It's interesting to look at human society from the 'primordial perspective'. Even a rough understanding of ape society, with the hierarchy and the polygamy and the class dynamics, seems to explain most of the things I see in everyday life. For example, the way an alpha male is almost always selected among social groups. This alpha male tends to be, still, in our modern world, of physical and psychological superiority, suggesting breeding advantages which would land him the position in the first place, despite it hardly existing any more. And of course there's young men's obsession with virginity, and the amount of mates acquired as a form of status. An alpha male also tends to surround himself with a group of 'high-ranking' secondary males, just as we seen primates as far back as baboons. Not to mention, baboons exhibit the same group-xenophobia, and the same initiation rites, that we do on a more complex scale. You might even say that this instinct is at the root of all factionism and hence all war.
When you start to notice these things, ape society at the root of our own society seems undeniable. We are very, very much like our genetic cousins, and still act in the same way as we imagine our ancestors to have done, only with more complex dynamics. Are we doomed to be like this forever?
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[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XuXi3mqYM]This thread reminded me of a scene from the awesome BBC documentary 'Planet Earth' it's pretty much a clan of Apes going to war with a bunch of rival Apes.[/url] [Edited on 12.05.2012 2:45 PM PST]