Prisons Need Police Society Needs Mediators

In this article the assumption is that primates need social controls, policing, authority figures in order to maintain community.

Primate police prevent monkeying around
Chaos can descend on human societies without policing. The authority figures are also needed to maintain social stability among primates, say researchers who studied captive animals.

This tells us nothing about the nature of these primates when in their natural environment. And definitions of leadership and authority as policing and social control are subject to interpretation.

While this news item has traveled around, the link abouve is to the CBC report, the Scientific American article,below, gives the best description of the study.

If we change the terminology, not just for semantic but ideological purposes, from policing to mediation the role played by the mediator takes on a more positive light.

It reflects what we know of human societies and the role of elders and shamans. Often social control is exerted as mediation rather than force. And if you read this carefully you will see that our cousins here use mediation rather than force.

Anarchy breaks out not when mediation is removed but when mediation and mediators are present. In other words social consensus versus force.

While this research will be sure to be used by those who believe in domination, authority, policing and control, it actually shows that organic organization of community is more about mediation than 'force' which is what authority and policing implies.

And while the study apparently removed three alpha males, there are also alpha females in this primate society. No discussion here of what their role is or was.

Monkey Police Provide Social Stability

Of the 21 species of macaque monkeys, pigtailed macaques live in societies that fall somewhere between the despotic and egalitarian extremes. A dominant male and female run the show but conflict among other monkeys is common, if rarely extreme. Most such conflicts end with a third party intervening, usually in favor of one or the other opponent. But sometimes the most powerful monkeys literally stand between the two combatants and, occasionally without even threatening them, impartially resolve the conflict. It is this occasional policing that allows pigtailed macaque society to be more diverse instead of breaking down into warring cliques, according to new research.

Without the peacemakers, some macaques also become more violent, Jessica Flack of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and her colleagues report in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"Policing not only controls conflict, we find it significantly influences the structure of networks that constitute essential social resources in gregarious primate societies," the researchers wrote.

"The structure of such networks plays a critical role in infant survivorship, emergence and spread of co-operative behaviour, social learning and cultural traditions."

"We tend to associate power with privilege, but both in human and animal society it also entails a constructive contribution, or at least ought to. Through their stabilising presence and active peacekeeping, the dominant males contribute to a more cooperative society.

Also See:

Mutual Aid

Anarchism and Authority

Primate Man

For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing

The Right To Be Greedy

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anarchism
Libertarian
Mutual Aid
evolution
Darwin
primates
policing