[Marxism] Debunking "Man the Killer Ape" Myth

["Lil Joe" <joe_radical@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > News Tips >

Early man more wary than war-like, new book asserts

Refutes 'natural born killer' model

By Tony Fitzpatrick


July 7, 2005 — Early man was more wary than war-like, more intelligent,
agile, and cooperative than aggressive, predator or killer, and he
co-evolved as the prey of many species.



Moreover, in the old days, woman wore the pants in the family and men were
basically expendable, not the brightest bulbs on the tree when it came to
tools, and functioning best as sentinels wary of predators in edge
environments between the forest and savannah.

Those are the primary themes of a new book, Man the Hunted: Primates,
Predators and Human Evolution, co-authored by Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D.,
professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St.
Louis, and Donna L. Hart, Ph.D., a member of the faculty of Pierre Laclede
Honors College and the Department of Anthropology at the University of
Missouri-St. Louis.

Since the process of human evolution is so long and varied, Sussman and Hart
decided to focus their research on one specific species, Australopithecus
afarensis, which lived between five million and two and a half million years
ago and is one of the better known early human species. Most paleontologists
agree that Australopithecus afarensis is the common link between fossils
that came before and those that came after. It shares dental, cranial and
skeletal traits with both. It's also a very well represented species in the
fossil record.

According to Sussman, three factors made our forbearer a prime target for a
host of predators — small size (adults ranged from around three to five feet
and they weighed 60-100 pounds); a total lack of tools or weapons; the
inability to use fire.

'Natural born killers'


      A sampling of primate fossils found in and near a crowned hawk eagle's
nest in east Africa, vivid proof that primates long have been the target of
predator species.
The book rebuts the prevailing popular notion that humans are "natural born
killers," genetically programmed to kill, as well as the notion that human
males share with chimpanzee males and our common ancestor a killer instinct.

Sussman says that a book published in the late 1990s, Demonic Male, by
Richard W. Wrangham, has helped foster notions that humans are inherently
violent and hunters first, rather than social beings who evolved that way as
a self-defense mechanism.

"These erroneous notions have arisen from observations that, out of many
primate species, only humans and chimpanzees will kill their own kind and
hunt other mammals," Sussman notes. "The end product is that chimpanzees and
humans share genes and biological instincts for killing and that's what
makes them good hunters. Our theory says that is all unadulterated garbage.
Our reliance upon each other to avoid predators made us survivors. Instead
of a need to kill, we developed first the need to cooperate. Group-living
mammals need to cooperate to live."

Sussman says that there is absolutely no fossil evidence to support the
natural killer scenario. There is, on the other hand, abundant evidence in
the fossil record that animals attack and kill primates, from birds of prey
millions of years ago to wolves in Europe and crocodiles in Asia today. And,
Sussman notes, if you don't think that humans today are not fearful of
animal predators, trying yelling "shark!" on a crowded beach.

"Humans are still extremely nervous about predation," he says. "In the book,
we look at cats, dogs, birds, reptiles such as crocodiles, even sharks and
how they might affect modern primates today and we found that, in nations
where there is still lots of natural environment, the predation rate is very
high — humans are still preyed upon.

"The main thing that allowed us to survive, and may even had led to our
developing language skills, was our counter mechanisms against predators.
Early humans had to keep one step ahead of their predators."

Following the female lead


      Robert Sussman
Sussman and Hart point to a large body of evidence, some old and some
recent, that shows females developed and used tools, knew the geography
(they remembered where water sources were, but males didn't) chose males as
friends that would protect them, and used males as sentinels to protect the
group.

"If the females didn't have a male, they would get picked off by predators,"
he says. "There usually was more than one male in a social group."

The book is illustrated with much fossil evidence, such as an incredible
array of primate bones found beneath the nest of a Harpy's Eagle in South
America, which, along with Africa's Crowned Eagle and the Phillipine Eagle
(formerly the monkey-eating eagle), are the primary birds of prey that to
this day are a threat to primates, including humans. There are pictures of
Indian men wearing masks on the backs of their heads so that tigers won't
attack them, and electrified dummies in agriculture fields to protect the
workers from the very real threat of tiger predation.

The predators living at the same time as Australopithecus afarensis were
huge and there were 10 times as many as today. There were hyenas as big as
bears, as well as saber-toothed cats and many other mega-sized carnivores,
reptiles and raptors. Australopithecus afarensis didn't have tools, didn't
have big teeth and was three feet tall. He was using his brain, his agility
and his social skills to get away from these predators. "He wasn't hunting
them," says Sussman. "He was avoiding them at all costs."

Approximately six percent to 10 percent of early humans were preyed upon
according to evidence that includes teeth marks on bones, talon marks on
skulls and holes in a fossil cranium into which saber tooth cat fangs fit,
says Sussman. The predation rate on savannah antelope and certain
ground-living monkeys today is around six percent to 10 percent as well.

Sussman and Hart provide evidence that many of our modern human traits,
including those of cooperation and socialization, developed as a result of
being a prey species and the early human's ability to out-smart the
predators. These traits did not result from trying to hunt for prey or kill
our competitors, says Sussman.

"One of the main defenses against predators by animals without physical
defenses is living in groups," says Sussman. "In fact, all diurnal primates
(those active during the day) live in permanent social groups. Most
ecologists agree that predation pressure is one of the major adaptive
reasons for this group-living. In this way there are more eyes and ears to
locate the predators and more individuals to mob them if attacked or to
confuse them by scattering. There are a number of reasons that living in
groups is beneficial for animals that otherwise would be very prone to being
preyed upon."



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