Altruism is a primate trait, not just humans
When I was studying human origins in college (my first Anthro class, btw) we were just beginning to understand the range and depth of our primate cousins. This is new research sheds some light onto how we managed not to all be eaten by lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!):
A new study supports the theory that chimps can be altruistic just like people. Children as young as 18 months-old also seem to help adults, even strangers, without any immediate benefit to themselves. According to psychologist Felix Warneken of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, altruism goes back as far as 6 million years ago when to the common ancestor we share with chimps. Source: Boing Boing: Ape altruism
The idea that an individual would do something to benefit another is extremely important to the beginnings of “society” and social groups. Sometimes you protect the young of another just because. That’s something to sit back and think on.
July 15th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
A different take:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/monkey_business/