Comparing Demonic Males By Richard Wrangham And Dale Peterson

The authors of Demonic Males, Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson present a thesis stating that human beings and chimpanzees both act aggressively and violently, which are common characteristic among our closest ancestors. Based on the author’s argument, human violence was inherited on to us through the process of evolution. The authors used examples based on the observations they made while studying chimpanzees. There is a resemblance between human warfare and the behavior associated with the chimpanzee. A group of chimpanzees walks quietly around the territory and then initiate an attack on the neighboring male (Wrangham, 1996, p.69). This technique is called “Lethal Raid”, where a number of males murder one lone male (Wrangham, 1996, p.69).

These secret attacks against the defenseless villagers, has led to many victories. (Wrangham, 1996, p.72). Wrangham addresses other examples that support his arguments, including the way chimpanzees and humans struggle for power. Chimpanzees attack males from other groups in order to acquire food from their territory. Once the attackers killed the neighboring males, they then have a better chance of collecting the females from that group (Wrangham, 1996, p70). The Yanomamo tribe live deep in the Amazon basin, they too are known to fight for women, food, and prestige just like the chimpanzee (Wrangham, 1996, p68). Wrangham connects human politics to the chimpanzee and how it often leads to violence. Chimpanzees have a tendency to act violently, especially towards their own species. Sometimes they try to negotiate to set up some sort of truce, however if it fails, they immediately become demonic (Wranghan, 1996, p127). The goal for these apes is to become the “alpha male” (Wrangham, 1996, p.128). In Demonic Males two male chimpanzees allied against the third chimpanzee and eventually causing him severe

According to Wrangham humans and chimpanzees are the only two mammals that go on raids with the intent of harming the other group (Wrangham, 1996, p131). Our behavior relates to those of chimpanzees most likely because we both share the same evil acts such as political murder, beatings, and rape. Rape is common among orangutans but not among other species and animals (Wrangham, 1996, p131). Furthermore, there is a certain connection between human violence and chimpanzee rape. Interestingly, the pattern of male violence that both chimpanzee and humans share is not true for all animals (Wrangham, 1996, p126). In some species females are more violent than males, and in others males are barely violent at