The most interesting part of this week’s readings to me was the piece about warfare and primates, and what they might tell us about human aggression. The article starts off by stating that, “instead of humans and chimps being natural born killers, violence in both species may be more a matter of circumstance.” Because the article focuses on primates that haven’t all evolved from the same ancestor (chimps and spider-monkeys being the main point of discussion), we learn about the fusion-fission relationship. In short, it has to do with social construction and relationships that primates are able to have in their habitats. It was floated that primates who don’t have such tight-knit communities (due to social structures, food resources, and mating habits), often fight more often. The “ties of kinship” aren’t there, and so raids become more common.

I think this obviously plays into human behavior and biology. Since we are animals fundamentally, I do think there is potential for violence in most humans. As kids, sometimes we get into fights. Most adults outgrow this, but we still have contact sports and other instances of mostly controlled violence (outside of proper warfare of course). I think what we can learn most from our studies of primates is the social effect of tribalism. This article talks about something so fundamental in human society; the threat of the “other.” Often fear happens because of the unknown. Unlike with animals, however, humans aren’t fighting over resources the way the spider-monkeys were. Additionally, we have rational and logical thought in the way that they don’t. Yet still, many humans still cling to tribalism and become angry (sometimes violently so) at people who are unlike them or came from somewhere different than them.

This whole article really surprised me because I think I just assumed that all primate groups fought regularly. I don’t know much about fighting patterns of most animals, and I think I was being a little bit self-centered as a human, but it makes sense that not all primates fight regularly. It’s just how some human cultures are more violent than other ones based on social norms, religion, culture, and history. The complexity of each cultural primate group was fascinating to read about, and it was helpful in separating groups from which ancestors they descended from.

I enjoy primatology because I think it’s really helpful if we want to zoom out of focus on ourselves for a little bit. I think it helps provide a bigger picture of how similar social and biological processes work. When we’re bogged down only studying humans, it can be hard to catch patterns or troubling behavior. When we study primates, we are able to think of solutions without necessarily realizing that those solutions could also be applied to humans. I think there’s less pressure (culturally and socially) that way. I think we sort of trick ourselves into learning about humans when we study primatology (and when we study other animals as well), and it’s why I think it’s so important to have a connection to animals and the natural world.