Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
Since the last 35 years, many researchers have worked on self-medication in non-human primates, and have explained the manifestation of some behaviours by therapeutic or prophylactic self-medication. However, an attentive analysis of these studies reveals that they are often anthropomorphic, that th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Société Francophone de Primatologie
2017-09-01
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| Series: | Revue de Primatologie |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/2575 |
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| Summary: | Since the last 35 years, many researchers have worked on self-medication in non-human primates, and have explained the manifestation of some behaviours by therapeutic or prophylactic self-medication. However, an attentive analysis of these studies reveals that they are often anthropomorphic, that they have quantitative gaps, and that they rely sometimes on suppositions, and not on evidence. For these reasons, we propose at first a critical review of the studies on leaf-swallowing, on geophagy, on fur-rubbing, and on avoidance of fecal contamination. Furthermore, because to our knowledge no study so far has really focused on the mechanisms that could explain the presence of self-medicating behaviours, we deal secondly with the mechanisms of individual learning (by operant conditioning) and of social learning (and with the question of a specifically self-medicating culture). An analysis with these two objectives reveals the existence of mechanisms that could explain self-medication and, consequently, the likely existence of self-medicating behaviours, but indicates nevertheless that we must be patient: new studies on this topic are essential. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-3757 |