Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Origins of Altruism and Cooperation pp 19–40Cite as

The Influence of Predation on Primate and Early Human Evolution: Impetus for Cooperation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR,volume 36))

Abstract

There have been many attempts to reconstruct the behavior and ecology of our earliest ancestors. The most common theory and the one that is widely accepted today is the “Man the Hunter” hypothesis. Cultural anthropologist Laura Klein expresses the current situation well: “While anthropologists argue in scientific meetings and journals, the general public receives its information from more popular sources … In many of these forums, the lesson of Man the Hunter has become gospel” (2004:10). However, this theory of early hominin behavior is still widely debated within the anthropological community and, as we will show, the evidence to support it remains controversial.

What brought the ape out of the trees, and so the man out of the ape, was a taste for blood. This is how the story went, when a few fossils found in Africa in the 1920s seemed to point to hunting as the first human activity among our simian forebears – the force behind our upright posture, skill with tools, domestic arrangements, and warlike ways. Why, on such slim evidence, did the theory take hold? (Harvard University Press, 1993)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alderton, D. 1991. Crocodiles and Alligators of the World. Facts on File, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angier, N. 1999. Illuminating how bodies are built for sociality. In: The Biological Basis of Human Behavior: A Critical Review, R. Sussman (ed.). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp. 350–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angier, N. 2002. Wired by evolution to get along. The New York Times Large Type Weekly, 7/29-8/4, p. 24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardrey, R. 1961. African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man. Atheneum, New York. 1963 reprint, Dell, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Associated Press (AP). 2005. Were human ancestors hunted by birds? Science MSNBC.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10819471/from/ET/

  • Bahn, P. 2005. Cannibalism or ritual dismemberment. In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, S. Jones, R. Martin, and D. Pilbeam (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, R. 1993. The behavioral ecology of Efe pygmy men. University of Michigan Anthropological Papers 86. Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekoff, M. and J. Pierce. 2009. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, L. and R. Clarke. 1995. Eagle involvement in accumulation of the Taung child fauna. Journal of Human Evolution 29:275–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bezanson, M., P. Garber, J. Rutherford, and A. Cleveland. (2002) Patterns of subgrouping, social affiliation and social networks in Nicaraguan mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement 34:44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumenshine, R. 1988. An experimental model of the timing of hominid and carnivore influence on archaeological bone assemblages. Journal of Archaeological Science 15:483–502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumenshine, R. 1995. Percussion marks, tooth marks and experimental determinations of the timing of hominid and carnivore access to long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 29:21–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N. 1993. The lives of hunter-gatherer children: Effects of parental behavior and parental reproductive strategy. In: Juvenile Primates: Life History, Development and Behavior, M. Pereira and L. Fairbanks (eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 309–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N., K. Hawkes, and J. O’Connell. 1989. Modeling and measuring the costs of children in two foraging societies. In: Comparative Socioecology: The Behavioral Ecology of Humans and Other Mammals, V. Standen and R. Foley (eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 367–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boaz, N. and R. Ciochon. 2001. The scavenging of “Peking Man.” Natural History 110(2):46–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boaz, N., R. Ciochon, Q. Xu, and J. Liu. 2000. Large mammalian carnivores as a taphonomic factor in the bone accumulation at Zhoukoudian. Acta Anthropologica Sinica (Suppl.) 19:224–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boaz, N., R. Ciochon, Q. Xu, and J. Liu. 2003. Taphonomy of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus: Locality 1 as a hyaenid den [unpublished manuscript].

    Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C. 1991. The effects of leopard predation on grouping patterns in forest chimpanzees. Behaviour 117(3–4):220–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C. and H. Boesch-Achermann. 2000. The Chimpanzees of the Taï Forest: Behavioural Ecology and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boesch C., C. Bolé, N. Eckhardt, and H. Boesch. 2010. Altruism in forest chimpanzees: The case of adoption. PLoS ONE 5(1):e8901. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008901.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borja, C., M. Garcia-Pacheco, E. Olivares, G. Scheuenstuhl, and J. Lowenstein. 1997. Immunospecificity of albumin detected in 1.6 million-year-old fossils from Venta Micena in Orce, Granada, Spain. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 103(4):433–441.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brain, C. 1981. The Hunters or the Hunted? University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunn, H. 1981. Archaeological evidence for meat eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge. Nature 291:574–677.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, S. (ed.). 1999. Hormones, Brain and Behavior: Integrative Neuroendocrinology of Affiliation. MIT Press, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, S. and B. Cushing. 2004. Proximate mechanisms regulating sociality and social monogamy in the context of evolution. In: Origins and Nature of Sociality, R. Sussman and A. Chapman (eds.). Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp. 99–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cloninger, C. 2004. Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, T. 2002. Breeding together: Kin selection and mutualism in cooperative vertebrates. Science 296:69–72.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dart, R. 1953. The predatory transition from ape to man. International Anthropological and Linguistic Review 1:201–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. 1874. The Descent of Man, Revised Edition. The Henneberry Company, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, H. and J. Deacon. 1999. Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeVault, T., O. Rhodes, and J. Shivik. 2003. Scavenging by vertebrates: Behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives on an important energy transfer pathway in terrestrial ecosystems. Oikos 102(2):225–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal, F. 2006. Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domico, T. 1988. Bears of the World. Facts on File, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dominguez-Rodrigo, M. 1997. Meat-eating by early hominids at the FLK Zinjanthropus Site, Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): An experimental approach using cut mark data. Journal of Human Evolution 33:669–690.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dominguez-Rodrigo, M. 1999. Distinguishing between apples and oranges: The application of modern cut mark studies to the Plio-Pleistocene (a reply to Monahan). Journal of Human Evolution 37:793–800.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fay, J., R. Carroll, J. Kerbis Peterhans, and D. Harris. 1995. Leopard attack on and consumption of gorillas in the Central African Republic. Journal of Human Evolution 29(1):93–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferris, C., C. Snowdon, J. King, T. Duong, T. Ziegler, K. Ugurbil, R. Ludwig, N. Schultz-Darken, Z. Wu, D. Olson, J. Sullivan, P. Tannenbaum, and J. Vaughan. 2001. Functional imaging of brain activity in conscious monkeys responding to sexually arousing cues. Neuroreport 12(10):2231–2236.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferris, C., C. Snowdon, J. King, J. Sullivan, T. Ziegler, D. Olson, N. Schultz-Darken, P. Tannenbaum, R. Ludwig, Z. Wu, A. Einspanier, J. Vaughan, and T. Duong. 2004. Activation of neural pathways associated with sexual arousal in non-human primates. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 19:168–175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fourrier, M., R. Sussman, R. Kippen, and G. Childs. 2008. Demographic modeling of a predator-prey system and its implication for the Gombe red colobus (Procolobus badius) population. International Journal of Primatology 29:497–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M. 2004. Was pre-human a failed “experiment?” Fossil hints at violent death 900,000 years ago. Science MSNBC.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5343787/

  • Fry, D. 2006. The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gore, R. 2002. New find: The first pioneer? National Geographic 8/02 [unnumbered addition to issue].

    Google Scholar 

  • Goren-Inbar, N., N. Alperson, M. Kislev, O. Simchoni, Y. Melamed, A. Ben-Nun, and E. Werker. 2004. Evidence of hominin control of fire at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Science 304:725–727.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, D. 2000. Primates as prey: Ecological, morphological, and behavioral relationships between primate species and their predators. Ph.D. dissertation, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, D. and R. Sussman. 2005. Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, D. and R. Sussman. 2009. Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution, Expanded Edition. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvard University Press Online Catalog. Advertisement for A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature through History by Matt Cartmill (1993). http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CARVIE.html

