We can learn a lot from non-human primates. Although we do have our differences we also have a lot of similarities. I really enjoyed learning this topic. As I have said before in other blogs, I did not know much about anthropology before this class or much about evolution as I went to a private school so I was never taught the subject in school.  What surprised me most was actually from lecture. Being that I am a psychology major I have learned a lot about the human brain. What I have not learned until this class is about the non-human primate brain. Although lecture did not go into tons of detail, I did find it interesting that we have very similar brains to the non-human primates yet we have large cerebrum. Non-human primates still have a hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain. This seems like it might be obviously (in hindsight I see that it is) but considering how much more intelligent the human species is compared to other non-human primates you would think that our brains would vastly differ from one another. 

I think that we can understand our own biology, behavior and culture by studying non-human primates. As we learned from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the article, What does it mean to be human?,humans and non-humans are known for being social, smart, vocal, communicative with members of their social groups and move around on two legs. These are just some of our similarities. We can use these similarities while being aware of our differences to study non-human primates to give us a better understanding of human behavior and biology. Our social life is more similar than one would think. Non-human primates live in social groups just as us humans do. As humans take years to grow up and mature, so do chimpanzees, our closest primate relative (although us humans take longer to completely grow up). Chimp parents and human parents both invest a lot into their offspring. Our parents are very involved in our lives. They help feed us, bath us, teach us many important lessons in life when we are young just as chimp mothers do to their young. They learn from interacting with others just as humans do. Many researchers have studied how humans learn from observing others behavior. What we also know is that our non-human primate relatives learn the same way, although human interactions are more complex than non-human primates. I find it interesting how we socially have a lot in common and this is why I do think it is very beneficial to study non-human primates to learn more about humans.