After watching this week’s lectures, reading the links, and watching the videos I learned a great deal about how non-human primates provide information about human evolution and the human species in general. A fact that really surprised me and stood out to me was in the Chimpanzee Wars link. Learning that the instinct to kill was a trait that humans and chimpanzees both inherited from a common ancestor was very interesting to me. I have always thought of humans as the most violent species, and the ones who inflict the most harm on other species, so to learn that we evolved this trait from our common ancestor with chimpanzees was news to me. However, I disagree that violence is a part of human nature and that every human has a capacity to be violent towards others. There are many strong believers in peace and even if provoked with violence, they would not respond with violence. I also found it very interesting that these are all a result of fission-fusion social systems and seeing how these societies create opportunities for violence. It was very cool to me to read about all the similarities between human violent behavior, such as gang attacks, and chimpanzee/spider monkey behavior. I found the facts about the bonobos to be very interesting and enlightening as well. To learn that there is a species of ape that is peaceful and prone to friendships was a nice break from all the violence. In general, the whole concept of how closely related humans and apes are and how we all evolved from them is very interesting to me. I think studying non-human primates is one of the best ways to understand our own biology, behavior and culture because they are the closest species to us and we all developed from them. We can learn a lot about humans by studying these groups such as why we look the way we do, why we act the way we do, why some humans are more prone to violence, our mating behaviors, and much much more. It can be extremely beneficial to look at the past and fossil records/DNA in order to understand how and why humans ended up turning out the way we are. I think it would also be very interesting to understand how humans evolved to be such a superior species who has so much control over the fate of every other species on earth. Studying non-human primates can be beneficial not only to anthropologists, but also sociologists, biologists, psychologists, chemists, and many other fields that study humans. Personality traits did not just arise in humans out of nowhere. Everything we do has a reason and looking back to the past to understand why things such as violence, gang attacks and killings occur can be one of the best ways to figure out why humans are programmed like this. Looking to non-human primates’ past history can not only help us understand why things are the way they are in the present, but may even give us an inclination to how the human species will continue to evolve in the future.