  • Hauser, M. 2006. Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. Harper Collins, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., J. O’Connell, and N. Blurton Jones. 1995. Hadza children’s foraging: Juveniles’ dependency, social arrangements and mobility among hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology 36:688–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayden, B. 1981. Subsistence and ecological adaptations of modern hunter/gatherers. In: Omnivorous Primates: Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution, R. Harding and G. Teleki (eds.). Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 344–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hladik, C. 1977. Chimpanzees of Gabon and chimpanzees of Gombe: Some comparative data on the diet. In: Primate Ecology: Studies of the Feeding and Ranging Behaviour in Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes, T. Clutton-Brock (ed.). Academic, New York, pp. 481–501.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hladik, C., D. Chivers, and P. Pasquet. 1999. On diet and gut size in non-human primates and humans: Is there a relationship to brain size? Current Anthropology 40(5):695–697.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • James, S. 1989. Hominid use of fire in the lower and middle Pleistocene. Current Anthropology 30(1):1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirsch, P., C. Esslinger, Q. Chen, D. Mier, S. Lis, S. Siddhanti, H. Gruppe, V. Mattey, B. Gallhofer, A. Meyer-Lindenberg. 2005. Oxytocin modulates neural circuitry for social cognition and fear in humans. Journal of Neuroscience 25:11489–11493.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, L. 2004. Women and Men in World Cultures. McGraw Hill, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. 1999. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, Second Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. and B. Edgar. 2002. The Dawn of Human Culture. Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosfeld, M., M. Heinrichs, P. Zak, U. Fischbacher, E. Fehr. 2005. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature 435:673–676.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kruuk, H. 2002. Hunter and Hunted: Relationships between Carnivores and People. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago University Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazaro-Perea, C., M. de Fátima Arruda, and C. Snowdon. 2004. Grooming as a reward? Social function of grooming between females in cooperatively breeding marmosets. Animal Behaviour 67:627–636.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lupo, K. and J. O’Connell. 2002. Cut and tooth mark distributions on large animal bones: Ethnoarchaeological data form the Hadza and their implications for current ideas about early human carnivory. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:85–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald, D. 1984. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Facts on File, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marlowe, F. 2005. Hunter-gatherers and human evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 14:54–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDougal, C. 1991. Man-eaters. In: Great Cats: Majestic Creatures of the Wild, J. Seidensticker and S. Lumpkin (eds.). Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, pp. 204–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGraw, W., C. Cooke, and S. Shultz. 2006. Primate remains from African crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus) nests in Ivory Coast’s Tai Forest: Implications for primate predation and early hominid taphonomy in South Africa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131(2):151–165.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Milton, K. and M. Demment. 1989. Features of meat digestion by captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 18:45–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monge, J. and A. Mann. 2007. Paleodemography of extinct hominin populations. In: Handbook of Paleoanthropology: Principles, Methods, and Approaches, Vol. I, W. Henke and I. Tattersall (eds.). Springer, Berlin, pp. 673–700.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosquera Martínez, M. 1998. Differential raw material use in the Middle Pleistocene of Spain. Evidence from Sierra de Atapuerca, Torralba, Ambrona and Aridos. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8(1):15–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Munger, N. 1971. Aggression and violence in man. Munger Africana Library Notes 9, 24pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, R. 1991. Walker’s Mammals of the World, Sixth Edition – Vol. II. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R. and P. Shipman. 1981. Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge. Nature 291:577–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ragir, S., M. Rosenberg, and P. Tierno. 2000. Gut morphology and the avoidance of carrion among chimpanzees, baboons, and early hominids. Journal of Anthropological Research 56(4):477–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rilling, J. 2008. Neuroscientific approaches and applications within anthropology. Yearbook Physical Anthropology 51:2–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rilling, J., A. Glenn, M. Jairam, G. Pagnoni, D. Goldsmith, H. Effenbein, S. Lilienfeld. 2007. Neural correlates of social cooperation and non-cooperation as a function of psychopathy. Biological Psychiatry 61:1260–1271.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rilling, J., D. Gutman, T. Zeh, G. Pagnoni, G. Berns, and D. Kilts. 2002. A neural basis for social cooperation. Neuron 35:395–405.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Senut, B. 2001. Fast Breaking Comments. Essential Science Indicators Special Topics. December 2001. http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/comments/december-01-Brigitte-Senut.html

