Sounds like these chimps are on to something!
After months of continuous study, researchers find that chimpanzees are fickle when it comes to trading one thing for another, unless they are gaining something better in return. Never would have guessed. They are animals, after all.
Still, scientists have found that, when trained, chimps are more willing to give up one good (let’s say, carrots) for something they like better (grapes or apple slices).
During various studies with teaching chimps the barter system, one chimp’s results and learning capability went above and beyond. Sarah Brosnan, a primatologist at Georgia State University, stated, “The first time we gave her a packet of cucumbers, she ate almost all of them, but then exchanged one or two and saw she got grapes back on a one-for-one basis. The next time she got cucumbers, she opened up the packet, gave a look, wrapped it back up and pushed it back over and got grapes. This happened for the next nine times.”
I can’t say I’m not impressed.
Although most people know chimps can be trained to do all sorts of tasks, the interesting factor lies in how the chimps learned to trust human trading partners. But, in the wild, there is no such trading system. This article put it best: “Apes lack reliable ways in the wild to enforce deals and punish individuals that cheat trading partners by running off with both commodities. In nature, the chimpanzees also lack norms of ownership regarding property — they do not store property and thus would have few chances to trade commodities.”
They do, however, have highly active ‘service economies’. For example, they learned to trade grooming for sex. Enough said.
Although the common link between chimps and humans has no apparent mechanism that supports any type of trade/bartering system, it makes you wonder why humans have been trading paper and metal all these centuries.
Maybe more people should be in the ‘service economy’ business.
