[Art, mourning, and culture: New frontiers in primate cognition].

Résumé

For centuries, the question of human uniqueness has fueled scientific and philosophical debates. Humans have often been portrayed as singular beings endowed with abstract abilities such as tool use (Homo habilis), economic reasoning and theory of mind (Homo economicus), aesthetic sensibility (Homo aestheticus), or awareness of death and spirituality (Homo deus). However, advances in ethology and evolutionary anthropology have uncovered in non-human species behaviors once thought to be exclusively human. This paper explores three of these domains - culture, mourning, and art - through a comparative approach across human and non-human primates. By examining mechanisms of social transmission, behavioral expressions related to death, and graphic productions such as drawing, we discuss cognitive continuities between species, methodological challenges (notably anthropomorphism), and the broader implications for redefining the boundary between nature and culture. Our findings suggest that rather than representing absolute distinctions, these capacities reveal shared evolutionary roots of cognition, emotion, and creativity across the primate lineage.