Darwinian Evolution on Display in Chimp Group Raids

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/03/24/Ask_a_Scientist_Sex_and_War

Professor Malcolm Potts, coauthor of Sex and War, shows video of an aggressive group of male chimpanzees attacking a lone chimp from a neighboring troop. Potts says this is what "Darwinian evolution is all about."

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Why is it that humans, nearly unique in this regard, have a natural inclination to band together and kill off members of our own species? The fact that chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relatives, are the only other animals known to exhibit such organized warlike behavior is a big clue.

Malcolm Potts and Thomas Hayden, authors of the new book Sex and War, assert that the answers lie in our biological history -- that aggression against our own species is rooted in deep evolutionary impulses and predispositions. In other words, intra-species battling among our protohuman ancestors gave a reproductive advantage to the most violent males -- and here we are, their pugnacious descendants, still at it.

Watch to learn how sex and war are inextricably linked, and perhaps, what we modern-day humans can do about it. -- Ask A Scientist

Prof. David Malcolm Potts is a human reproductive scientist. Since 1993, he has been the first holder of the Fred H. Bixby-endowed chair in Population and Family Planning in the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Potts completed a medical degree and a PhD in embryology (on the electron microscopy of mammalian implantation) at the University of Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he started the first clinic offering contraception to young people. He advised David Steel on the UK's 1967 Abortion Act. He was the first male doctor at the Marie Stopes Clinic in London. He became the first Medical Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1968. In 1972, he was the first physician to promote the technique of uterine manual vacuum aspiration. He then moved to the United States and became CEO of Family Health International (FHI) from 1978-1990. During this period, FHI became the largest global AIDS prevention programme outside of the World Health Organisation. He has published ten books and over 200 scientific papers. His books include Abortion (co-written with Peter Diggory and John Peel, 1977), Textbook of Contraceptive Practice (1st edition co-written with John Peel, 1969; 2nd edition co-written with Peter Diggory, 1983; long the key textbook in the field), Queen Victoria's Gene (written with his brother Prof. William Potts), Ever Since Adam and Eve: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (written with Dr Roger Short, 1999) and Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World (co-written with Thomas Hayden, 2008). He has worked as a consultant to the World Bank and the British, American, Canadian and Egyptian governments.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

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• evolve
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• evolution
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• biological
• species
• war
• wars
• aggression
• chimps
• troops
• fighting
• chimpanzee
• violence
• rage
• natural
• selection
• patrols
• male
• males
• behavior
• territory
• jane
• goodall
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[garvess]

And Bush's foreign policy.

[beefygoblin]

They are not the only other species to do so. Felines for example.

The claim that war is uniquely human is laughable.

[TheBrradsullivan]

@beefygoblin war is, battles are not

[MikeVozniak]

We still do this today, except instead of attacking people of other groups, we attack people of different belief systems.

[yoransom]

@emitsomla hahaha lol yah?

[emitsomla]

YOU FOOLS! THERE IS NO EVOLUTION. EVOLUTION IS A LIE THAT FOOLS FOLLOW IGNORANTLY!

[bozcro]

i punched in london riots and got this rofl!

[joecabot34599]

say wut, nigga? evolution be all rayciss n shiet

[sillyplug]

Yup, the attackers are dragging the victim around and the victim's surely dead now; oop, and here's Jane.

[BaboonJihad]

@average220 Nope still ain't working for me.

[average220]

@BaboonJihad And you think your idiotic insults are working for you? Try again. Jihad you mad.

[BaboonJihad]

@average220 No, it lacked any creativity. You might have to actually think for a minute to make me angry. You mostly are just stupid.