There was lots of information in the videos and links that surprised me. I always knew humans were part of the primate family and that we descended from a shared common ancestor with present day wild primates, but the extent to which we are similar was quite surprising. In the videos, it was interesting to see the primates act in humanistic ways. They have forms of communication that are similar to how we use language. The Chimpanzees and Bonobos acted in ways similar to us. In the video, “The New Chimpanzee” I was completely surprised that chimps used tools to get food. They had very hierarchical societies that they lived in with rules, roles, and almost a culture. They used violence and acted strategically to fend off other groups of chimps, a sad truth that war and violence may be an instinct for us. The bonobos in that video further proved that war and security are instinctual when they were seen creating what the narrator called a “paramilitary” group to patrol the area that belonged to them.

The primates also displayed emotions, sympathy, and empathy. Although it was common for alpha male chimps to kill off young chimps to force the mothers to mate with them when a young chimp died from natural causes or outside forces the collective often displayed sadness and grief. They had almost what could be considered a funeral where respects were paid to the deceased and the mother was comforted. The Bonobos used less violence but showed humanistic traits by the amount they valued sexual relations. They would use sexual relations to bond with one another and would do it recreationally, not just for breeding purposes. In many of the videos that were part of this week’s material showed and explained that chimps, our closest non human primate relative, value learning and are very active in learning from one another. It is a very human trait to value and to have a want to learn. Not many animals are curious and it was surprising and interesting that chimps not only were curious but often searched for new solutions to old problems.

I think we are better able to understand our biology and behavior from studying primates, especially primates that we are closely related to, such as chimps and bonobos. Biologically, we can look at the appearance and physical features of primates to assess how much we have evolved and why. For instance, some primates have much longer and stronger arms that allow them to survive in the trees. We can assume that humans left the forest at one point for the grasslands which led to us evolving in a specific way. We also can compare brain size, genes, and much more to give us clues of our evolutionary history. In terms of behavior, it is fascinating to study non human primates. When we see chimps using tools, have a structured society that includes roles, rules, and security, along with forms of communication we can assume that these behaviors in humans have been common for millions of years. Since primates are closely related to our human ancestors and since we descended from a shared non human ancestor, studying primates is very important. Both biologists and anthropologists study behavior patterns and biological features in search for clues of our evolutionary past.