Question

What direct evidence do scholars present for behavioral links between gorillas/chimpanzees and humans. Give at least four examples.  

What kinds of advantages, in terms of evolutionary fitness, do cooperative behaviors provide among different species of non human primates, and under what selective pressures would behaviors such as altruism (toward kin and nonkin) be likely to evolve?

Why has being social been selected for (called a prosocial behavioral strategy) among some primates, including humans? Come up with a reason for its adaptation.

You are at a dinner table and your uncle says, “If evolution were true, then why do we still have monkeys?” After taking this class how would you answer?

Answer 1

1. Bonobo peace keeping: Aggressive behavior is typical of mosr primates. Gorillas, humans and chimps kill members of their own species. The need for social and physical contact is also characteristic of most primates.

Symbolic communication: Apes are physically unable to produce human speech, so investigation of their ability for symbolic communication has been difficult. The human mind evolved from the ear;ier hominid mind and that diverged from the ape mind. Human cognitive processes has their direct antecedent in the ape brain.

Medicinal play usage: Detailed evidence for the use of medicinal plants in chimps has been documented. Chimps are suspectible to parasites that also infect humans. Parasite study identified nematodes, trematodes and protozoa as chimps parasites. Two types of medicinal plat use, whole leaf swallowing and bitter pith chewing are known in chimps.

2. Humans ate intesively social primates and many of their actions are dedicated to communication and interaction other individuals. In non human primates the studies have shown that in naturalistic conditions animals engage in various types of social behavior that involve forms of mutual coordination and cooperation. During cooperation monkeys reciprocally adapt their behavior by changing the parameters that define the spatial and temporal aspects of the action as to fine tune their joint effort and maximize their common performance.

The problem of altruism is intimately connected with the level at which natural selection acts. If selection acts exclusively at the individual level, favoring some individual organisms over others then it seems that altruism cannot evolve for behaving altrustically is disadvantageous for the individual orgnaism itself.