Our Chimpanzee Ancestors

I have read a number of books and articles on the origins of the human tendency toward constant violent conflict and war.  I am going to assume that most of you accept the obvious origin of humans as an evolved species from the primate tree.  So seeing what has become of our primate relatives who did not develop the level of intelligence and self-awareness that humans have can be interesting.  And it turns out that most primate species are tribal and have many of the same kinds of conflicts over territory and resources, including the ones closest to us, like chimpanzees.  The core study is in the journal Science, here. (Science Study) 

The Wall Street Journal has an article on a widely-studied band of chimpanzees which was living in relative peace but recently became riven with civil war.  According to the study and articles, this band of chimps got along just fine for 20 years or so, then in a period of a few years became splintered with one sub-group attacking and killing members of the other subgroup.  The group had been successful against other groups of apes and had expanded its territory prior to the internecine conflict.  The band consisted of around 200 members and it isn’t clear if size alone created the environment for the divisions or any conflict over resources.  It may have just been interpersonal as the “leaders” of the group had a good relationship, but as those chimps died they were not replaced by members with equally benign attitudes.   (WSJ Article)

The description of the behavior of the sub-groups sounds just like human conflicts.  Now, as far as we know, the difference between humans and chimpanzees is that supposedly we are smarter and capable of self-awareness and reflection, but that difference has done nothing to help us learn to stop the incredible waste of human and material resources in violent conflicts.  Our increasingly sophisticated technology does nothing to make me believe we are not headed for a terrible end, in fact it looks likely to facilitate it.  We have to figure out a way to resolve conflicts over territory, resources and ideology or we are truly doomed.