Renowned Anthropologist Says Donald Trump and Alpha Male Chimpanzees Play the Same Political Game

[applegrove]

Renowned Anthropologist Says Donald Trump and Alpha Male Chimpanzees Play the Same Political Game

David Sloan Wilson interview with Christopher Boehm at Evonomics

http://evonomics.com/renowned-anthropologist-says-donald-trump-and-alpha-male-chimpanzees-play-the-same-political-game/

"SNIP..........


CB: Every lasting chimpanzee alpha male is an expert in intuitive politics, for with these apes leadership competition is constant and not limited to contests every four years. Political competition is a field in which Trump is an intuitive genius. He has worked with the theater of conflict not only in his television series The Apprentice, but also in his foray into the raucous world of non-professional wrestling shows. Trump obviously got on well with these people. In the New Scientist article I drew a parallel between Trump and a Gombe chimpanzee named Mike, who suddenly became alpha male because he incorporated new elements of intimidation into his alpha-male displays. Trump has innovated similarly, and his orthodoxly-political opponents have had no good answer.

DSW: A little more about you, please. I know who you are but a broader audience needs to know.

CB: I’m a cultural anthropologist interested in political behavior, who was trained in ethology by Jane Goodall and spent six year going to Africa to study conflict resolution among wild chimpanzees. What is interesting about these apes, is that when third parties intervene in conflicts, they do so by exerting raw power. If two subordinates are fighting, the alpha male will erect all of his hair and charge toward the fighters and they will fearfully disengage to escape him. As Frans de Waal has shown us, watching chimpanzees is a great way to learn about human political behavior.


............SNIP"

[SummerSnow]

1. What an insult to male chimps