Culture in sentient beings: Purpose, evolution, conservation

Behaviour is what we do. Culture is how we do it. Culture is information and behaviour that can be learned and shared socially. Cultures change when rare individuals innovate something and a social group adopts it. Culture provides identity; we know who we are by who we are with. And because we tend to be with those who do similar things, culture aids cooperation. Most importantly, culture is the answer to the question of, "How do we live here, where we live?" Humans do a dizzying array of cultural things. But many animals other than human also have cultural aspects, and some of these are crucial to survival. Social mammals such as chimps and elephants and orcas, and many birds and fishes, learn their cultures similarly to how humans absorb culture: by observing their mother and their elders, seeing what they do, and coming to understand how things are done. Culture aggregates individuals into groups and keeps groups apart. In species where survival skills are socially learned, culture has crucial implications for conservation, especially reintroductions.