New research suggests that dolphins have specific whistles for individuals and will use them to identify those individuals. In other words, dolphins have their on way of naming and calling one another. This is just one more example of the intelligence of dolphins, which is fascinating for studies of the evolution of intelligence and communication. But it is also an interesting thought experiment for linguistic anthropologists. In human societies, names often indicate not just the individual but certain relational information about kinship, status, age, and other contextual data. In America, our last names indicate descent and kinship and personal titles such as Mr., Ms., and Mrs. indicate status and marriage. In other societies, slaves might be nameless or, as was the case in America, they were stripped of their given names and assigned new ones associated with their owners. In certain areas of China, men gain names as they attain statuses over their lives while women functionally lose their names when they marry. Yoruban names indicate a plethora of information about the child - parents, location and time of birth, and family history. In some societies like the Orokaiva, the dead do not have names. In short, around the world naming is a complex system of indicated vast amounts of information regarding an individual and their place in society. If you're interested in learning more, you can read a book of essays about it all here.
So returning to the original article, what might dolphin names indicate beyond just signifying a particular individual? What would be important in dolphin culture? Gender? Parenting? Coupling? What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment