The Egalitarians - Human and Chimpanzee (An Anthropological View of Social Organization)

This innovative book challenges the perceived view, based largely on long observation of artificially-fed chimpanzees in Gombe and Mahale National Parks, Tanzania, of the typical social behaviour of chimpanzees as aggressive, dominance seeking, and fiercely territorial. In polar opposition, all reports from naturalistic (non-feeding) field studies are of non-aggressive chimpanzees living peacefully in non-hierarchical groups, on home ranges open to all. These reports have been ignored and downgraded by most of the scientific community. By utilising the data from these studies the author is able to construct a model of an egalitarian form of social organisation, based on a fluid role relationship of mutual dependence between many charismatic chimpanzees of both sexes and other more dependent members. This highly and necessarily positive mutual dependence system is characteristic of both (undisturbed) chimpanzees and (undisturbed) humans who live by the 'immediate-return' foraging system. This innovative book challenges the perceived view, based largely on long observation of artificially fed chimpanzees in Gombe and Mahale National Parks, Tanzania, of the normal social behavior of chimpanzees as aggressive, dominance seeking, and fiercely territorial. In polar opposition, all reports from naturalistic (nonfeeding) field studies are of nonaggressive chimpanzees living peacefully on home ranges in fluid, open, nonhierarchical groups. This research has been largely ignored and downgraded by most of the scientific community. By utilizing the data from these studies, the author is able to construct a model of an egalitarian form of social organization, based on a role relationship of mutual dependence among many charismatic chimpanzees of both sexes and other more dependent members. This highly and necessarily positive mututal dependence system is characteristic of both undisturbed chimpanzees and humans who live or lived by the "immediate-return" foraging system. Foreword / A. Montagu -- Acknowledgements -- Part I. Methods And Prefatory Explanations -- Introduction Methods -- Part Ii. The Human Foragers -- Part Iii. The Changing Social Order -- Part Iv. The Behaviour Of Wild And Provisioned Groups -- Part V. The Mutual Dependence System -- Part Vi. The Egalitarian Chimpanzees -- Part Vii. Probabilities, Possibilities And Half-head Whispers -- Notes -- References -- Index. Margaret Power. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [267]-280) And Index. Using data from (non-feeding) field studies the author shows that chimpanzees live peacefully in non-hierarchical groups on home ranges open to all. This highly and necessarily positive mutual dependence system is characteristic of both undisturbed chimpanzees and humans who live by the 'immediate-return' foraging system.