When the interest of the individual is the same as the group
- 19 May 06, 04:39 PM
Like the pic? 
A little while ago we made a show about these lovely little creatures. Have a listen some time. Meerkats are despots! Female dominated despots at that. As a species they live in co-operative groups, with most of the individuals in the group helping the dominant female rear her young, instread of their own. So, the two big questions are: Why live in a group? And why not breed your self and help another? Read more.
The story is fascinating and perhaps is a nice thought for the weekend. All meerkats in the group "want" to behave as individuals, but if they went off on their own without the protection of the group, they would die very quickly from one of the many predators in the desert. So, it's in the interest of the individual to live in a group and for that group to be as large as possible. Because they all "agree" to live in a group this gives individuals the opportunity to dominate. In meerkats, domination is about controlling reproduction - And the females will kill to acquire this domination and rule thereafter by fear and intimidation. Since before the last ice age the human race were hunter gatherers. 13,000 to 10,000 years ago, probably in the Middle east, we started to domesticate animals and plants - And this intensification allowed us to increase the density of people in a small area. Our societies became more sophisticated. In the above programmes presenter Michael Portillo asks evolutionary biologist Tim Clutton-Brock from Cambridge University why meerkats think it's ok to murder to keep control of reproduction (the dominant female kills the babies of her daughters - her grandchildren!). Clutton-Brock replies that "they don't have a contract between each other to say it's not ok". People do.
Can we push these thoughts a little further when considering the evolution of society. When is it in our interest as individuals to keep the group (society) together - And to protect the nest around us. What contract do we have between each other that cares for the environment. I was at a meeting recently in St Pauls Cathedral, London, about global warming - And Sir David Attenborough stood up and said very clearly: "waste should be regarded as a sin..." It's food for thought.
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Meerkats are indeed fascinating critters, although to my mind one of the most interesting things about them is their dynamic switching between quadrupedal and bipedal modes. I think they could profitably be studied for clues as to how bipedalism arose in human beings. But for clues to humam culture? A) I'm pretty sceptical about drawing any infrernces from a species that evidently distant from our own. B) The fact is that human history is anyway a succession of examples of dominating and killing to control the means of reproduction. We might pay lip service to the idea of a contract not to do this, but at least one can't accuse the meerkats of hypocrisy in this regard.
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