Human Evolution and Male Aggression: Debunking the Myth of Man and Ape

277 Pages·2012·3.15 MB·English

by  Anne Innis Dagg

Human Evolution
and Male Aggression

Human Evolution
and Male Aggression
Debunking the Myth of Man and Ape
Anne Innis Dagg and Lee E. Harding
Copyright 2012 Cambria Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dagg, Anne Innis.
Human evolution and male aggression : debunking the
myth of man and ape / Anne Innis Dagg and Lee Harding.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 978-1-60497-821-6 (alk. paper)
1. Human evolution. 2. Social evolution. 3. Human behavior.
4. Inter-male aggression. I. Harding, L. (Lee) II. Title.
GN281.D35 2012
599.93’8—dc23
2012026268
To the late Ian Ralph Dagg
and to Andrew Harding and Jill Harding

Table of Contents
List of Figures................................................................ ix
Preface..........................................................................xi
Acknowledgments............................................................ xv
Section I: Primate Biology and Behavior................................... 1
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................... 3
Chapter 2: Humans........................................................... 19
Chapter 3: Bias in the Story of Human Evolution........................ 45
Chapter 4: Humans’ Closest Cousins—Not That Fierce................. 69
Chapter 5: Appeasement.....................................................87
Section II: Primate Dyads................................................. 107
Chapter 6: Nuclear Families............................................... 109
Chapter 7: Males Befriending Infants.................................... 123
Chapter 8: Males and Females, Without the Sex........................ 141
Chapter 9: Male Friends................................................... 161
Section III: Disposing of Fallacies....................................... 179
Chapter 10: The Fallacy of Male Infanticide............................ 181
Chapter 11: Infanticide by Females—Too Common.................... 193
Chapter 12: Aggression as Culture....................................... 209
Scientific Names of Animals Discussed................................. 217
Bibliography................................................................. 221
viii Human Evolution and Male Aggression
Index......................................................................... 251
About the Authors.......................................................... 257
List of Figures
Figure 1: Branching time of hominoid and Old World monkey
lineages ............................................................ 21
Figure 2: Branching pattern of the human family tree................... 25