So basically I'm taking this biology of anthropology class this quarter as well an environmental anthropology.
I've learned many things about primates and mankind so far, many things which have scared me... for example...
Did you know that bonobo chimpanzees use sex as a substitute for aggression? Meaning that they literally are not fighters..they're lovers. Whether that's appropriate or not, it results them in having a lot less conspecific casualties as well as more amicable relationships with one another. Another interesting fact is that within chimps as well (which happen to be the closest primate relative to us...well the closest animal in general to us) practice this strategy called 'infanticide'. This strategy, still needs a lot of research because it's not quite yet understood completely, but the gist of it is that alpha male chimps will the infants of female chimps that they necessarily want to mate with. The alpha males do this sometimes with bravado, displaying the killing of an infant as a show, and even engaging in cannibalism afterwards with other alpha males. The most supported theory for this type of behavior is seen as a reproductive strategy to promise the alpha male the most reproductive success, which by natural selection terms, is survival of the fittest. This is because when a female chimpanzee just gives birth to an offspring, it is already hormonal and lactating and basically efficiently ready to have another offspring right away. Therefore, if a male chimp were to engage in reproducing with a chimp that just gave birth and a chimp that did not just give birth, the chimp who just gave birth would not only have much greater chances of becoming impregnated but also carry out the offspring with much more efficiency since it's cycles are already on track. Which is why biologists such as Sarah Hrdy says that alpha males kill the infant of new mothers, so that they may reproduce with these mothers and ensure themselves a more successful opportunity to reproducing their own offspring. This has created controversy with many biologists on the topic of whether this is wrong or not, because it is favored by natural selection. By Darwin's postulates, this act of infanticide is just another act of survival. But it's cruel demeanor has scientists wondering if it's a "natural fallacy" which is the misunderstanding of thinking that because it is right in nature and occurs by means of selection, that it is right for us as humans as well because after all, we did evolve from the same ancestor as chimpanzees.
Of course by modern means this is ethically and morally wrong, but what I'm wondering is how did we get to this state where it is morally wrong for us? How did we develop such self awareness, nonetheless awareness of other people's property and emotion.
In fact, infanticide is not just a thing of primates and animals alike, it has occurred throughout history of humankind in Arabia, Judaism, Christianity, India, China, and even colonial America. And then there are the few cases that occur today of deranged people who kill their children because they "felt" it needed to be done, for example Andrea Yates who drowned her children because it was better for them to die than to live in her opinion, and that she was actually saving their souls. For whatever reason it is, it seems that people to this day actually do horrible things to ones they once loved (be it children, or spouses) for reasons that we see astounding, but then when you take a closer look, it almost seems very animalistic or characteristic of Darwin's 'sexual selection' a sub category of natural selection. For example, when a husband feels the need to murder his wife on the basis he wants a divorce or has an affair with another woman. If this man were a primate, Darwin would say he did this because he reproduced or mated with his wife and received results that did not outweigh the costs and therefore he must find another mate to reproduce and mate with to increase his "fitness" benefits or survival.
These are all just thoughts and ideas and what if's, I am not at all saying that natural selection is the cause for murders and infanticide within humankind today. I am saying, that these animals we evolved from practiced something so evidently wrong to us, but by scientific terms it is just survival. Then what happened along the way to us to cause us to feel this way, that we commit crimes of this stature today and deem it through insanity and murder? We are such just, moral creatures that it makes me curious to try and understand how these feelings evolved? Did pity evolve into revenge which evolved into justice which evolved into what is right and wrong?
We are animals.......but are we really?
-KK
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