A fascinating article in Wired makes the case that some animals that were once highly aggressive, blood-thirsty creatures (like bonobos and dogs and foxes and macaques) have, over time, become mellow, cooperative, Lebowskian dudes.
Chalk it up to self- domestication. Not to be confused with self-deportation, self-domestication happens when some species discover that their key to long-term survival is not by clawing everything in sight but in mutual cooperation, trust and respect. Consider the Tonkean macaque.
"They live in cohesive social groups and fight rarely. Unlike other macaques, their conflicts are followed by acts of reconciliation. They also have a habit of baring their teeth, but whereas in other macaques it signals submission, in Tonkeans it's exchanged between equals. This display is used like a smile," said ethologist Bernard Thierry of the University of Strasbourg.
That's all well and good for John Q. Tonkean macaque, but what about humans? Is socialization making us nicer as the eons pass or are we regressing to our shrieking, poop-flinging roots? Higher primates, the comments are yours.
(Wired)
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HA! poop...
So ... when exactly did we leave the trees?
And why are $expensive$ neighborhoods always wooded?
Even the trees were a bad move. Nobody should ever have left the oceans.
(Gleefully stolen from Douglas Adams.)
Glub glub I'm a sub.
Sorry to say, I think some people have regressed.
today only seems worse because our communication has improved, what took months to cross the country during the civil war only takes seconds today
And these macaques are also smart enough to not vote for George Allen.
But seriously, possessors of thumbs, I wonder if the key to the macaques' disposition is a lack of language or a belief system. They can't tell each other what to believe, who to trust, what a god is, so why sweat anything?
Chimpanzees are highly aggressive. They also lack language and a belief system.
And these macaques are also smart enough to not vote for George Allen.
But seriously, possessors of thumbs, I wonder if the key to the macaques' disposition is a lack of language or a belief system. They can't tell each other what to believe, who to trust, what a god is, so why sweat anything?
Self domestication my eye, I still wouldn't want to come across one of these in the jungles! Of course in America today I can't tell the difference between the jungle animals and those animals from the reich....
Read Dawkin's The Selfish Gene. It covers this topic and it is a fascinating read. The Extended Phenotype is next on my to-read list and I believe it goes into that subject even deeper.
Yes they are being fed and aloud to breed, a basic biological function that will also be available to all that fall into Romneys "safety net". Submission should not be misinterpreted as happiness.
Aquiring energy and breeding are natural biological functions. This is an adaption of the species not unlike what will happen as we fall into Romneys "safety net". Happiness should not be confused with submission for the purpose of survival.
Worth re-reading the excellent Onion article only vaguely related to Steve's post:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-delicious-species-discovered,1331/
Bonobos are the peaceful animals. Their troop activities are based on SEX and play SEX. The rubbing of sex organs is nearly indiscriminate. The rubbing is between any 2 animals, and is used to relax the troop, or any individual who is upset.
The Chimpanzee is a violent and militaristic animal with males easily getting excited by weather and other torments in the neighborhood. Chimps are not nearly as sex related. They go to war between troops, and kill any isolated chimp from another group.
And chimps and bonobos are practically the same otherwise. Physically and genetically so similar, but such different temperaments.
So true.
And we share about 96% of our genes with two other species.
It appears humans, chimpanzee and bonobo all share the same amount of genetic difference when compared with gorilla and orangutan.
Humans diverged from chimpanzee and bonobo about the same time Panama cut off equatorial water flow between the Pacific and Atlantic - this is when periodic ice ages began.
One of the other remarkable findings is that there is no such thing as different races, like African, Asian, and European.
Race is purely psychological and not genetic.
This means that prejudice is a potential psychological impairment acquired from our early childhood social environment
Practical application: humans, chimps and bonobos can safely transfuse blood between species. Not that I'd let a chimp anywhere near me with a needle.
So, there is some evidence that some mammals have grown less aggressive with time. Hmmm, are humans becoming less aggressive over time? Well, there is IS evidence of warfare and killing throughout the archaeological record so I guess individually and in groups humans have always been aggressive and capable of violence. The question is are we more or less aggressive than we once were? That's obvious isn't it? The 20th Century is the bloodiest in human history: Hiroshima--90,000-160,000 dead, Nagasaki--60,000-80,000 dead, the Holocaust-6,000,000 dead, genocides under Stalin--23,000,000-60,000,000 dead, under Mao Zedong--34,300,000–63,784,000 dead, under Hideki Tojo-–5,000,000 dead, under Pol Pot-–2,500,000 dead, under Kim Il Sung-–1,600,000 dead, under Mengitsu Haile Mariam-–1,500,000 dead, under Ismail Enver Pasha-–1,500,000 dead, under Yakubu Gowon-–1,000,000 dead, and Leonid Breshnev-–900,000 deaths.
Tell the truth! Would you flip-off any of the allied forces in Afghanistan?
