7. THE GENESIS OF SOCIAL GENES V. THE EVIDENCE; ANIMAL HIERARCHY
What animal societies most closely resemble humans? Based on evolutionary criteria, the answer should be our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. However, they have fluid relations with each other in which animals rise to alpha status by aggression and by formation of alliances. Jane Goodall1 has described in detail the transient dominance and subsequent decline achieved by individuals at Gombe, which is quite different from our ordered societal structure. A Better Answer Is the Spotted Hyena This may not sit well with our perception of ourselves and our expectation that hyenas are unthinkingly aggressive; so, let us review the evidence. Hyenas are hunters, not scavengers, who have as highly structured a dominance hierarchy as any vertebrate, in which ‘inheritance’ is the essential criterion of status. However, we need to be clear that this does not imply that this relationship is innate in the genes of the animal. This has been disproved by the finding that hyena females have adopted unrelated infants and conferred their own status on them, and so we may deduce that this status is a learned one produced by training of juveniles by adults. Hyena Society Is Female Dominated She is larger on average than the males who have been taught to defer to her. Her sexual organ extends out from her body so that males may only copulate with her on her connivance. The society is not a passive one; individuals frequently challenge each other by aggressive attacks, but both relatives and, to a lesser extent, others usually intervene to maintain the status quo. Hyenas conduct most of their hunting either singly or in pairs, but may collaborate more extensively to take down a zebra. The carcass is quickly approached by other individuals and they feed in a strict order of status which determines both survival and breeding success. There is no evidence that the alpha females have any intrinsic prowess to justify their standing. Humans Also Have a Strict Order of Status and Similarly Little Evidence to Justify It Throughout history, dynasties have dominated human organization through family connections such as those of the Bourbons, Hapsburgs, Romanovs, Ming, and Normans. Although these houses have largely ceased to function in the aftermath of convulsions in the 20th century, new dynasties have risen such as ibn Saud in Arabia, Kim in North Korea and Assad in Syria. In the United States, which has a democratic constitution, relatives of politicians recur constantly as candidates for office including that of the presidency, often without evidence for their skills. According to Darwinian theory, this hierarchy should be unstable; this may indeed be the case, but they have survived in both the examples discussed here for a long time.2 The special favors conferred on them unwittingly by the populace can account for it, but ultimately they may become susceptible to rebellion. Hyenas have been studied for about fifty years and in that time some dissension has been observed, but not overthrow. Human revolution has occurred at different historical times in England, France, USA (twice) and Russia among others and, in many cases, a new nepotism has replaced the original one. 1Goodall, J. (1986). The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behavior. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2David-Barrett, T., & Dunbar, R. I. M. Social elites can emerge naturally when interaction in networks is restricted. Behavioral Ecology, art085 (2013). Click here to read my next blog. Read the full article