Studying the way non-human primates gives us a lot of insight on human evolution and how much we truly relate to these other primates. First, the article “Our True Dawn: Pinning Down Human Origins” speaks on the fact that we know that at some point we shared a common ancestor with chimps, we know this but the time we separated is unclear. In addition, in “What Is War Good For? Ask a Chimpanzee” explains an event that Jane Goodall encountered when a group of chimpanzees attacked another stranger chimpanzee due to the gangs the chimps created from a “four-year war” of northern and southern chimps. This event was the first time that scientists had documented warfare mentality among chimpanzees. Then, researchers continued to record similar violence at other locations where chimps were being studied. In turn, by discovering the warfare mentality within chimps, the instinct to kill may also be a trait that humans inherited from their similar ancestors. However, the instinct to kill may be circumstantial for humans. This theory is believed due to the way spider moneys attack. Spider monkeys have been observed being violent in a stealthy way. These spider monkeys carefully plan out their attack to another community. Plus, the scientists observed that they acted in ways that they don’t do regularly. For example, descending onto the forest floor and walking on all fours with their tails straight up. Yet, spider monkeys’ ancestry was separated from humans and chimps about 35 million years ago. Therefore, there may be similar qualities in their social lives that lead to violence being a favorable defense. Next, the article explains the spider monkeys, chimpanzees, and traditional human societies are fission-fusion social systems; group members don’t hang around together all the time but break off into smaller parties with ever-changing membership. However, females still follow where the resources are where males tend to stay where they were born. This is similar to what we talked about in lecture, females tend to go where resources are for their offspring and males follow the females or stay where they are. Thus, these fission-fusion societies create an opportunity for violence. The opportunity arises from communities being subdivided during the day. Then, once this happens it is more likely for the sub-group from one community to run into another sub-group from a different community. Therefore, this leads to an imbalance of power and the risk for violence rises. As you can see, from all the evidence of other primates acting in a specific way can lead us to information about the way humans work. Ultimately, examining the way that chimpanzees and spider monkeys behave can give us more insight on how our ancestry connects. For these articles, the information of us being related is clear. The way that chimpanzees and spider monkeys use the theory of group-think is very similar to humans. Although humans are more civilized, we have more information on how our DNA affects our natural instinct to use violence. Plus, these situations can be more likely due to our environment, like the spider monkeys. In conclusion, by observing non-human primates, we can learn more about how humans naturally work.