Ethoarchaeology and Elementary Technology of Unhabituated Wild Chimpanzees at Assirik, Senegal, West Africa.

Abstract

Like other wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), thesavanna-dwelling apes of Assirik, Senegal, West Africa,make and use tools and so have an elementary technol-ogy. Unlike their more famous counterparts elsewherein Africa, these apes are not observable at close range.Instead, they are amenable to etho-archaeological study,in which the indirect data of artifacts, remnants, andfecal contents add to the sparse behavioral data. Theseopen-country hominoids show 15 behavioral patternsthat appear to be material culture, in the minimal senseof socially learned behavioral diversity. These can bedivided into subsistence (N = 7), social (5) and mainte-nance (3) activities shown at customary, habitual, orpresent levels of frequency. Some patterns, such as Ter-mite Fish or Baobab Crack, leave behind assemblages ofhundreds of artifacts or remnants in predictable con-texts at enduring worksites. Other patterns are rare andephemeral and are known only from anecdotal data.Almost all artifacts and remnants are non-lithic, and sotheir perishability limits their discovery and analysis.Maximally productive use of such data depends on closecollaboration between archaeology and primatology.