i saw this re-run on tv and it was about how chimpanzee's will kill members of their own clan and others, for similar reasons to humans i.e revenge or dislike, it said they even beat up female chimps. this is different than other killings because it isn't for survival or for food, they think it's more of a social culture thing http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/deepjungle/episode3_watts.html is the article abuot it. so that makes me think.. since chimps DNA is so close to humans, do you think violence in general is natural behaviour for humans as well? just that in our society violence is not acceptable as say in a chimps society
Violence is just as natural as any other human behavior that's existed since the beginning of recorded history. But I guess we have to decide what qualifies as natural. The definition of the word natural itself has a whole spectrum of different definitions in the dictionary, so I think you could make an argument either way. I'm not a zoologist or anything, but my opinion is that there are only a few animals capable of independent thought and the expression of emotion in anything even close to a complex manner: humans, apes, and possibly whales or dolphins. (Some might also include dogs and cats, but that's kind of iffy to me.) All other animals are driven primarily by instinct and survival... what makes these few so unique is that they have free will and are capable of overriding instinct. Their psychology is much more complex, and that's where the violence comes in. Other animals aren't capable of jealousy, greed, lust, depression, empathy, embarrassment, etc. Violence happens as a result of this more complex psychology and what we perceive as a higher intelligence. When your actions are capable of being driven by emotion and independent thought, then violence is pretty inevitable. But the great thing is that the same free will that allows us to be violent also allows us to restrain and control ourselves.
thats ironic. because a topic like this would bolster my beliefs that chimpanzee's as a whole are more civilized and intelligent than human beings. i know its a stretch, but the fact that chimpanzee's have a created social structure, and class system, yet still maintain a civilized animal-like appearance and habitat is very interesting. in this case they murder and beat up other chimps, for a certain social gain?
I wish we were more like the Bonobos'. Using sex as a conflict resolution tool Hmmm, gives new ammo to all the Freudians that got this terrible habit of linking all human behaviour to some sex issue.