Many years ago I read two interesting books” Human Jungle and The Naked Ape “written by the eminent zoologist, writer and artist Desmond Morris who’s now in his 90’s.
Desmond as an artist and naturalist was great observer of animal and human behaviour and the similarities we have with other species, especially the chimpanzees and apes.
When he had finished writing the book The Naked Ape his publisher thought it was quite a controversial title. Desmond wrote the book in a matter of weeks and he characterised it based upon his other works on other animal species.
Later I read a book by Professor Steve Peters The Chimp Paradox. I bought a copy for a close relative who had issues controlling her emotions, I called it her Vesuvius syndrome.
Lately I’ve been bemused about national and international popularist political leaders rhetoric and actions. I thought are we Homo Sapiens hard wired in some way to our more primitive Tribal tendencies. Do these Alpha “Male” leaders tap in to these primeval hard wired primitive tendencies?
On many occasions I have read about some strange behaviours of my fellow species with amazement and thought what drives them to commit acts of evil or crazy self destruction.
If we consider that the genetic sequencing of Homo sapiens is only 1 % difference between Chimpanzee and or Bonobos (more peaceful Pygmy chimpanzees in the Congo central Africa).
We humans have evolved on Earth from earlier extinct primates. Viewed zoologically, we humans are Homo sapiens, a culture-bearing upright-walking species that lives on the ground and very likely first evolved in Africa about 315,000 years ago.
We are now the only living members of what many zoologists refer to as the human tribe, Hominini, but there is abundant fossil evidence to indicate that we were preceded for millions of years by other hominins, such as Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, and other species of Homo, and that our species also lived for a time contemporaneously with at least one other member of our genus, H. neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals).
In addition, we and our predecessors have always shared Earth with other apelike primates, from the modern-day gorilla to the long-extinct Dryopithecus. That we and the extinct hominins are somehow related and that we and the apes, both living and extinct, are also somehow related is accepted by anthropologists and biologists everywhere.
Yet the exact nature of our evolutionary relationships has been the subject of debate and investigation since the great British naturalist Charles Darwin published his monumental books On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).
Darwin never claimed, as some of his Victorian contemporaries insisted he had, that “man was descended from the apes,” and modern scientists would view such a statement as a useless simplification—just as they would dismiss any popular notions that a certain extinct species is the “missing link” between humans and the apes.
There is theoretically, however, a common ancestor that existed millions of years ago. This ancestral species does not constitute a “missing link” along a lineage but rather a node for divergence into separate lineages.
This ancient primate has not been identified and may never be known with certainty, because fossil relationships are unclear even within the human lineage, which is more recent.
In fact, the human “family tree” may be better described as a “family bush,” within which it is impossible to connect a full chronological series of species, leading to Homo sapiens, that experts can agree upon.
However, whatever are exact genetic historical origins we do have many character traits to both the Chimpanzees and Bonobos and other wild apes.
Let’s look closely at some of our close genetic relatives characteristic traits;
Gestation period for female chimpanzees is 8 months.
The young chimpanzees breastfeed their young until 4/5, however, they can still make contact with the mothers nipple until 7 but this is not for food but comfort.
The young chimpanzee will spend at least 7 to 10 years at the mothers side learning how to climb,hunt, build nest use tools and types of food to eat, but most importantly learning their place in the chimpanzee hierarchy.
Chimpanzees are very territorial, however they don’t have flags to fly like us humans, but they do go out on patrol to check their territorial boundaries. Like soldiers guarding their national borders..
Any chimpanzee intruders crossing into other tribal chimpanzee territories are dealt with ruthlessly. But like us homo sapiens they’re always wanting to try and enlarge their territories. Why? More food and more females to bear them offsprings to increase their population size and Dominate their non tribal fellow species.
Females are involved in their tribal territorial warfare it’s not just a male prerogative either.
As with Homo sapiens food and sex is the primeval driving force.
Chimpanzees use facial expressions when communicating and love to prune one another which helps with tribal bonding .
Alpha Males leader of the tribe…. Well you only have to look at some of our modern day leaders to see direct comparisons with our primate friends; Chest beating metaphorically, bulling through threats, psychological and real. Humans have many ways of using psychological manipulation to control others.
Homo Sapiens have other similar traits to our other close genetic friend the Bonobos Chimpanzee.
Primatologist Frans de Waal states bonobos are capable of altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience, and sensitivity, and described “bonobo society” as a “gynecocracy“. Primatologists who have studied bonobos in the wild have documented a wide range of behaviors, including aggressive behavior and more cyclic sexual behavior similar to chimpanzees, even though the fact remains that bonobos show more sexual behavior in a greater variety of relationships.
An analysis of female bonding among wild bonobos by Takeshi Furuichi stresses female sexuality and shows how female bonobos spend much more time in estrus than female chimpanzees.
Some primatologists have argued that de Waal’s data reflect only the behavior of captive bonobos, suggesting that wild bonobos show levels of aggression closer to what is found among chimpanzees.
De Waal has responded that the contrast in temperament between bonobos and chimpanzees observed in captivity is meaningful, because it controls for the influence of environment.
The two species behave quite differently even if kept under identical conditions. A 2014 study also found bonobos to be less aggressive than chimpanzees, particularly eastern chimpanzees.
The authors argued that the relative peacefulness of western chimpanzees and bonobos was primarily due to ecological factors.
Like us Homo sapiens they’re social and work together in their tribal groups in a supportive way.
So why does Homo sapiens feel threaten from outside groups because of colour, religion or culture. Why hasn’t Homo sapiens as yet not learnt to live in peace with his human neighbour?
Does it come down to our close genetic makeup with the chimpanzees? Primeval drive to conduct warfare, to gain ownership of natural resources, ( produces money and wealth) over our non tribal humans?
Why do we still have standing armies and massive military hardware, does it come down to our primitive primate nature? that we find hard to shake off! Is it that we’re just hardwired like this? Maybe we need mental reprogramming.
These are questions I’ve asked myself, listening to some of the modern day polarised political rhetoric I can understand how things can escalate out of control between Homo sapiens groups or tribes through colour, culture, language or religion.
Maybe in the final analysis we still haven’t evolved enough from are earlier primate state of evolution.
In conclusion, what we have over our close primate friends is are much larger brain and the ability to control our primeval urges and emotions. That’s what makes us different from other primates we have the capacity to train and discipline our inner thought processes and emotions. Our weakness and strength is down to simply how we control our minds!
I think we underestimate the power of the mind some of the greatest scientific discoveries and deep truths of the world around us has been made through pure thought.
Isaac Newton stated I’ve built my reasoning and analysis on the shoulders of other intellectual giants. Homo sapiens have this innate ability to mimic and improve on others earlier technological advances and through deep thought and analyis bring forth revolutionary ideas.
But like Desmond Morris we must learn to be much better observers of the natural world, why? Because it has the answers for us replicate, if we so wish!
In final analysis of the tribal chimpanzee world if the alpha males collaborates with his tribal members, such as assisting small weaker members of the tribe in helping reduce physical conflicts and show overall equanimity to his tribal members. If and when he gets old and loses his tribal leadership status his fellow chimpanzee and tribal members treat him with some degree of reverence.
But if he has used regular brute force and terrorised his tribe during his leadership as and when he gets old and infirmed his tribe members can seek vengeance, by completely ostracising him or even seeking his complete demise. As the old saying goes “if you kick people on the way up they’ll kick you on the way down”.
https://youtu.be/MXUkBQ57em8https://youtu.be/NBFBbFcixRYhttps://youtu.be/wTsp9A7OaBI