[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> The essay you provide highlights the effect of the “hard wired” instinct > to be part of the HERD of people making up a society of economically driven > humans and a FEELING it is good to be the most aggressive pecker in the > flock, the top dog, the biggest ram or whatever. The HERD instinct is > probably more influential . . . > Well, you are mixing up some terms used in biology. The top dog is the dominant member of a pack, not a herd. Humans, chimpanzees and other primates are mainly pack animals, not herd animals. They are not lone hunters. Human and chimpanzee behavior is mainly that of pack-hunter predators, not herd animals, although our teeth and guts are better suited to herbivores. We are omnivores, similar to North American bears. (Human consumption of meat is a recent development. It probably came sometime after the discovery of fire, because raw meat often makes us sick, whereas chimpanzees eat it all the time. See: https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human-ebook/dp/B0097D71MQ) The reference I made to guppies is from research I participated in as an undergraduate, observing guppy behavior when they were exposed to a new area of the tank after an underwater door was opened. They explored the new area.
