Switching strategies: if baboons can do it, can’t we?

The work of Robert M. Sapolsky and others on the social life of baboons is interesting in many ways but here it’s significant for two reasons in particular.

First, I think it sheds light on what we mean when we talk about culture.

Secondly, it seems to indicate something about the ability of some primates to abandon, defect from, or otherwise change their ways of operating when faced with changed material circumstances and/or changed social circumstances.

If baboons can do it, why can’t we?

See also:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61382/robert-m-sapolsky/a-natural-history-of-peace

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