In the article “What Is War Good for? Ask a Chimpanzee”, one of the things I found surprising was how chimpanzees seem to resort to violence because of the same reasons that humans do. The article discusses how both chimpanzees and humans live in fission-fusion social systems, meaning they separate into smaller groups and form tight kinships with that group.This social system description really makes a lot of sense, as humans typically stay close with their blood relatives and close friends, and can become almost defensive about them. The article also states that the purpose for almost all violence between chimpanzees is that one group of chimpanzees is attempting to expand their territory or gain new resources. This is very similar to the cause of violence between humans, as two groups typically fight over resources and land in order to strengthen themselves for the future. I think this is very interesting because it shows that while we are much more complicated than chimpanzees, humans and chimpanzees still share basic desires that tend to lead to conflict. The perspective that this article brings is that while humans can and typically are very independent, we still take pride in being part of a group and are very willing to defend that group in which we are a part of.
Another thing that surprised me was how scientists classify primates, specifically the two kinds of monkeys. This information comes from the PDF link “Primate Classification and Phylogeny”, and states that the key difference between Old World and New World monkeys is their dental structure. This shocked me because I never would have thought that dental structure would be more important to categorize monkeys than features like tail, head shape, or other more obvious characteristics. However, after reading the link thoroughly, I understand why they chose to observe dental structure as a key attribute. Dental structure can be looked at in fossils to determine when the monkey was alive, thus establishing Old World or New World. This scientific approach made me rethink how I might analyze things in the future, as the more obvious features may not be the most important.
I think that non-human primates can teach us a lot about our culture and behavior because they are so similar to us. I believe that we should keep analyzing how monkeys and other primates interact with each other because it gives us an opportunity to understand why they do what they do, which could then help explain why humans do what we do. We should use the information gathered from non-human primates as a template for the basics of human life and then add the complexities we have later. In doing this we may be able to distinguish what effects technology has on our lives and whether certain changes, like the Internet, are derailing us from our basic character or improving our society. Being able to use non-human primates as a sort of control group to allow us to compare humans against other primates is vital to understanding the reasoning behind our behavior and actions.
Hello Jacob, I really enjoyed reading your post and feel that you made many great points. I also read the same article as you and thought it was really fascinating and provided a lot of information. I also thought it was interesting that chimps resort to violence like humans. While I thought it was interesting that they did that I don’t think that’s the best quality as violence can lead to a lot of other issues. I was surprised to read that there were cultural similarities where both humans and chimps actually preferred to stay within their group of people which may have included there close friends and family.It is quite interesting to see how different we are from chimps but the basics are very similar
Hey Jacob, I actually thought the same thing about the classifications of species by dental structure. I don’t know why this was surprising as it’s pretty intuitive that bone anatomy would explicitly define different time periods, but I guess I just don’t think about it enough. Additionally, I found your opinion about these observations really enduring, since I took another view from these readings. I like how you state non-human primate interactions serve as a template for human evolution and we can then notice how layers of complexity such as the internet affects behavior differently. I choose to think of it as how evolution differs, but not by measuring the different circumstances and basing it on biological changes through time.
Jacob,
I really like the point you made about human behavior differing from that of the past due to technological advances. Studying primates allows us to compare our habits of today to those of a species that technology and other advancements are foreign to.
Addressing your point about the Old and New World monkeys, I, too, find it interesting that the dental structure of these animals is such a key benchmark in differentiating them. One would think that other elements of the body would evolve exponentially enough from the Old to New Worlds to designate differences between the species.
Additionally, your perspective of the similarities between primates and humans concerning violence is spot on. Most violence that occurs today in our world results from conflict between groups or one group trying to protect itself from another.