Hal Whitehead

Studying the behavior of large whales has been likened to astronomy. The observer glimpses his subjects, often at long range; he cannot…

— Hal Whitehead

But one thing that seems pretty clear when we look at human religion is that it's highly tied in with human culture.…

— Hal Whitehead

We believe we're seeing, in other animals, a process, or an attribute, that isn't fundamentally different from what we see in humans,…

— Hal Whitehead

Whales are cultural animals, and we're cultural animals, so although we shouldn't expect whales to do what we do, it doesn't seem…

— Hal Whitehead

What I mean by it, and roughly what most biologists who talk about culture mean by it, is either behavior itself, or…

— Hal Whitehead

Culture is not usually one of the criterion for personhood, but it has been argued that culture is sort of a medium…

— Hal Whitehead

Conversation with animals could happen, but I think it would be easier for it to happen with creatures we share a bit…

— Hal Whitehead

Religion's pretty pervasive in humans. And why it's pervasive in humans is debated a lot. There are indications of things that look…

— Hal Whitehead

Humans are particularly interesting; our culture is incredible, there's no doubt about that. In many respects, no other species matches ours. But…

— Hal Whitehead

The real controversy comes with anthropologists - not all, but some - who see themselves as studying culture, and they then see…

— Hal Whitehead

I was very lucky. I was just finishing my PhD at Cambridge in 1981. This opportunity came up because whaling was drawing…

— Hal Whitehead

I don't like to be dismissive of whales speaking possibilities. There is a pretty New Age-y, poorly thought set of ideas about…

— Hal Whitehead

I don't think in biology it's very controversial at all. Whether certain behavior is culture or is not culture is argued. I…

— Hal Whitehead

I never thought of that one, that linguistics could be driving cultural things. There are some thoughts that that does happen in…

— Hal Whitehead

Psychologists would say that the only two important forms of social learning are imitation and teaching, and they will spend time trying…

— Hal Whitehead

It's kind of ironic that when you look at the evidence of intelligence and so on, a lot of it is anecdotal.…

— Hal Whitehead

Quite a lot of what we normally think of as human culture doesn't fit some definition. What are the values behind cuisine,…

— Hal Whitehead

A bunch of individuals do the same thing because they learned from watching each other or somebody else. That's what we would…

— Hal Whitehead

When I'm out in the ocean and I watch a seabird, I think, "Oh, I probably I know what that seabird is…

— Hal Whitehead

The actual communicative value of what we say is usually quite small. I've lived for times in small, isolated fishing villages, where…

— Hal Whitehead

What I mean is, if you look at the behavior of an animal and ask, "Well, why did it do that?" and…

— Hal Whitehead