Abstract
The majority of what is currently known about primate gestural communication is based on studies with great apes, mostly in captive settings and obtained by observational methods. More recently, however, there has been an increasing number of studies on wild populations of both great apes and monkeys. Current research topics concern the mechanisms underlying the acquisition of primate gestures, whether they have specific meanings, and whether they are used to refer to specific objects or locations. In contrast to the traditionally almost exclusively unimodal approach of gesture research, an increasing number of studies investigates gestures and their combinations with facial expressions or vocalizations in a more integrated, multimodal way.
