Scientists think communication with body gestures is evolutionarily younger than facial expressions and vocalizations, since apes and humans gesture, but monkeys do not. The findings offer clues to the origins of human language, the researchers say. A chimp in a fight, for example, might extend its hand toward another chimp in a plea for help, but the same gesture made toward a chimp with food signals a desire for a share. “This is so for both bonobos and chimpanzees.” The message conveyed by a gesture, however, depended upon the social context in which it was used.
For example, “a scream is a typical response for victims of intimidation, threat or attack,” said study team member Amy Pollick.
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They found both species make similar use of facial/vocal signals, but manual gestures were more varied, both within and between species. The finding, detailed in the April 30 issue of the journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, supports the notion that humans were communicating with sign language long before they were speaking, an idea known as the “gestural hypothesis.” Researchers at Emory University studying two groups of chimpanzees (34 animals) and two groups of bonobos (13 animals) observed 31 manual gestures and 18 facial/vocal signals. Our closest primate relatives, the bonobos and chimps, are more versatile when communicating with their hands, feet and limbs than with their facial expressions and voices.
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