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Fighting For The Privilege of Procreation

But why all this savagery?  A lot of it springs from a simple

biological commandment: be fruitful and multiply.

The gorilla Effie led her friends in the murder of a baby to gain

an advantage for her offspring.  Livia, mistress of mighty Rome, did

the same to benefit her sons and their sons after them.   Where violence

takes place, children crop up over and over again.  Stags fight for the

right to have them.  Humans declare wars to make the world safe for

them.  Strange as it sounds, children--and the genes they carry--are one

key to the mystery of violence.

An adult male langur who's become the head of the

establishment ensconces himself at the center of his group looking

ever-so-regal.  He has every reason for sitting pretty.  If you take a

closer look at the cluster of langurs milling around him, you'll discover

that all of them are either his wives or his children.  The females do his

bidding, and offer their bodies only to him.  If they attempt a romance

with some dashing bachelor, they are severely punished.  So is the

hopeful seducer.  No wonder the central male looks so lordly.  He is

surrounded by a tribe devoted to one primary purpose--having and

raising his kids.

As we saw several chapters ago, not every member of the langur

society is happy about this state of affairs.  In the jungle nearby roams a

gang of post-pubertal hooligans who have left home permanently to

hang with toughs their own age.   Their newly spurting sexual

hormones have triggered the growth of horniness, muscle and a cocky

aggression.  Periodically, the gang of youthful thugs advances on the

territory where the well-fixed elder statesman sits in the midst of his

massive family.  The hoodlums try to get his attention.  They mock and

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16

Fighting For The Privilege of Procreation

But why all this savagery?  A lot of it springs from a simple

biological commandment: be fruitful and multiply.

The gorilla Effie led her friends in the murder of a baby to gain

an advantage for her offspring.  Livia, mistress of mighty Rome, did

the same to benefit her sons and their sons after them.   Where violence

takes place, children crop up over and over again.  Stags fight for the

right to have them.  Humans declare wars to make the world safe for

them.  Strange as it sounds, children--and the genes they carry--are one

key to the mystery of violence.

An adult male langur who's become the head of the

establishment ensconces himself at the center of his group looking

ever-so-regal.  He has every reason for sitting pretty.  If you take a

closer look at the cluster of langurs milling around him, you'll discover

that all of them are either his wives or his children.  The females do his

bidding, and offer their bodies only to him.  If they attempt a romance

with some dashing bachelor, they are severely punished.  So is the

hopeful seducer.  No wonder the central male looks so lordly.  He is

surrounded by a tribe devoted to one primary purpose--having and

raising his kids.

As we saw several chapters ago, not every member of the langur

society is happy about this state of affairs.  In the jungle nearby roams a

gang of post-pubertal hooligans who have left home permanently to

hang with toughs their own age.   Their newly spurting sexual

hormones have triggered the growth of horniness, muscle and a cocky

aggression.  Periodically, the gang of youthful thugs advances on the

territory where the well-fixed elder statesman sits in the midst of his

massive family.  The hoodlums try to get his attention.  They mock and