The Raising of Wildness. How Animals Create Their Culture, Raise Offspring, Teach and Learn

Many believe that culture is an exclusively human phenomenon. But this book tells the stories of cultures whose bearers are not humans: they are wild animals inhabiting the pristine areas of our planet. Carl Safina demonstrates that sperm whales, macaws, or chimpanzees can also be aware of themselves as part of a community that lives by its own special way and has its own traditions. Safina argues that for both animals and humans, culture is an answer to the eternal question: "Who are we?" Culture makes individual members of a species feel like a group. However, cultural groups are often inclined to avoid one another or even to hostilities. By demonstrating that this tendency is equally characteristic of a variety of animals, Safina explains why we humans have not been able to eradicate intercultural conflicts, even though the differences between us often have no substantial objective basis.