Media Reviews
In every generation, there are some scientists who transcend the strictures of their disciplines, who decline to be confined by ordinary thinking. Whitehead and Rendell are two such people, for our own time. Perhaps it is something to do with the enigmatic beauty of the animals they study. Or perhaps their own brains are better evolved than the rest of ours. Whatever the reason, this book is an astonishing, unconstrained exploration of the nature and practice of cetacean culture. Placing it side by side with human culture, the authors show that the expression of ideas is not limited to humans or primates. Exciting, witty, with its finger--or should that be flipper?--ever on the pulse, wearing its profundity with a wonderful lightness of touch, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is a revolutionary book. Transcending the notion of a 'science' book, it contains explosive new concepts for our understanding not only of whales, our watery cousins, but of our own selves, too. --Philip Hoare author of The Whale and The Sea Inside
There are few environments that are more hostile and present more of a challenge to mammals than the ocean. This is precisely why, Whitehead and Rendell argue in their new book The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins, just like us, knowledge is also a vital currency for these marine mammals. . . . At times it is a humorous journey through aspects of human behaviour and 'decision making, ' resulting as it does from cultural pressures. But this apparent irreverence is not without deeper meaning and strong intent. . . . They provide some sobering insights into those ubiquitous cultural forces that shape us all into modern human beings and at times can leave you reeling with questions about your own free will. This is an exceptional book; it will no doubt irritate some anthropologist who believe that culture is the domain of humans alone; it may even rile some theologians; but far, far more importantly it will help to bridge the gap between humans and other species, speaking as it does to the evolutionary continuum and demonstrating with sound scientific evidence that there are some extraordinary non-human cultures being played out in the natural world. . . . This very book can be considered itself an experiment in social transmission. The question is, will we get the message? --Philippa Brakes, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Huffington Post UK
I've been anxiously waiting for The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins to arrive and consumed it last night and early this morning. (It was far better than my coffee!) Of course, I look forward to rereading it many times for it is that good. . . . Scholarly yet easy to read, and incredibly well referenced. . . . The authors provide ample examples of nonhuman culture . . . and also discuss what we know about topics such as the moral lives of animals and others that are making people think twice about just whom other animals are and what we know about their fascinating and highly evolved cognitive and emotional lives. . . . The skeptics, if any still linger, will have to offer more than something like their dismissive claim, 'Oh, whales and dolphins and other animals are only acting as if they have culture, but they don't.' They clearly do. . . . An outstanding book. . . . The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is destined to become a classic. --Marc Bekoff Psychology Today
Written with an absolutely marvelous inquisitive brio. Whitehead and Rendell don't just bring two lifetimes of experience with sea life and animal cognition to their task--they also write up the fruits of that experience with captivating energy. . . . They display an open-mindedness on their chosen subject that's admirable and rare. . . . The book's insights fly at the reader with a speed and frequency I haven't seen since Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, and all this fascinating information derives from what Whitehead and Rendell are the first to admit is a necessarily limited sampling. . . . The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins might be only a glimpse into the world of its subjects, but it's one of the best glimpses popular science has yet given us. It's invigorating, revelatory reading. --Steve Donoghue Open Letters Monthly
Whitehead and Rendell mesh their own research from several decades of cetacean studies with investigation and theory from the biological, physical, and social sciences. This wealth of experience is distilled into a simple thesis: whale and dolphin culture exists, and it matters--for the survival of cetacean species, for the management of marine ecosystems, and for the way we conceive of human culture. Whitehead and Rendell's work is ambitious in scope, yet careful in its presentation. . . . They define key terms precisely, and employ them consistently. They are also meticulous in separating evidence from interpretation. . . . In its evocative and richly annotated examination of the evolutionary interplay between environment and social learning, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins makes a compelling case that we can learn much more about cetaceans and about human cultures by exploring what we have in common--such as a predisposition to learn from our grandmothers--rather than by insisting on what sets us apart. --Darcy Dobell Hakai Magazine
A stunning account that enriches our understanding of cetacean behaviour and complicates in profound ways the claims of human exceptionalism. . . . The authors present knowledge hard-won from their own decades of studying sperm whales, analyse comparable material from other long-term cetacean research, and offer informed speculation where the data still fall short of hard conclusions. The book represents a gorgeously choreographed dance that depends on balancing what we know for certain about the cultures of whales and dolphins with what seems highly probable but must still be considered speculative. . . . The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is an illuminating look at the lives of cetaceans who think, who feel, and whose lives are profoundly communal. There's no mysticism here, but there is mystery. --Barbara J. King, author of How Animals Grieve Times Literary Supplement
These days I'm very seldom excited by a trade non-fiction title, roaring as most of them are down the middle lane of the same motorway, to the degree I'm excited by the original and vital byways that university presses are exploring for the general reader. In natural history and popular science, alone, for instance: Hal Whitehead and Luke Rendell's amazing book The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins or Brooke Borel's history of the bedbug, Infested, or Caitlin O'Connell's book on pachyderm behaviour, Elephant Don, or Christian Sardet's gorgeous book Plankton? All are published by the University of Chicago. --Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator Guardian
The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is well written, carefully edited, and accessible to a wide readership without sacrificing authoritativeness. The backmatter with notes and bibliography alone extends to 92 pages and there is a 19-page double-column index. The book could serve as reading material in biology or conservation courses, or a delightful provocation in anthropology or psychology courses. It can be anticipated that new editions will be able to chart the further implications of culture and add to the body of evidence. Those of us studying whales are fortunate to have seen our studies go from zero to an extraordinary flowering of data and research results uncovering not just the highly diverse behaviour, life history, and population biology but now enriching ourselves with the cultural lives of wild whales and dolphins. --Erich Hoyt, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, author of Orca: The Whale Called Killer Frontiers in Marine Science
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