Primates are a major indicator of how humans behave today. Many of our social behaviors come from primates. They allow us to really understand how humans act in different environments and situations. The first type of behavior we take away from primates is socioecology. It is the study of social structure and organization pertaining to the environment. These are things like diet, habitat, predators, etc. The other type of behavior from primates is called sociobiology. This is the study of behavior from an evolutionary perspective, particularly natural selection. This is more focused on the genetics of behavior. I thought it was very interesting when it was talking about how people thought that having particular genes and chemicals in your brain made you act a certain way. However, they found that this is false because we have so much control over our actions, so really it has more to do with the environment and social cues. I thought it was interesting when it was talking about Darwin. Darwin’s three main concepts are danger, food, and sex. Danger is important because primates must avoid danger in order to survive and reproduce. Then food is also important for the same reason, to survive and reproduce, and is also important social living aspects. I thought the part that was talking about flowering plants was very interesting. It related to defense for the plants. The last concept talked about sex. I thought it was interesting when it was talking about how much more energy it takes for females to reproduce. That is why they are very particular on who has their offspring with them. Relating back to how primates are similar to the ways we act like humans, I think the idea of dominance hierarchies is very relevant. It is where males compete with each other to access the female. In today’s society, you see that all the time, and it stems from our ancestors. I also thought it was interesting that it said the alpha male has more mating success. Even though again this is talking about primates it related to humans today. I thought a very interesting part was when it said that there is evidence that females favor males who have formed a friendship with them in the past. It is crazy how similar this statement is when talking about humans today. I very much think that we have humans can better understand our own biology, behavior, culture by looking at primates. When watching the videos there were many things said about primates that almost sounded like they were talking about our culture today. The thing that stood out to me the most was when discussing male and female mating interactions. Many of the things that were talked about in regards to primates almost sounded like it was talking about humans today. I think there are many valuable things that can be learned about our ancestors that help us really understand humans today. That is why anthropology is so important as a whole.