Primates and Mechanistic Behavior

There are a number of different species of primates in the world today, and there have been others that are now extinct. The best-known and most widely-dispersed primate on earth is man. Anthropologists study human behavior in all its manifestations and find connections between the behavior of very different groups, such as Pacific Islanders and Londoners, Bantu tribesmen in Africa and the average New Yorker, and so on. Such studies are accepted because of the accepted view that human behavior in different settings reflects underlying forces and motivations which are common to all human beings. Primate studies which examine the behavior of other primates and then extrapolate from the results to the human condition raise different issues and cause some researchers to reject any such connection as too uncertain to be useful. Primate studies of physical evolution show connections between the primates, of course, and are valuable in the development of the human species. Primate studies of behavior, though, are not so clear-cut in their results, and those finding connections between primate behavior today and the evolution of human behavior thousands of years ago are indulging in a good deal of speculation. There are elements in behavior which relate us to primates and to animals in general, of course, and these elements can be shown to exist without being used to justify ideas about how human behavior as such evolved.

Related Essays

The Human Brain The human brain is physiologically a gland. T .... brain has developed from the lower primates, through the .... Following the mechanistic models of the makeup and .... brain interacted with the body to form behavior. .... (2573 10 )

Psychology by Gleitman: Chapter Summaries .... Here Gleitman discusses the mechanistic theory of .... female bond, discussing sexual behavior, courtship rituals .... he considers social cognition in primates, and the .... (4143 17 )

Category: Science - P