Data from: Temporal stability of chimpanzee social culture

Culture is a hallmark of the human species, both in terms of the
transmission of material inventions (e.g., tool manufacturing) and the
adherence to social conventions (e.g., greeting mannerisms). While
material culture has been reported across the animal kingdom, indications
of social culture in animals are limited. Moreover, there is a paucity in
evidencing cultural stability in animals. Here, based on a large dataset
spanning 12 years, I show that chimpanzees adhere to arbitrary
group-specific handclasp preferences that cannot be explained by genetics
or the ecological environment. Despite substantial changes in group
compositions across the study period, and all chimpanzees having several
behavioral variants in their repertoires, chimpanzees showed and
maintained the within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity
that is so characteristic of the cultural phenomenon in the human species.
These findings indicate that human culture, including its arbitrary social
conventions and long-term stability, is rooted in our evolutionary
history.