Thoughts on Bad Monkey Business this January 6

I keep monkeys in mind when thinking philosophically and psychologically about humankind.  Genetically, we are at least cousins to chimpanzees so they attract a lot of my attention but all monkey news interests me.  (Check out my Ape Sh!t Flipboard magazine.)  I don't think you can dismiss the behavioral traits of primates as alien to our humanity.  Indeed, they are the beginnings of it.  

We have a Reptilian Brain inside our heads that is beyond ancient.  Where the rest of our brain begins there, too, is an undeclared Primate Brain.  Sometimes I use this deeply hardwired Primate Brain as if it were a mirror to ourselves.  I've seen old chimps near death smiling with joy at seeing their original human keeper again after many years.  It touches me and, I think, informs me a little.

Last month, it was reported that, in a matter of days, a group of macaque monkeys killed more than 250 dogs in a fairly remote part of India.  Allegedly, the monkeys became aggressive after some wild dogs killed an infant macaque, though this is unconfirmed.  The monkeys carried the dogs and puppies atop buildings and trees and dropped them to the ground, killing them.  Eventually, they wiped out the dog population of the immediate area.

Wildlife officials were ultimately called for assistance when, after killing all the dogs, the monkeys started attacking people and even attempted to capture children in what appeared to be revenge-like behavior.  Several locals were injured.

Officials were able to capture two “alpha” macaques who, apparently, instigated the savage attacks.  I guess Alpha monkeys are generals or something.  With their capture, villagers hoped that the other macaques would settled down and cease their aggression.  It seems to have worked.

This whole episode seems so incredible I double-checked it with Snopes and it seems to be only partly true.  Most of the dog population died of starvation during a severe drought occurring in that region of India.  Most of the rest of the story is unconfirmed but it is true that some dogs were killed in this manner by the monkeys.  Two monkeys were captured and isolated by game wardens.  

Even if they only killed a dozen dogs by dropping them from trees and buildings, the implications of this are rather astonishing.  Apparently, for whatever reason, these two monkeys decided it was time to kill dogs and be aggressive towards humans.  Maybe the drought had something to do with it.  The cold-blooded calculation of snatching a puppy and deliberately dropping it from atop a building is highly evolved behavior.

Is it moral?  That may be a silly question.  Morality does not apply between apes.  Or does it?  What if these two alpha macaques saw one of their own ripped apart by dogs?  What if it is "an eye for an eye" in the macaque mind?  I don't think we can clearly dismiss the possibility that they reacted out of hate or at least out of the need to instill fear.  I think maybe there is a basic primate morality.  I'm sure our ancestors would have attempted to retaliate against whatever attacked their infants.

The calculated murder of the dogs and puppies (however few) was carried out by the entire band of macaques.  But, when the alphas were removed everyone settled back down.  Did they lose the capacity for action?  Of course not.  They lost the volition for action.  This says something basic.  

Their organized violence was inspired but it was not an obvious solution to most macaques.  Without the alphas they lost interest in the dogs.  We all have the capacity for violence.  But only some of us are capable of inspiring others to commit violence.  That seems oddly hopeful to me.

The capacity for inspired violence in protection of the clan or tribe or whatever runs very deep, however.  A female chimpanzee was born prematurely in Iran.  Her mother abandoned the infant, which is not uncommon in the animal world.  It failed to bond with any other chimps so it was taken to be raised in human care.  Four years later it was moved to Kenya, where it underwent a process of reintroduction to another set of chimps.

The process of reintroduction to the wild occurs in stages and has worked numerous times previously.  But it was not effective in this case.  During the second stage of the reintroduction process, neighboring chimps attacked and beat the unfortunate female.  She died of the grievous wounds despite human attempts to save her life.

What a horribly sad story!  A premature infant was abandoned by its mother and ignored by all other chimps.  It would have died of starvation had humans not intervened.  Years later the grown chimp was shipped to another country where it was beaten to death at the first opportunity.  What was it about this poor chimp that was so obvious to other chimps but to which we have no clue?

