During the week, we were introduced to various articles on the nature of human and ancestral behavior. One of the most notable quotes is the following: “Although science seems overwhelmingly male, primatology is an oasis of female domination” (Saini, 2017). The author of this article talks about the results of studies conducted on monkeys. Scientists have found that female dominance in the primate hierarchy is typical for these animals. This discovery attracted my attention because I have previously studied the peculiarities of monkeys’ life in the wild and in zoo conditions.
It is known that the power of females is quite evident in the wild. They usually roam together with their dependent cubs or weak individuals. Females are forced to disperse in different directions in search of food – fruits, and leaves, which they mainly eat (Saini, 2017). Under zoo conditions, the hierarchy becomes more conditional; although equality in captivity is artificially created, it speaks to females’ potential solidarity and willingness to accept the importance of males.
The idea of female dominance in primates requires the addition of the fact that in different breeds of these animals, power is manifested in various degrees. It is known that a long history of interconnection and attachment between females, expressed in a great deal of grooming and sex, has not just undermined male dominance but has completely changed the balance of power. Female chimpanzees gather in smaller groups than bonobos, and, as a result, the females communicate more with each other, having more convenient conditions for establishing dominance. Thus, the apes of the latter breed have perfected the female solidarity latently present in all African primates.
Attractive during the reading was an article on the peculiarities of human behavior and the perception of norms. I found the information presented by the researchers to be informative, introducing new terms and phenomena. The authors emphasize the idea that social standards of human behavior are conditioned by many factors, including the customs of a tribe or the peculiarities of an area (Ryan & Jetha, 2022). This article is important for my future career since I have been collecting data for research on detribalization and ethnicity. The latter form a national character or mental makeup, which manifests itself in the national culture. Ethnopsychologists distinguish such differences, for example, in the nature and traditions of people’s work, in the features of everyday life, ideas about family relationships and relationships with other people, about good and evil and the beautiful and the ugly.
Ethnic peculiarities are most obviously manifested at the level of everyday consciousness. At the same time, it is essential to bear in mind that ethnicity as a factor of socialization of growing up generations cannot be ignored, but its influence should not be absolutized either. A comparative study of the upbringing of numerous cultures, which are different from each other, revealed that all of them tried to bring up the same traits in children of each sex (Ryan & Jetha, 2022). Boys focused on developing independence and the desire to succeed, while girls focused on a sense of duty, caring, and obedience.
However, there are societies where the upbringing patterns are different and where men and women behave differently. The vital peculiarities of ethnicity are understood as the ways of children’s physical development, the latter include child feeding, nature of nutrition, sports, and health care for children. The circumstances which determine the set of traits and values inherited by an individual remain unstudied. The socialization of the younger generation is also greatly influenced by mental features – the spiritual makeup of the ethnic group, which some scientists refer to as mentality and is formed in the specific socio-cultural conditions of life of this or that social group.
References
Saini, A. (2017). Monkey business: Scientists assumed that patriarchy was only natural. Bonobos proved them wrong. Quartz, 7. Web.
Ryan, C., & Jetha, C. (2022). Remember the Yucatan! Sex at dawn: The prehistoric origins of modern sexuality (pp. 19–24). HarperCollins.