Material culture—that is, group-shared and socially learned object-related behaviour(s)—is a widespread and diverse phenomenon in humans. For decades, researchers have sought to confirm the existence of material culture in non-human animals; however, the main study systems of interest—namely, tool making and/or using non-human primates and corvids—cannot provide such confirmatory evidence: because long-standing ethical and logistical constraints handicap the collection of necessary experimental data. Synthesizing evidence across decades and disciplines, here, I present a novel framework for (mechanistic, developmental, behavioural, and comparative) study on animal material culture: avian nest construction.

物质文化——即群体共享和社会学习的对象相关行为——是人类普遍存在的多样化现象。几十年来，研究人员一直试图确认非人类动物中物质文化的存在。然而，主要的研究系统——即工具制造和/或使用非人类灵长类动物和鸦科动物——不能提供这样的确证证据：因为长期存在的伦理和后勤限制阻碍了必要的实验数据的收集。综合数十年和学科的证据，在这里，我提出了一个关于动物物质文化的（机械的、发展的、行为的和比较的）研究的新框架：鸟巢建造。