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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Main Author: Samuel Poirier‑Poulin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société Francophone de Primatologie 2017-09-01
Series:Revue de Primatologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/2575
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author Samuel Poirier‑Poulin
author_facet Samuel Poirier‑Poulin
author_sort Samuel Poirier‑Poulin
collection DOAJ
description 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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spelling doaj-art-341b18c74ad345789adde78d350fa7872025-01-30T10:02:12ZengSociété Francophone de PrimatologieRevue de Primatologie2077-37572017-09-01710.4000/primatologie.2575Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiersSamuel Poirier‑PoulinSince 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.https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/2575cultureself-medicationleaf-swallowinggeophagyfur-rubbingconditioning
spellingShingle Samuel Poirier‑Poulin
Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
Revue de Primatologie
culture
self-medication
leaf-swallowing
geophagy
fur-rubbing
conditioning
title Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
title_full Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
title_fullStr Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
title_full_unstemmed Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
title_short Les primates non humains sont-ils médecins ? Une analyse critique des études sur l’automédication et de ses mécanismes premiers
title_sort les primates non humains sont ils medecins une analyse critique des etudes sur l automedication et de ses mecanismes premiers
topic culture
self-medication
leaf-swallowing
geophagy
fur-rubbing
conditioning
url https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/2575
work_keys_str_mv AT samuelpoirierpoulin lesprimatesnonhumainssontilsmedecinsuneanalysecritiquedesetudessurlautomedicationetdesesmecanismespremiers