Evolution & Darwin
If humans share a common ancestry with
other primates, then we can learn about our
own development understand our behaviour
better by studying them.
Voyage of the H.M.S.Beagle
Dates: February 12th, 1831
 Captain: Charles Darwin
 Ship: H.M.S. Beagle
 Destination: Voyage around the world.
 Findings: evidence to propose a
revolutionary hypothesis about how life
changes over time

Voyage of the Beagle
The Galapagos Island

Darwin was fascinated by the land
tortoises and marine iguanas in the
Galápagos.

Giant tortoises varied in predictable ways
from one island to another.

The shape of a tortoise's shell could be
used to identify which island a particular
tortoise inhabited.
Ideas that shaped Darwin’s
Thinking

James Hutton:

1795 Theory of
Geological change
– Forces change
earth’s surface
shape
– Changes are slow
– Earth much older
than thousands of
years
Ideas that Shaped Darwin’s
Thinking

Charles Lyell

Book: Principles of
Geography

Geographical features
can be built up or torn
down

Darwin thought if
earth changed over
time, what about life?
Population Growth

Thomas Malthus-19th
century English
economist

If population grew (more
Babies born than die)
– Insufficient living
space
– Food runs out
– Darwin applied this
theory to animals
Natural Selection (Variation) &
Artificial Selection

Natural variation--differences among
individuals of a species

Artificial selection- nature provides the
variation among different organisms, and
humans select those variations they find
useful.
Evolution by Natural Selection

The Struggle for Existence-members of
each species have to compete for food,
shelter, other life necessities

Survival of the Fittest-Some individuals
better suited for the environment
Summary of Darwin’s Theory

Individuals in nature differ from one another

Organisms in nature produce more offspring
than can survive, and many of those who do
not survive do not reproduce.

Individuals best suited for the environment
survive and reproduce most successful

Species change over time
Primate Evolution
Darwin did not specifically address
primates in His famous Origin of the
Species
Primates are mammals that have:
Opposable thumbs
 Large brain
 Good, stereoscopic vision
 Ability to brachiate*
 Flexible elbows for hand rotation
 Grasping feet
* swing from tree limb to tree limb using only their arms

Early Primates

Appeared 60-65 million years ago

Prosimian
– Small bodies
– Lemurs, Tarsiers

Anthropoids
– Human-like primates
– Evolved in Africa
Hominid Evolution
Lucy and Ardi VIDEO




Hominids developed 5-8 million years ago
Hominids are bipedal
First hominids were in genus Australopithecus
– “Lucy” most famous fossil hominid
– “Ardi” is the oldest Hominid
More modern hominids were in genus Homo
Examine the Evidence: Primate skeletons:
-Long fingers and toes are good for climbing trees
-Short legs are helpful for moving around in trees
-Wide and short pelvis suggests upright posture
-Thigh bones angle in toward knees, making upright walking
easier
More Recent Humans
Homo sapiens
 (Developed 400,000 years ago)

– Neanderthals
• Europe arrival (100,000 years ago)
– Cro-Magnon
• Europe arrival (40,000 years ago)
• Americas arrival (12,000 years ago)
Primates and Humans
Power, Sex, Kindness, Grudges
Chimp – (Pan troglodyte)
Bonobo – (Pan paniscus)
What is Power? And Status? What does it
mean to have it, or not to have it?

Student ideas about power:
–…
–…
–…

Student ideas about privilege:
–…
–…
–…
–…
Power and Status

Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power,
and it means leisure, it means liberty. James Russell
Lowell

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate
executives, and owners of press and television - can
dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power.
Howard Zinn

When I see how we treat one another; the war, the crime,
the inhumanity... I wonder a million years ago whether we
crawled out of the slime or were asked to leave. Milt Abel

Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to
whom the torture and death of his fellow-creatures is
amusing in itself. James Anthony Froude
Discuss...

