9321211 Rodman Animal vocalizations (growls, screeches, grunts, and so forth) have been studied by scientists from two perspectives - 1) regarding them as manifestations of emotional arousal of an animal that at best convey a notion of what the animal might do, and 2) seeing them as communicating specific information about 'objects' in the environment, and hence functionally equivalent to some human words (warning calls, "here's the food", etc.). Virtually absent, however, has been the consideration of vocalizations as functioning to communicate information about the identity of the animal, or what linguists refer to as the indexical function of language. It is clear that non-vocal identifiers are important, such as olfactory cues. For primates, however, except for long-distance chimpanzee calls, there has been very little study in this area. This 14 month field study will investigate the ability of rhesus macaques to recognize each other's vocalizations on the island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. The research is designed to test explicit hypotheses concerning the presence and nature of unique vocal 'signatures', and the level at whcih they facilitate vocal recognition of group members. The results of this study will contribute to an understanding of the social functions of primate vocal communication. They will also yield insight into the cognitive processes by which primates recognize conspecifics and group them into meaningful social categories that can guide behavioral decision-making. ***
