Evolution, Power, Primates, and Culture

It is imperative, now that high levels of extra-biological power are a persistent feature of human life, to move our social organization, and our systems that express our social organization, farther away from the primate (rigid, male centric, violence ordered, social hierarchy), and more toward the male/female pair bonding form of social organization created through our evolutionary split from the primate species. Our evolutionary split from our predecessor species resulted in creatures that walked on two feet, had larger brains, and a different form of social organization, compared to primates. These changes hold the secret of our ability to develop extra-biological power and the type of social structures that have directed the use of that power as it has developed.

Our heads and brains became larger in proportion to our bodies than our primate forebears and the average size difference between males and females declined from 50% to 15%. This changed our form of social organization to a male female pair bonding form as opposed to a the typical primate model of a primary male hierarchy, with little interaction between male and female except to mate, and a separate female hierarchy that is subjugated to the male hierarchy. The development of spoken language with human style language syntax was the other major development and it had a significant effect on social organization, allowing more complexity and capacity for social interaction, and also provided the cognitive foundation out of which our current level of extra-biological power developed.

Our social systems have not changed to reflect the public existence of mass extra-biological power as a behavioral feature of humanity. The degree to which the alpha ape social model structures our management of extra-biological force is inappropriate because extra-biological force is a public cultural inheritance, not a private genetic inheritance like fast reflexes, larger teeth, increased strength, and thick skin. The other issue is that the available force is dramatically larger than our direct biological force and this has a huge effect on our environment making human beings the global top predator, which we never could have achieved without the development of large-scale extra-biological force. It is as if we have developed teeth and strength exceeding that of the dinosaurs. The degree to which the alpha ape social model structures our management of extra-biological force is inappropriate because extra-biological force is a public cultural inheritance, not a private genetic inheritance like fast reflexes, larger teeth, increased strength, and thick skin.

Much of the energy being created via public extra-biological force is dedicated to the purpose of male competition for rank privilege of hierarchical dominance, which is driven by the male inherited urge to increase actual and symbolic acquisition of breeding rights and territory that provides food for the troop. You only need to look as far as the huge differences between average CEO and worker compensation and the gap between average male and female compensation in the American corporate economy to see that modern capitalism, which controls a huge percentage of our extra-biological power, is purposed toward rewarding male rank in a similar way to the high level of breeding privileges achieved by the alpha ape in primate society.

Our use of language, culture, and systems is the way in which we call on the various potentialities in our wide-ranging array of genetic capabilities, and we can no longer afford to accept large portions of our extra-biological power being managed by systems that reinforce our evolutionarily archaic alpha ape male dominance culture. We do not live in a jungle environment where there are animal predators with superior predatory skills, and we have agriculture supplying for the feeding needs of ourselves and our children so that maintaining protected territory in which we can hunt, and gather is no longer necessary. We need a fully pair bonded culture that reflects the reality of achievement of public extra-biological force and manages that force in a way that maximizes the quality of life for pairs, children, and the surrounding environment. Much of the material on this site is dedicated to exploring what a fully pair bonded culture and with systems that managed extra-biological power in the service of the natural objectives of a pair bonded social organization would look like.