Think about the ways in which you have or
use power:
–
–
–
–

At home – over younger brothers/sisters
At school – over team/committee members
Your community – over the street-kid
Globally – over the enslaved cocoa-bean picker
Why do humans have a lust for power; is it
nature or nurture?
– E.g. In the 1970s human behaviour was seen as
cultural, not natural. So, to make people ‘better’,
change the culture.
Primate Power Relations

What does great ape (chimp, bonobo,
gorilla, orangutan - our closest relatives)
behaviour tell us?

E.g. Chimps – hierarchy/status is all
important
– Male power is always up for grabs – determined
by who can beat whom [Female status is
recognized, not contested]
– Coalitions are necessary – Power relations!
Arnhem Zoo: Liut, Nikkie, Yeroen
• Three males in the Arnhem Colony, Arnhem, The Netherlands
• Alpha males display aggression, hair on end, hitting any who don’t move away in
time – Keeping track of those who don’t bob & grovel with pant-grunts
•When the older Yeroen was Alpha, the stronger Liut challenged – After 3 months of
being chased up trees, feigning injuries to get support...Yeroen eventually showed
the required submission
• The next year, Yeroen teamed with Nikkie – How? Yeroen exploited tensions
among younger males by watching disputes flare, then stepping in to support one
side.
• Built relationship with Nikkie - lots of
grooming time – Liut knew and regularly
charged in to break it up
•Eventually, Liut submitted to the new
Alpha: Nikkie
Nikke & Yeroen’s Reign
•
Ruled as a team for 4 years ...
•
Benefits of status: for female chimps, food; for male chimps, prestige and sex Yeroen could have any
•
Over time, a bolder Nikkie restricted Yeroen’s benefits – A split! - Liut took over
as new Alpha
•
Soon Nikkie & yeroen teamed up again – tension in the colony increased
•
In times of leadership tension, chimp males stay
close – “Keep friends close, enemies closer”
•
One night, the three would not separate when escorted to night cages – Nikkie &
Yeroen ganged up on Liut – killing & emasculating him
•
In the morning , the colony refused to eat breakfast – Nikkie was chased up a
tree by a female ally of Liut’s
Humans and Status Recognition
Japan – the depth of greeting bow signals men-women, and
senior-junior family rank differences between men and women,
and senior
 Saddam Hussein had his underlings greet him with a kiss on his
armpit
 Larry King Live – King would adjust the timbre of his voice to
that of high-ranking guests; low ranking guests adjusted their
timbre to match King’s –

– In all 8 US Pres. Elections 1960-2000, popular vote went to the one who
held his own timbre

For the Physical Anthropologist – Power Relations are
ingrained in human cultures
Patrols, Raids, and Death Squads

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Xenophobia - Fear and contempt of strangers or foreign
peoples
Humans and chimps are xenophobic –
they are the only animals in which
gangs of males expand their territory
by deliberately exterminating
neighbouring males (Rwanda)
Is warfare in our DNA?
One aspect of human behaviour chimps cannot illuminate
is something we do even more than wage war... maintain
peace
Some Questions

If human drive for power and status is part of
evolutionary history, are we doomed to live with
strife and injustice?

What would humans be like- what would be lost
– if we did not pursue power and status?

If we are to put a check on the drives of our
‘inner ape’, how can we do this?
Bonobos – The Politics of Sex

"Sex is there, it's pervasive, it's critical, and bonobo society would collapse without
it," he said in an interview. "But it's not what people think it is. It's not driven by
orgasm or seeking release. Nor is it often reproductively driven. Sex for a bonobo is
casual, it's quick and once you're used to watching it, it begins to look like any other
social interaction."
Bonobos and Sex

A zoo keeper used to working with chimps is introduced to bonobos, and
accepts a kiss from one of his new primate friends. For chimps, a kiss is friendly
vs. sexual. The zoo keeper was taken aback when he felt the bonobo’s tongue in
his mouth!

