Darwin's Theory Of Male Aggression In Primates

Male aggression against females and male aggression against males shows us considerable variation among the primates. In many primates, the aggression is rare, mild, or limited and in some cases, it can get violent and cause huge fights with serious injuries. They are so many theories that involve in the evolution of violence. Darwin’s theory of natural selection argued that violent behavior in species just like other physical characteristics passed on to the future generations. How these traits passed on from primates to humans evolved violence. Another hypothesis is the warrior gene hypothesis, where Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) is considered a biological gene that causes the aggression and violence in the humans. Other factors that are highly evident for violence in primates and humans are the lack of resources, defense of land or sexual needs. How deprivation of these resources lead them forcibly into violence.
Introduction
As 20thth century is the most educated century, but it is also the one of the most violent one over the history of humans and this is due to the increase in individual’s survival and reproduction rate (Whipps, 2009). Homo sapiens lethal violence has been increasing over the course of mammal evolution. The aggression in mammals, that includes humans, also has a genetic component with high heritability (Wrangham and …show more content…
But at the same time, sociobiological explanations of violence also emphasize on the importance of male sexual reproductive success. This raises a big question, what is the overall trajectory of violence and sociality in human evolution (Knauft, 1991). To answer this, we must do a broad comparison of the apes and human societies with regards to the dominance structure, resource sharing, male competition for sexual access to females, biological traits, and intergroup