Chimpanzees in Uganda locked in eight-year 'civil war', say researchers

Post by throwi790 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 9:04 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #46

> If chimpanzees - one of the species closest to humans genetically - could do so without human constructs of religion, ethnicity and political beliefs, then "relational dynamics may play a larger causal role in human conflict than often assumed", they added. That's a weird thing to say. Studies of primitive tribes showed decades ago that they only seem to fight each other for a handful of reasons. Religion, ethnicit…

Post by jandrese » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #46

> If chimpanzees - one of the species closest to humans genetically - could do so without human constructs of religion, ethnicity and political beliefs, then "relational dynamics may play a larger causal role in human conflict than often assumed", they added. That's a weird thing to say. Studies of primitive tribes showed decades ago that they only seem to fight each other for a handful of reasons. Religion, ethnicit…

Post by jandrese » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #8

neom wrote: post #6

Here is the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4944 - it's interesting. I noticed there was a respiratory epidemic that killed 25 chimps naturally quickly, one would imagine that would have quite a societal destabilizing impact?

My initial instinct is that they were just reestablishing social order among the group after such a dramatic event. Edit : I just read the paper and the discussion does a good job at laying out the entire landscape that contributed to the disruption. Pretty fascinating but also totally explainable due to the circumstances explained, which in and of itself is wildly fascinating!

Post by lelanthran » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 9:17 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #46

> If chimpanzees - one of the species closest to humans genetically - could do so without human constructs of religion, ethnicity and political beliefs, then "relational dynamics may play a larger causal role in human conflict than often assumed", they added. That's a weird thing to say. Studies of primitive tribes showed decades ago that they only seem to fight each other for a handful of reasons. Religion, ethnicit…

Post by towledev » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

stuxnet79 wrote: post #33

culi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of us who are unlikely to make time to watch a 4-part documentary, are there any particular lessons about social/political dynamics that you learned that stuck out to you or felt particularly prescient?

> For those of us who are unlikely to make time to watch a 4-part documentary, are there any particular lessons about social/political dynamics that you learned that stuck out to you or felt particularly prescient? I watched the entire 4-part documentary and loved it. In general the series gives you a raw look into the a-b-c's of primate politics. Chimps just like us and the rest of our ape cousins are preoccupied wi…