For bonobos, erotic contact mixes freely with everything else they do. E.g.sex is used every day to iron out ‘wrinkled relationships’ (= make-up sex)

Most of their sexual activity has nothing to do with reproduction.
It frequently involves member of the same sex – there are no
exclusively hetero- or
homosexual bonobos

Bonobo Sex and Society

Sex is very casual and well-integrated with bonobo social life

Female chimps are swollen (genital) less than 5% of adult
life...Female bonobos are in this state close to 50%

Young females present themselves to males who have food – after
sex, they share

To put a halt to infanticide (well documented among chimps and
gorillas), bonobos evolved a female dominated, sexualized society
in which paternity is a mystery

Females are dominant – a male has status (i.e. access to food and
sex) according to the status of his mother (the Alpha male is the son
of the dominant female)
Making Love, Not War

Peaceful mingling between bonobo groups (Note: female
bonobos migrate) contrasts with how chimp groups interact

Bonobos show the ways in which peaceful relations can evolve:
intermarriage, gene flow between groups, makes deadly aggression
counter-productive

Darwin believed that ethics/morality grew out of cooperative
impulses and impulses that might harm the group on which we
depend for survival – on learning reciprocity (De Waal, p. 207)

While human warfare exceeds the chimps’, human inter-group
relations also exceeds the bonobos’

Our societies are never completely competitive, never
completely peaceful
Physical Anthropology
Conclusion
What we can learn by
observing the relatives who share
almost all of our DNA
What is Uniquely Human?
List some qualities/characteristics that
clearly differentiates us from the great
Greed
Morality
Destructive
apes: Hate

Art/Creativity
Cruelty
Love
Style/Fashion
Language
Currency
Marriage
Is it...Sympathy?

Chimps – who cannot swim – have drowned
trying to save other chimps

After a fight between two chimps, others would
console the loser

Rhesus monkeys, given the chance to get food by
pulling a chain that would also give an electric
shock to a companion, will starve themselves for
several days
Possible Implications
• Physical/Biological
Anthropologists argue that human
morality grew out of these types of behaviours
• Evolutionary
Biologist Marc Hauser proposed in Moral
Minds that the brain has a genetically shaped
mechanism for acquiring moral rules
• Anthropologists
do not argue Chimps have morality,
but rather that human morality would be impossible
without certain emotional building blocks that are at
work in chimp/bonobo/monkey societies
• To console requires empathy and a level of self
awareness that only apes and humans possess
Is it...Reconciliation?

If two chimp males fail to make up, female chimps will
often bring the rivals together – as if sensing that the
discord makes the community worse off

Sometimes females will head off a fight by taking stones
out of the males hands
• Chimps (and others, like macaques monkeys) have a sense of
social order, and sometimes act for the greater good of the
group
• This is a significant precursor of human morality
Is it...Reciprocity?

Chimps are more likely to share food with those who have
groomed them

Capuchin monkeys show their displeasure if given a
smaller reward than a partner did for performing the same
task
• Empathy, peace-making, following social rules, and reciprocity
are the basis of sociality
• Human sociality adds two levels of sophistication:
• human societies enforce moral codes more rigorously – with rewards,
punishments, and reputation building
• they also apply a unique degree of judgment and reason
Disagreements

Evolutionary Biologist George Williams dismisses
morality as an accidental by product of evolution

Psychologists object to attributing any emotional state
to animals

Philosopher Immanuel Kant believed morality must be
based on reason, while David Hume believed moral
judgments proceed from emotions

More recently, Jesse Prince argued that moral
sentiments are shaped by culture, not genetics
Concluding Points

Anthropologist’s work challenge the idea that there
is a uniquely human behaviour

Anthropologists and moral philosophers have
recently begun a dialogue about human morality
and its origins

From an evolutionary point of view, primate social
behaviour suggest how human social behaviours
and ethical codes may have developed