Rhetorical Monkeys

To be a little frank, during last class's discussion of rhetoric's place in the social sphere I started thinking about rhetoric in the natural world. Surely, an argument can be made that animals practice in rhetoric. Mocking birds "mock" other sounds, stick bugs look like sticks as a form of defense, my cat meows and blocks the doorway when he wants to be fed; clearly animals persuade one another and even humans to fulfill their needs.

As a result, George A. Kennedy's, "A Hoot in the Dark: The Evolution of General Rhetoric" was an absolutely fascinating read. At one point in the reading I recalled the part from Freakonomics where Dubner and Levitt discuss the 2005 study with Capuchin monkeys and monetary value. Yale economist Keith Chen discovered that they were able to teach these set of monkeys to use coins in exchange for food. Soon, male monkeys began giving their coins to female monkeys in exchange for sex and the female monkeys would then use those extra coins for food.

The Freakonomics explanation:

I thought this example is first related to Kennedy's second thesis, "The receiver's interpretation of a communication is prior to the speaker's intent in determining meaning" (7). While Kennedy later makes the argument that "rhetoric is a defense mechanism," this is clearly not the case in the situations of the prostituting Capuchin monkeys. Secondly and more closely related to Kennedy, this study is a great example of Kennedy's point that "among higher animals, rhetorical skills are transmitted culturally by imitation and learning, not genetically" (11). Trading coins for sex was a learned behavior, not instinctive.

This is where I think a fairly important question comes into play for me, where within communication does rhetoric start and where does it stop? Is trading money without rhetoric? Within human society we pretend and build systems to make it seem as though monetary transactions are not personal or susceptible to rhetoric. However, the career path of "sales" is entirely focused on rhetoric. From the customer point of view, just because I give a store owner a dollar does not obligate that store owner to give me a soda. As Kennedy points out that rhetoric is pre-language, body language plays a large role is rhetorical effectiveness.

In other words, are the Capuchin monkeys practicing in rhetoric by exchanging coins for sex? I think Kennedy would say yes, as would I.