I've long been of the mind that humanity is splitting into two groups, those that continue to evolve and those that don't. Insert your own republican joke here.
This reminds me of a National Geographic article where foxes were bred to both extremes. The physical changes of the foxes were quite intriguing!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/ratliff-text
How is this news???? Survival of the "fittest" has never meant survival of the toughest and meanest. It means survival of those whose traits allow them to reproduce the most. This may mean being tall, small, nice, or mean. Whatever works best.... that's what you end up with. It's a tautology, really. The term "self-domestication" seems to imply that there is some conscious decision-making going on, but of course that's not what's happening. Darwin starts On the Origin of Species by discussing in detail the way humans select for certain traits in animals.... which is what happens in the example of the foxes. Natural selection, of course, happens in nature when the best positioned to reproduce reproduce the most and pass on their advantageous traits to their offspring. Not news!!!
Technically, reproductive success (what you have referred to here as "natural selection") is determined not by how many offspring a being has, but how many of those offspring survive to reproduce themselves.
Still, why isn't this "news"? It is in fact a new anthropological theory and worth discussing. As is any new or updated theory ... science is always worth discussing and I'd love to see more of these NEWS stories, not less!
The creature in the picture is a monkey, not an ape. Sorry to be a pedant, but these are the things that keep me up at night.
Thank you!
Bananas make my armpits itch.
Don't put them there! : D
Is it an allergy?
Humans have definitely become more aggressive the last thirty years. I don't know about poop flinging, but we sure do treat each other shoddily. Ayn Rand would be so proud.
Humans as a species probably haven't become more aggressive. We've allowed the more aggressive a larger, more disproportionate share on the decision-making process than their numbers merit. More than their merit merits, actually. And, of course, the tools of aggression make a difference. A psycho with a rock is much less capable of causing mayhem than a psycho with a Glock and extended ammo clips.
Or access to THE BUTTON.
"Is socialization making us nicer as the eons pass or are we regressing to our shrieking, poop-flinging roots?"
Decisions, decisions....
Great! I guess the only question now is will Big Foot ever evolve in time, so he and his species can join society and start their own political party. Who knows they may even bring back civility into the political arena, where there won't be any pointing of fingers at the President's face, or yelling, "You Lie!" in front of the world to hear, or supreme court justices shaking their heads, etc, etc.
PeñaLista
Oh, Ms Maddow...Please, please, PLEASE do a segment on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-AnuDkXlX0o
It's Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) slicin' and dicin' Newt (the Ego has Landed) Gingrich's
astonishinglylatest astonishingly stupid comment re: Food Stamp President.I promise you, it's just delicious....
Thanks for this.
I am buried up to my neck in
Contradictionary flies
I take pride as the king of illiterature
......
Bless your heart. The second half of that record is one of the great creations.
Wholeheartedly agree.
Big thanks for the reference, especially on a day here in WA that would've made him very happy.
I saw a truly fascinating episode of Nature on PBS about dogs.They discovered that when foxes, which are bred for their fur, are conciously bred for docility and tolerance of humans, their fur color changed radically as did their vocalizations. They started barking instead of screaming. They became more dog-like. It was speculated that wolves who shared territory with humans would eat from refuse piles and became acclimated to people to the point that they were no longer wolves. Domestication was an organic, not an artificial, process. Likewise, domestication of dogs made domestication of all herd animals possible.
Evolutionarily speaking, one of the best strategies is not all against all competition where the strongest survive. One of the best strategies is cooperation. Bonobos get this, as do Tonkean macques. Is it too much to hope we'll learn that lesson someday?
Do you have a link? I'd love to watch that too.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/dogs-that-changed-the-world/introduction/1273/
Full disclosure. I never was a dog person until me and my wife got a 3 lb 5 month old car sick shih-tzu/poodle (Shih-Poo.) She wounded me with her tinyness and she changed my view on dogs forever. 4 years later she weighs 10 lbs and is my wife's enforcer. Now I know dogs are people and that it is impossible to over estimate how much dogs had taught man. She's a gate-way dog. Charismatic micro-fauna.
The fox thing is quite fantastic.
I was thrilled with the possiblities. I think chihuahuas (in my mind: cheh hoo-a hoo-as) are are most closely related to kit foxes, so there IS a precedent of sorts.
Damn you, Les Nessman!
They really really REALLY need to make a Big Lebowski 2.
Maude Lebowski: Do you like sex, Mr. Lebowski?
The Dude: 'Scuse me?
Maude Lebowski: Sex. The physical act of love. Coitus. Do you like it?
The Dude: I was talking about my rug.
Maude Lebowski: You're not interested in sex?
The Dude: You mean coitus?
Best movie ever made.
It's wonderfull to see that animals are progressing, like humans we have obstructionist they also have the occasional banana thrower in the bunch or the one that wants all the bananas.