51 pages • 1 hour read
Brian Hare, Vanessa WoodsSurvival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Not Quite Human”
The authors tell the story of Rachel, a nanny who grew up in Minembwe, a village in eastern Congo. Born into the Banyamulenge tribe, she enjoyed a happy childhood despite the restrictions her people faced: The Banyamulenge, linked to the Tutsi of Rwanda, were marginalized in Congo, viewed as outsiders despite their 400-year presence. Rachel’s tribe faced discrimination and exclusion from political and social opportunities. The Belgians, during their colonial rule, exacerbated these divisions, favoring the Tutsi over the Hutu, leading to deep societal rifts that later fueled violence, including the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Rachel’s life was affected when the conflicts in Congo intensified. The Banyamulenge were repeatedly targeted, leading to violent clashes. In the 1998 Congo War, rebel groups attacked her village, and she fled to the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. Despite the camp’s proximity to her home, the situation remained precarious. The UN warned the camp residents of the dangers and offered relocation, but the refugees, fearing disease and rebel attacks in inland camps, chose to stay. On August 13, 2004, rebels from the group PALIPEHUTU attacked the camp. The rebels, fueled by previous losses and hatred toward the Banyamulenge, massacred many in the community, including Rachel’s family and neighbors. Rachel witnessed the murder of her husband and daughters and was herself kidnapped. She was held in captivity for a year, subjected to physical and sexual violence. Rachel escaped to a refugee camp in Zambia, where she faced further hardships, including severe infections and an HIV diagnosis. Despite these challenges, Rachel survived and immigrated to America in 2009, where she worked to help other women with HIV.
The chapter highlights how perceived group threats can trigger extreme aggression. This behavior is rooted in our evolutionary history. Just as domesticated animals like dogs and bonobos show new forms of aggression to protect their groups, humans exhibit increased aggression when their loved ones are threatened. This phenomenon is linked to the hormone oxytocin, which, while promoting bonding and parental care, also fuels aggression when those bonds are threatened. For example, hamster mothers given extra oxytocin become more aggressive toward perceived threats. The dual role of oxytocin, fostering both intense love and fierce protection, extends to human behavior. Increased serotonin during brain development enhances oxytocin’s effects, strengthening group bonds and the willingness to defend group members. This protective aggression can lead to dehumanization, where the theory of mind network in the brain, responsible for empathy and understanding others, becomes less active when outsiders threaten the group.
Experiments by neuroscientists like Lasana Harris and Susan Fiske demonstrate that people perceive those they consider less competent and warm, such as homeless individuals, as less human. This dehumanization, exacerbated by oxytocin, can justify aggression and violence toward outsiders. Fiske’s studies showed that Dutch men given oxytocin were increasingly likely to sacrifice an Arab over a fellow Dutchman in a hypothetical moral dilemma, when compared to a control group of Dutch research subjects. The chapter underscores that dehumanization is universal, appearing across cultures and times. It can be triggered by arbitrary differences, as seen in the “Robber’s Cave” experiments in the 1950s, where boys quickly turned hostile toward members of a rival group. This tendency to dehumanize others explains historical and modern atrocities, such as genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Overall, the chapter illustrates that, while human self-domestication has fostered unparalleled social cooperation and friendliness toward group members, it has also given rise to a darker side. The same mechanisms that enable connections and empathy within groups can lead to intense aggression and dehumanization toward perceived outsiders.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Uncanny Valley”
In 2007, a group of Baka pygmies from the Congo Basin were brought to Brazzaville to perform at a music festival. Despite their talent and success, they were housed in a zoo, highlighting the historical and ongoing mistreatment of pygmies by the Bantu, the dominant ethnic group in Congo. This discrimination has deep roots, exemplified by the display of pygmies like Ota Benga in the early 20th century. Benga, exhibited in the Bronx Zoo in America, was treated inhumanely. Following failed attempts to assimilate into American society after his release, Benga ended his own life in 1916.
The chapter introduces the parallel concept of the “uncanny valley,” proposed by roboticist Masahiro Mori. This suggests that when the societies of 17th- and 18th-century Europe were first exposed to great apes, they reacted with feelings of eeriness and revulsion. These apes, resembling humans yet distinctly different, were both fascinating and horrifying to early modern Europeans, leading to their categorization as degenerate mirrors of human beings. This uncomfortable anthropomorphizing of great apes contributed to the racist practice of “simianization,” the practice of comparing people, especially those deemed inferior, to apes. This form of dehumanization was prevalent during the transatlantic slave trade, when racist bestial language including simian imagery was used to justify and perpetuate the enslavement of Black people. European scientists struggled with where to place great apes in their taxonomy, given their resemblance to humans. In the 19th century, anthropologists like James Hunt posited that Black people were closer to apes than to white people, further entrenching racist tropes. This view allowed elites to morally justify excluding black people from basic human rights. Simianization persisted beyond the slave trade, affecting various groups, including the Irish, Japanese, and Jews, particularly during periods of conflict.
