[August 13, 2022] Frans de Waal is a Dutch primatologist. His findings on chimp behavior are remarkable and deserve some exposure here. And, not just because he is probably the world’s greatest living primatologist but because his work is unbelievably important. His study1 of dominant male chimps has a lesson for us humans.
Popular thinking about the dominant chimp, or alpha male, is reflected in today’s discussions about human males. Today’s pseudo-Sociological thinking goes something like this, “The biggest, ugliest, meanest male dominates by brute force.” It follows with this logic that the dominant male is now at the top of the pyramid. The claim is that those who express power most effectively (meaning the power to compel) will dominate the social hierarchy pyramid. As well, they will prevail reproductively.
People think that is how you look at the world if you are a realist and sensible. Frans de Waal has been studying chimps for 30 years, and that is not true. That is not what happens. Frequently, it turns out, a small male can become the dominant or alpha male, especially if he has the support of an influential female. The small males become the alpha not because he expresses arbitrary power but because he is unbelievably good at mutual reciprocation.
This dominant male then has friends; he does things for his friends and they do things for him and trust each other. He has lots of friends, which means he just might have no enemies. This turns out to be very important because the brute chimps, like the psychopath alphas, they do rule now and then, but they also get torn to shreds by their enemies. All it takes is the brute chimp to have an off day, and two chimps he stomped earlier will ally together and literally tear him into shreds.
The psychopath chimps who use power to attain dominance have very short rules and end in a very bloody way. De Waal has pointed out, in chimps and very much like humans, that power is an unstable ethic upon which to base a social hierarchy. Remember that chimps are male-dominated, have a patriarchal society, and are relatively brutal. And brute power doesn’t even work for them. It certainly does not work for humans.
This means that those at the apex of the dominant hierarchy are not there due to the raw expression of power and exploitation. This doesn’t work for chimps or rats, or humans. From that, we can understand that the basis for any successful social organization is a necessity for mutual reciprocity. That is something like treating your neighbor like you would want to be treated.
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I’d like to read more about de Waal and his study of chimps. I went on and found plenty of his work to read. Just google it.
Dutch/American biologist and ethologist Frans de Waal draws parallels between primate and human behavior, from peacemaking and morality to culture. Looking at human society through the lens of animal behavior, de Waal’s first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982), compares the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians.
de Waal has written hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific articles, and his popular books have been translated in over 20 languages.
Good comments guys!!
Thanks Gen. Satterfield for an excellent writeup on Frans de Waal’s work on chimps. He is certainly advancing our understanding of them and by extension he is pushing us to understand humans better. I hope he continues to what he is doing to advance our knowledge.
Agreed. And I also appreciate Gen. Satterfield sharing this info.
Reciprocity not power is how the world works. Yes, occasionally force must be used but that should be rare and done with the authority of us.
Gen. Satterfield has once again nailed an issue and this time using a study from Frans de Waal, very famous even here in the US. He tells us that social organizations – family, community, friendship circles, etc. – are not based on power but on mutual cooperation. Those that deviate from it will have their community and friends tell them to stop. Those chimps that use power will reign only shortly and their end will be violent, much like the strong man dictatorships that once existed so prevalently, especially in Africa.
— and you still see it today in Africa and parts of the Middle East. At least in Africa, their strongmen don’t last long.
Very much a part of the reason that those terrible ideologies fail. They require force to work. And force (ie power) is subject to being overthrown all the time. I wonder why?
“….the basis for any successful social organization is a necessity for mutual reciprocity. ” Yep, got that right. And I think most of us can understand and appreciate that fact.
Yes, Rowen. That is why the post-Modernists and neo-Marxists oversimplify and then come up with simple solutions that inevitably do not work. Their solutions kill. Just look at the 20th century and what communism and socialism (read that as Nazism) have done.
Right JT, 100-150 millions dead. A trifle for Communists. ✔
And those Marxists are not too smart. It is an attractive ideology but does not work.
Good comments here on why Communism and all its variants are all subject to not work, at least in the long run. Power is required to make them work, and in the end, the result is violence in the form of millions of deaths. And yet, so many Americans are still attracted to it.
That’s why Rush Limbaugh called liberalism a mental disease.
For those new here, Gen. Satterfield has also written a lot on Communism.
https://www.theleadermaker.com/?s=communism
Very interesting, thanks for the comparisons.
Yeah, I agree IS. Just another reason to read this blog by Gen. Satterfield an buy his book, Our Longest Year in Iraq.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Longest-Year-Iraq-Construction/dp/1737915510/