2007), has many of the same themes), the manner of presentation, and the maintenance of a thoughtful and nonadversarial tone, should make Games Primates Play more successful than most at reaching a broad audience. With this initial praise on the table, I must warn those with a moderate familiarity in the field that they may share my initial disappointment over the book's content. Given the author's strong empirical background and the book's title, I expected a detailed breakdown of the latest research on primate social cognition and what it says about the evolution of these capacities in our own species. If this is what you are looking for, you will, like me, grumble at the relatively sparse and generalized discussions of the empirical literature and cringe every time Maestripieri chooses to

Fordham University Press eBooks, 2010

Primates

For close to 50 years, my research has focused on social relationships and social structure, particularly in macaques, and has been marked by a gradual broadening of scope. Supported by open-minded parents, I followed a once unconventional path into field primatology largely by ignoring distinct gender-based ideas about appropriate occupations for women that were prevalent when I was a child. Later, as Robert Hinde's PhD advisee, I benefited enormously from his mentoring and from the transformative experience he provided. I began by examining infant social development in free-ranging rhesus monkeys and the integration of infants into the kinship and dominance structures of their groups. I gradually branched out to look at (1) kinship and dominance in additional age classes and macaque species, (2) additional aspects of social structure (reciprocity, agonistic support, tolerance, cooperation, conflict management), (3) mechanisms and organizing principles (e.g., attraction to kin and high rank, intergenerational transmission, demography, reciprocity, social style, time constraints) and (4) evolutionary underpinnings of social relationships and structure (e.g., parental investment, kin selection, socioecology, phylogeny, biological markets). For much of this journey, I have been accompanied by talented PhD students who have enriched my experience and whom I am now proud to call colleagues and friends. It is gratifying to realize that my career choice is no longer considered as unconventional as it once was.

Current Anthropology, 2013

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Sarimin goes… to the market!" shouts the showman. "Da-da-dum, da-da-dum, da-dadum" beats the drum. And the monkey goes through its routine. It picks up a doll-size mirror, looks at its reflection, and then discards the prop. The monkey's handler casually tosses a parasol and handbag to his charge. It picks these up and walks around in a circle.

Play is an intrinsic value to healthy human growth and is crucial to the persistence of creativity in daily life. The goal of this thesis is to achieve an approach to re-instilling play into the human world. As the title ‘Meaningful play: Applying Zoosemiotics to game development’ suggests, a practical application of theory will be devised in order to put play to work, so to speak. Frame of mind is the crux of the issue because mental frames are frequently determinative of how and what we perceive. By understanding this concept methods to introduce playful frames will help create better playthings. Play activities and social frames for play can be inspired and informed by the animal world, for human and non-human animals live in an interconnected and interrelated ecosystem.

This short essay reflects on the process of learning new skills during the course of my PhD studies. Specifically it explores the manner in which computation and code can be used in cultural studies, and describes the benefits of laborious learning in terms of Sandvig and Hargattai's idea of 'Benchwork' in the Humanities and Social Sciences. It was originally published on The Sociological Review website in May 2017.