The Special Power of Human Tribalism | Richard Wrangham

Favoring an “us” against “them” mentality, the human psyche is demonstrably biased towards identifying those who don’t belong. A classic explanation for our tribal instinct is evolutionary: Individuals who sacrifice their selfish interests for the benefit of their social group increase their group’s competitive success. We see this behavior in many animal species, such as chimpanzees, but human tribalistic psychology is unusually intense.
Dr. Wrangham’s presentation explores how, and why, humans differ from other species, focusing on our use of moralistic aggression to enforce norms.
This talk was part of a Leakey Foundation Survival Symposium entitled, "Our Tribal Nature: Tribalism, Politics, and Evolution." The symposium was held in September 2019 at the Morgan Library in New York.
About the speaker:
Richard Wrangham is Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and founder of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. He has conducted extensive research on primate ecology, nutrition, and social behavior. He is best known for his work on the evolution of human warfare, described in the book Demonic Males, and on the role of cooking in human evolution, described in the book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. His most recent book, The Goodness Paradox, was published earlier this year. Together with Elizabeth Ross, he co-founded the Kasiisi Project in 1997 and serves as a patron of the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP).

[@francisfischer7620]

Absolutely fascinating! As a retired teacher I kept seeing the faces of past students - A teacher sees this lecture lived out in her classroom day after day. Imagining it over 300,000 years is mind bogling!

[@madyjules]

ha!! that snarl @ 9:00 😂 Dr. W, I never thought I’d hear such a sound come out of you great presentation, as always

[@dipakgupta8470]

One of the best lectures. Thank you, Dr. Wrangham.

[@commiegobbledygook3138]

The concept that we domesticated ourselves on purpose is very profound. The longer we lived in domestic circles the more we exponentially pushed ourselves further into peaceful domesticity.

[@mudslinger888]

Until a orangish guy stuck a shard in that eye-dea…

[@gtjhuang]

Some years ago I came up with this concept of “self-domestication” as the most striking human behavior different from other animals, certainly due to our intelligence. Does this guy come up w this concept himself or it is just so obvious 😁?

[@jsbrules]

he didn’t come up with the concept; the idea that we are domesticated started with a German named Blumenbach around 1809 but has been controversial ever since. Darwin wrestled with it. Wrangham cites a lot of the works of Christopher Boehm. It’s all in Wrangham’s 2019 book “the goodness paradox”

[@artiexus]

Fascinating talk, thank you for sharing!

[@tomasznasiowski5075]

great lecture

[@alexiavandercruyssen1354]

Très intéressant merci

[@alkaloitongbam6684]

Got to learn new things, thanks a lot

[@user-bi9wm2cw8b]

Agricultural revolution has catalysed self-domestication

[@systemicchaos3921]

Agriculture came much later

[@mudslinger888]

Also catalyzed chronic diseases we suffer today… re: Carnivore Code bk.

[@leonardportuondo2403]

Yeah I agree with this but only within the context of the tribe we are still very primitive and aggressive when it comes to other animals cause survival requires it to be.

[@hackerhesays731]

im finally seeing what Tos is!!!!!

[@shalevedna]

Does the innate tendency to preserve and continue the (human) dot its has anything to do with this domestication and reduced violence? There is enough death for other causes than human aggression in past societies.

[@uvwuvw-ol3fg]

What about East Asians, most of them have wide faces which are also considered as a sign of neoteny (domestication)?

[@toniahugus2658]

Neotony is more infantile features such as less hair

[@bub6871]

East Asians have flat faces. White and ME people have sharp faces and blacks have wide faces.

[@Angesjw135]

Noticed that people with wider faces often can represent personality of psychopath or narcissist, or both. The wider face is in the area of eyes, the more it seems to be dangerous. Just an observation.

[@christianlonsing6357]

15:00 These days, I would exchange the name "Fred" with someone else.

[@gtjhuang]

Some years ago I came up with this concept of “self-domestication” as the most striking human behavior different from other animals, certainly due to our intelligence. Does this guy come up w this concept himself or it is just so obvious 😁?