Structure and Functions of Gesture Sequences in Wild Bonnet Macaques (Macaca radiata)

Nonhuman primates – mostly apes – are known to combine gestural units in non-random ways, but they do not make novel meaning with these combinations. In this paper, we investigated, for the first time, the structure and functions of gesture sequences in the naturally occurring communication of wild bonnet macaques, using analyses akin to ape gesture studies. We discuss our findings in the light of a possibility that primate gesture sequences, coordinating the flow of social interactions, may be evolutionary precursors to pragmatic gestures in human language.