In the article on chimpanzees, Wayman talks about the prevalence of violence in chimpanzees and spider monkeys. In the first part of the article, Wayman talks about the natural tendency of chimpanzees to kill just as the saying goes, “Violence is just part of human nature, stamped in our DNA.” This is based on the belief that the natural tendency to kill comes from the common ancestor 7 billion years ago. Wayman uses the example of Gombe Stream National Park, where a chimpanzee group was divided into northern and southern parts and the northern chimpanzees took over the southern part and killed all the adult males. I found this very surprising. However, it makes a lot of sense. It can be related to Holocaust. Before the time of Hitler, Jews and other people in Germany lived together peacefully. When Hitler came to power, a lot of people turned against the Jews, and Jews were killed on a massive scale. Something happened with the national park chimpanzee group as well and they turned against each other. A lot of people blindly followed Hitler into violence. Based on the experiments conducted later, it was shown that Nazi officers performed violent acts because they did not want to disobey authority figure, which in this case is Hitler. However, it is possible that violence was part of their human nature. It would be wrong to assume they did everything because of Hitler. They had a choice and they chose violence. This evidence can prove the theory of instinct to kill originating from a common ancestor. So, primates can help understand human behavior. They give a lot of insight into important historical events.  

In the other part of the article, Wayman talks about circumstances leading to violent behaviors. She gives an example of Spider Monkeys. Spider Monkeys tend to subdivide into smaller groups, an example of fission-fusion society. This creates circumstances for violence. Spider Monkeys attack females from other groups and attack them. In Mexico, they raided the area of their neighbors. This type of violence was seen in the countries during the time of world war. Countries attacked other countries. During colonialism, the colonists captured countries and enslaved people, which in this case are female monkeys. Wayman mentions that male chimpanzees used warfare to increase their territory and resources, and to find new mates. During world war, many countries used firearms nuclear weapons and other resources to for their own advantage. They wanted to increase their power, land and resources. They used war and violence as a tool. Studying primates can help us understand why people behaved the way they did in the past. This will give us an opportunity to improve our human nature and natural tendency for violence in the future.