Do premature chimps look or seem “different” to other chimps regardless of where they go?  What was it about this individual female, who seemed perfectly normal to its human keepers, that brought utter rejection by its own kind at every turn.  The chimpanzee world decided this particular ape had to die and, regardless of what we attempted to give it a “normal” life, global chimp culture had the final say.

Killing comes naturally to chimpanzees, perhaps more so than with any other primate (except humans).  I blogged previously about the first recorded sighting of chimps attacking and killing gorillas as well as their violence against fellow chimps in Uganda.  I have also blogged about chimpanzees being considered “persons.”  I see so much of our basic nature (personhood) in the behavior of all apes, particularly in chimpanzees.  The Primate Brain fascinates me because it reveals the foundations of who we are as persons.  When I look out upon this troubled world, I see humanity in the behavior of monkeys and monkeys in the behavior of of humans. 
 

Just yesterday I read an article in Big Think about an incredible protracted civil war between two chimpanzee groups in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania during the 1970's.  It was the first time humans had observed such violence between chimp groups.  It was, in fact, a civil war between two groups that split from a larger community.

According to Big Think: “Both factions guarded their new borders virulently, resulting in a number of coordinated, lethal altercations. During these altercations, the normally peaceful chimpanzees displayed exceptional levels of cruelty and brutality. In total, the war lasted four years and ended only when the splinter community had been completely eradicated.”

Does this sound more like monkeys or more like humans?  I suggest that the humanity of this act, the patrolling of borders and coordinated attacks to protect a mutually shared idea of “territory” is completely human-like. 

Jane Goodall witnessed this disturbing murderous characteristic of chimpanzees.  The Washington Post wrote a piece in 1978 entitled “Jan Goodall Finds Chimps, Alas, Share Human Savagery.”  To the extent that that is true, aren't we all just savages with more sophisticated brains?

The chimp civil war in Tanzania displayed characteristics of human hunter-gatherer activity.  Primate Brain is a larger portion of early human mind and not so far removed from apes as our brain, augmented by technology, is today.  No doubt there are hardwired components of this ancient behavior at the root of contemporary human behavior.

The hopeful note is that chimpanzees do not often behave in this way.  Likewise, macaques don't usually engage in systematic dog killing.  The capacity for organized violence is latent in their brains, just as it is in ours.  Humans have often gone to war but, at least during my lifetime, most humans, chimpanzees, macaques and other primates live in peace.

There are all sorts of theories as to why humans and other primates become violent.  I don't pay much attention to any of them.  It is enough for me to know that human beings are fundamentally aggressive and that the capacity for organized violence is deeply rooted in our brains.  We have found other ways to manifest that aggression such as through sports or business competition or politics.

The deeply-rooted nature of our violent side is especially important to consider today.  One year ago today Trump incited a riot (if not a coup) among his more chimp-like supporters.  They attacked the US Capitol while Congress was seated in session.  Physical violence like this is unrivaled since the British burned the Capitol to the ground in 1814.  I think this deep-seated tendency toward violence is highly reflected in the world today and in America particularly.  The more hardwired Primate Brains are ready to use violence against their political opposition be it Proud Boys or ANTIFA.  

So when I read stories about the macaques killing dogs in India or a singular chimpanzee being murdered by other chimps in Kenya or of civil war in Gombe in the 1970's, I see humanity in all these things.  And it helps me understand the force which Trump has tapped in to.  The rage of his “base” is bad monkey business.  By its very nature it is primitive and antiquated.  

But that won't stop anyone from trying to eradicate everyone they perceive as a threat, physically or politically.  Basic Primitive Brain aggression has found surrogates in sports and business and, most particularly, in politics.  Since January 6 of last year, the 1970's civil war in Gombe seems more familiar and I can't escape the feeling that we American apes are already at war with one another.

But there is another part of that Primate Brain, a kinder, gentler part.  The part where the dying elderly chimpanzee gives a big toothless smile to the person who was its keeper when it was young.  Recalling a feeling from long years agow hen it was filled with vigor.  That, too, is human-like.  And we have every reason to claim that this smile is as important, if not more so, as violent behavior.  That is hopeful as I consider the raging violent anger that is a wildfire in our land today.