Is That Grass In Your Ear?

     If you’re like me, fashion trends have always perplexed you. To be fair, most aspects of social existence perplex me, but fashion is a feature of particular fascination. While there are those like myself that pay no more attention to the styles of the times than to the weather in Canada, there are also those that have entire wardrobe changes based on the new season’s trends. Whichever camp you find yourself in, you may be adhering more to the trends than you realize. As it turns out, social fashion is a far-reaching paradigm.

     Now, if we start a broad discussion of social conventions and how they transfer within a group, we’ll be here forever. I’d love to get into it, but there simply isn’t the space. (For a unique take on the subject, I recommend “The Path” by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh.) For our purpose, I’ll be focusing on fashion conventions within a society which I will define as a trend that serves no other purpose than appearance. A quick example.

Several articles ago I covered how I feel about wearing a necktie. I listed a lot of reasons for my opinion, among them that the tie is a cold weather garment. It’s a modification of the scarves worn by military personal that kept their collars closed, maintaining body heat. Noting the practicality within the modern world, ties serve no purpose and if they do, only in the winter. They have come to be a symbol of social caste and power but don’t usually serve an actual function. That’s the kind of thing we’re talking about.

Monkeys!

(Sorry, couldn’t think of a better transition.) Back in 2010, researchers at a Zambian preserve noticed one of the chimps, (Julie) started sticking a piece of grass in her ear. She wasn’t cleaning her ear, saving the tool for future use, or trying to drown out the male chimp’s snoring. Researchers could find no practical purpose for this behavior, Julie just did it. Quickly, 8 of the 12 chimps in Julie’s group started doing the same thing. Presumably, these following chimps got as much practical use out of the behavior as Julie did.

The curious part was that this fashion trend was maintained after Julie died. If this grass-in-ear behavior was simply about showing loyalty to a dominant member of the group, one would expect it to fall out of fashion, but it has persisted.

This behavior shows a number of aspects of chimp society, not the least of which is that they investigate new methods and learn from each other. An arbitrary behavior, with no discernable purpose, that is maintained after the originator’s death. That’s fashion. When chimpanzees start publishing their own version of Cosmo, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

There is an obvious “monkey see, monkey do” reference to make here and when this story was first reported in 2014, most of the articles had that as their title. It goes beyond that though. The grass-in-ear behavior did pop up in some of the other groups of chimpanzees, but the trend never caught on. It only flourished in Julie’s group.

     I don’t know what this means. More than anything I thought it was a fascinating story and one that didn’t get enough common attention. If I must draw a moral from it though (as I often do), I think it would be to be aware of how your surroundings change you. Know the reasons behind your behavior and presentation, especially in a social setting, otherwise we all end up with grass sticking out of our ears and no idea why.