  • Sept, J. 1994. Beyond bones: Archaeological sites, early hominid subsistence, and the costs and benefits of exploiting wild plant foods in East African riverine landscapes. Journal of Human Evolution 27:295–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, J. 2002. Using the “F”-word in primatology. Behaviour 139:421–446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, J., S. Alberts, and J. Altmann. 2003. Social bonds of female baboons enhance infant survival. Science 302:1231–1234.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Small, L. 2005. Our adaptable ancestors: Recent discoveries of skull fragments and tools testify to the resourcefulness of early humans. Smithsonian, February 2005, p. 12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon, C. 2003. Affiliative processes and male primate social behavior. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL, November 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon, C. and K. Cronin. 2007. Cooperative breeders do cooperate. Behavioural Processes 76:138–141.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon, C., T. Ziegler, and R. Almond. 2006. Affiliative hormones in primates: Cause or consequence of positive behavior? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, MO, February 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speth, J. 2010. The Paleoanthropology and Archaeology of Big-Game Hunting: Protein, Fat, or Politics? (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology). Springer, New York.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Strum, S. 2001. Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sussman, R. and P. Garber. 2004. Rethinking sociality: Cooperation and aggression among primates. In: The Origin and Nature of Sociality, R. Sussman and A. Chapman (eds.). Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp. 161–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sussman, R. and P. Garber. 2011. Cooperation, collective action, and competition in primate social interactions. In: Primates in Perspective, 2nd Edition, C.J. Campbell, A. Fuentes, K.C. Mackinnon, S.K. Bearder, and R.S.M. Stumpf (eds.). Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 587–599.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, J. 1976. Subsistence ecology of Central Kalahari San. In: Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers: Studies of the !Kung San and Their Neighbors, R. Lee and I. De Vore (eds.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 98–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S., L. Cousino, B. Klein, T. Gruenewals, R. Gurung, and J. Updegraff. 2000. Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review 107:411–429.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Teaford, M. and P. Ungar. 2000. Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 97(25): 13,506–13,511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treves, A. and P. Palmqvist. 2007. Reconstructing hominin interactions with mammalian carnivores (6.0–1.8 ma). In: Primate Anti-Predator Strategies, S. Gursky and K. Nekaris (eds.). Springer, New York, pp. 355–381.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E. 2000. Hard times among the Neanderthals. In: Annual Editions: Physical Anthropology 00/01, E. Angeloni (ed.). Dushkin McGraw-Hill, Guilford, CT, pp. 131–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsukahara, T. 1993. Lions eat chimpanzees: The first evidence of predation by lions on wild chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology 29(1):1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uprety, A. 1998. Killers on the prowl. The Week 8/2/98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vincent, A. 1985. Plant foods in savanna environments: A preliminary report of tubers eaten by the Hadza of northern Tanzania. World Archaeology 17:1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D. 2002. Reciprocity and interchange in the social relationships of wild male chimpanzees. Behaviour 139:343–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, K. and A. Buchanan. 2009. The Mermaid’s Tale: Four Billion Years of Cooperation in the making of Living Things. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • WoldeGabriel, G., T. White, G. Suwa, P. Renne, J. de Heinzelin, W. Hart, and G. Heiken. 1994. Nature 371:330–333.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, K. 2003. Stranger in a new land. Scientific American 289(5):74–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Young, L., A. Murphy Young, E. Hammock. 2005. Anatomy and neurochemistry of the pair bond. Journal of Comparative Neurology 493:51–57.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA

    Donna Hart

  2. Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Robert W. Sussman

Authors
  1. Donna Hart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert W. Sussman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donna Hart .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, 63130, Missouri, USA

    Robert W. Sussman

  2. School of Medicine, Dept. Psychiatry, University of Washington, S. Euclid Ave. 660, St. Louis, 63110, Missouri, USA

    C. Robert Cloninger

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hart, D., Sussman, R.W. (2011). The Influence of Predation on Primate and Early Human Evolution: Impetus for Cooperation. In: Sussman, R., Cloninger, C. (eds) Origins of Altruism and Cooperation. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, vol 36. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9520-9_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation