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Evolution & Darwin If humans share a common ancestry with other primates, then we Evolution & Darwin If humans share a common ancestry with other primates, then we

Evolution & Darwin If humans share a common ancestry with other primates, then we - PowerPoint Presentation

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Evolution & Darwin If humans share a common ancestry with other primates, then we - PPT Presentation

Voyage of the HMSBeagle Dates February 12th 1831 Captain Charles Darwin Ship HMS Beagle Destination Voyage around the world Findings evidence to propose a revolutionary hypothesis about how life changes over time ID: 684981

human chimps sex power chimps human power sex bonobos status morality years males female yeroen nikkie humans bonobo food

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Slide1

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.Slide2

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 timeSlide3

Voyage of the BeagleSlide4

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

. Slide5
Slide6

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 yearsSlide7

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?Slide8

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 animalsSlide9

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

.Slide10

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 environmentSlide11

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 timeSlide12

Primate Evolution

Darwin did not specifically address primates in His famous

Origin of the SpeciesSlide13

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 armsSlide14

Early Primates

Appeared 60-65 million years ago

Prosimian

Small bodies

Lemurs, Tarsiers

Anthropoids

Human-like primates

Evolved in AfricaSlide15

Hominid Evolution

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

Lucy and

Ardi

VIDEOSlide16

More Recent H

umans

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)Slide17

Primates and Humans

Power, Sex, Kindness, Grudges

Chimp – (Pan troglodyte)

Bonobo – (Pan

paniscus

)Slide18

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:

…Slide19

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 FroudeSlide20

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.Slide21

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! Slide22

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:

NikkieSlide23

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’sSlide24

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

A

nthropologist – Power

R

elations are ingrained in human culturesSlide25

Patrols, Raids, and Death Squads

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 peaceSlide26

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?Slide27

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."Slide28

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 bonobosSlide29

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)Slide30

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 peacefulSlide31

Physical Anthropology Conclusion

What we can learn by observing the relatives who share almost all of our DNASlide32

What is Uniquely Human?

List some qualities/characteristics that clearly differentiates us from the great apes:

Greed

Hate

Morality

Destructive

Art/Creativity

Cruelty

Love

Marriage

Style/Fashion

Language

CurrencySlide33

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 daysSlide34

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 possessSlide35

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 orde

r, and sometimes act for the greater good of the group

This is a significant

precursor of human moralitySlide36

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

Slide37

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 geneticsSlide38

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