The chapter also examines how simianization has influenced popular culture and legal proceedings. The 1933 film “King Kong,” for instance, played out racially-charged fears, portraying a giant black gorilla’s unnatural attraction to a white woman. This theme is echoed in the false accusations against the Scottsboro Boys, nine Black youths wrongly convicted of raping two white women. The association of Black men with apes continued into the civil rights era and beyond, exemplified by signs barring entry to Black people and apes alike in certain establishments.
The persistence of these racist stereotypes can be attributed to systemic failures in society. In a post–World War II America, scholars attributed the decline in overt racial prejudice to the victory of progressive Western culture. However, disparities in employment, education, housing, and health persisted, particularly in America’s prison system. The “War on Drugs” disproportionately affected Black people, leading to their overrepresentation in the prison population. Researchers propose that old prejudice has been replaced by new forms, such as symbolic or covert racism. The psychologist Phillip Goff highlights the “Attitude Inequality Mismatch,” where minorities still face significant inequalities despite living in a supposedly post-racist society. He argues that continued dehumanization, particularly simianization, better explains the treatment of black people in the US justice system.
The chapter concludes by discussing the broader implications of simianization and dehumanization. These phenomena are not relics of the past but persist in modern society, influencing everything from media portrayals to judicial outcomes. Understanding these processes is crucial for addressing the root causes of racial inequality and human cruelty.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Hare and Woods’s approach in these chapters relies increasingly on the use of personal stories, such as Rachel’s experiences in Congo, as the books moves from scientific explication toward its ultimate human-social argument. In particular, the section’s combination of case study, anecdote, and historical analysis builds to demonstrate The Impact of Social Behavior on Human History and Progress. This narrative technique effectively illustrates the real-world implications of evolutionary theories, especially the impact of dehumanization on human behavior. By focusing on individual accounts, the authors humanize complex scientific concepts, making them accessible and relatable. The narrative structure of these chapters is notable for its seamless integration of personal histories with scientific analysis. For instance, Rachel’s story is interwoven with discussions on the role of oxytocin in fostering both love and aggression. This method allows readers to see the direct correlation between scientific theories and their manifestations in real-life scenarios. The use of such a structure enhances reader engagement, as it combines the emotional appeal of storytelling with the intellectual rigor of scientific exploration.
Hare and Woods employ several rhetorical and literary devices to convey their messages effectively. Emotive language and descriptions are used to evoke empathy and understanding. For example, the recounting of Rachel’s escape to a refugee camp highlights the desperation and urgency of her situation, underscoring the human impact of conflict and displacement. Additionally, the authors use contrasting scenarios to highlight the dual nature of human social behavior—such as the protective aggression driven by oxytocin and the extreme cruelty resulting from dehumanization. These discussions support the theme of The Evolutionary Advantages of Friendliness and Cooperation by showing how the destructive side of human nature is damaging to humans as a species. By exploring how group identities and conflicts shape social interactions, the book deals with both positive and negative behaviors, tracing a causal link between friendliness, cooperation, and mutual survival. The discussion of violence and aggression between groups, such as the Hutu and Banyamulenge, explores the evolutionary basis of aggression as a protective mechanism, highlighting how traits that promote group cohesion and protection can also lead to exclusion and violence against perceived outsiders. This theme is exemplified by the analysis of oxytocin’s dual role in fostering both intense love and fierce protection, which can escalate into aggression when group members feel threatened.
Hare and Woods use historical references and scientific data to build a compelling case for their arguments. For instance, the quote “The Belgians came to Rwanda with instruments to measure facial features and decided that the Tutsi more closely resembled Europeans and so were the superior tribe” (126), highlights the pseudoscientific methods used to justify colonial policies and enforce systemic inequality. This reference underscores the long-term impact of colonialism on ethnic divisions and violence. The challenging concept of dehumanization is central to these chapters, examining the psychological and social mechanisms that lead to the dehumanization of others and its dire consequences. The authors consider the negative effects of social groupings, demonstrating how cooperative traits can result in negative outcomes, such as exclusion and violence. This is linked to the racist practice of “simianization,” where dehumanizing comparisons to apes are used to justify the mistreatment of various groups. The authors’ description of Ota Benga’s display in the Bronx Zoo starkly illustrates this theme, showing in a real and individual way how dehumanization strips people of their dignity and humanity. The authors ask the reader to engage with distressing accounts of dehumanization to meaningfully analyze this practice and its effects, and to point to continued injustice. By recounting such historical incidents, the authors illustrate how dehumanizing ideologies are perpetuated and the profound effects they have on marginalized groups.
