This week we learned about non-human primates. I have always been taught how primates (chimpanzees in general) are closely related to humans on a genetic level because of evolution. The reason that we, as humans, study non-human primates (primatology) is in order to create analogies to humans to better understand ourselves and our behaviors. From the readings and lecture videos this week, it just solidified my knowledge of how similar humans and chimpanzees are, not only genetically, but also behaviorally.
I found the reading “What is War Good for? Ask a Chimpanzee.” extremely interesting. The author stated that chimpanzees form groups because of fission-fusion societies which leads to strong bonds between males. Due to this, violence between groups can break out. Which the anthropologists basically stated that it was “in our DNA” for violence. Which was intriguing due to the fact that there is an incredible amount of (what I thought, but still could be) pointless violence in today’s society although, it would make sense that from our ancestors, that we have an instinct towards violence in order for survival. Although, this does not make it ok at all that there is as much violence in the world as we are experiencing. I had not, previous to this week, even slightly considered the fact that chimpanzees were capable (or logically evolved) enough in order to “weaken their neighbors” in order to “expand[…] their own territories, gaining new resources, and attracting new mates”.
I also have no idea why the idea had never crossed my mind, but I had no idea that chimpanzees (or primates in general) had a binocular spectroscopic vision just like humans. It makes complete sense though, due to the jungle/forest being very similar in color, it would be needed in order to be able to tell the difference between different plants and to spot prey or predators. It also interested me to learn that since we have a binocular spectroscopic vision, that we rely less on smell due to an increase in our ability of sight.
Another weird fact that we learned this week was that chimpanzees also have social organizations and hierarchical statuses. I did know about social organizations, which was basically just their groups that they stayed in, like a giant family, in order to protect females and offspring. The hierarchical statuses did not make sense though until I read it about gorillas. In a gorilla society, one male has multiple female partners. This is known as an uni-male group. Gorillas are able to choose mates because of fighting and violence between each other, which consistently ends up with the biggest and meanest male gorilla winning the battle. This creates a hierarchy status because those who lose battles for mates will be seen as lesser than those who win.
Overall, I knew that non-human primates and humans were similar, but I had never considered that we would be similar behaviorally. I think in order to better understand human behavior through the study of non-human primates, that we need to study our early ancestors as closely as possible or recreate scenarios that they may have experienced in order to see how we act behaviorally compared to non-human primates.
I too thought the article, “What is War Good for? Ask a Chimpanzee” was the most interesting of the material this week. The idea of warfare being ingrained in our DNA was a little confusing to me. Since Great Apes all demonstrate this organized group violence it does seem that it would be heritable, and we all got it from a shared common ancestor. However, war is more of a concept than a trait manifesting so it seems more likely that the heritability of war in apes is due to a few traits combining and resulting in war. To me it would make sense if war is a combination of aggression, ability to make and use tools, and the ability to organize into social groups. A lot of animals experience in-fighting when resources are scarce so it’s not surprising that apes do too. If this aggression is combined with the higher cognitive function of group organization then it would make sense that something resembling warfare would exists in different great ape species.
Hey Megan! I also mentioned in my blog post about how it was especially interesting to me where our primate vision comes from. You never really think to piece these things together until its laid out for you in the most simple explanation. Reading about the similarity of creating hierarchal statuses within social groups was also astonishing to me. Clearly with this proof, it’s in our nature to dive into these tendencies where we separate one another due to certain abilities, and then this eventually is used to describe us and how we should live our lives. Being introduced to this new information about behavioral similarities between human and non=human primates was definitely a topic I enjoyed learning about being able to create those connections.
Hi, Megan! I am glad that you also learned about chimpanzees having binocular spectroscopy. I too was surprised when I realized I had never thought about it before but I am in agreeance with you- it makes perfect sense that they would! Also, I too found it fun to learn that gorillas and other primates have social hierarchies. I found that the explanation in the lectures baout how their societies run and operate and how things such as danger, food, and sex have created this cultural practice over years of evoluion to be extremely strong and convincing. It reminds us yet again that maybe we are not too different than our primate friends after all! Overall, I thought your post was well written and easy to read. Nice job!