Killer Ape Theory - Reception

Reception

The comment written by the editor of Dart’s article Dr. Alan H. Kelso shows how few scientists accepted the new ideas of Dart and Ardrey. Not only did Dart require a long time to publish his work, but also the epilogue contains notices like: “Professor Dart’s thesis that the South African apemen, at the stage they were found, were omnivorous, must be considered as proven. Of course, they were only the ancestors of the modern Bushmen and Negroes, and of nobody else.”

Another obvious evidence would be the rejection of Dart’s thesis by a scientific convention at Livingstone (Zambia, South-Africa), what led Ardrey into writing his book African Genesis. He felt himself forced to defend the opinion of his mentor.

Just as well, the ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed interest before and brought out his book On Aggression (1963). In his introduction he describes rivaling butterfly fish, which defend their territory that leads over to the question, if humans, too, tend to intraspecific behavior.

The Seville Statement on Violence, released under US auspices in 1986, rejected violence and in particular warfare as genetically determined.

A 2008 article in Nature by Dan Jones stated that "A growing number of psychologists, neuroscientists and anthropologists have accumulated evidence that understanding many aspects of antisocial behaviour, including violence and murder, requires the study of brains, genes and evolution, as well as the societies those factors have wrought." Evolutionary psychologists generally argue that violence is not done for its own sake but is a by-product of goals such as higher status or reproductive success. Some evolutionary psychologists argue that humans have specific mechanisms for specific forms of violence such as against stepchildren (the Cinderella effect). Chimpanzees have violence between groups which have similarities to raids and violence between human groups in non-state societies. Several studies have found that the death rates from inter-group violence are similar for human non-state societies and chimpanzees. On the other hand, intra-group violence is lower among humans living in small group societies than among chimpanzees. Human may have a strong tendency to differ between ingroup and outgroup which affects altruistic and aggressive behavior. There is also evidence that both intra-group and inter-group violence were much more prevalent in the recent past and in tribal societies. This suggests that tendencies to use violence in order to achieve goals are affected by society. Reduced inequalities, more available resources, and reduced blood feuds due to better functioning justice systems may have contributed to declining intra-group violence.