Connected: The Anmimal Kingdom

CONNECTED: The Deep Roots of Human Relationships in the Animal Kingdom

Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Mark Reimers

Human relationships are deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. Animals have many of the emotional capacities needed for relationships: many maintain alliances and some engage in caring friendships. Over the past few million years our human brains have been strongly shaped by our ancestors’ increasing interdependence and need for relationships. If we are to grow toward a healthy and just society, we must understand that we are not isolated islands, but connected in subtle but powerful ways.

Coming soon… Watch the gathering here.

Readings

“Prof. Jan Van Hoff came on TV and showed a little clip that everyone has seen by now, where he and a chimpanzee called Mama hug each other. …. Many people cried and wrote to us to say they were very influenced by what they saw. The truth is Mama was simply showing perfectly normal chimpanzee behavior. It was a very touching moment, obviously, but for those familiar with chimps, there was nothing surprising about the behavior. And so, I wrote this book partly because I noticed that people did not know how human-like the expressions of the apes are. Embracing, and hugging, and calming someone down, and having a big smile on your face are all common behaviors seen in primates and are not unique to humans.”

Frans de Waal, primatologist

Human relationships are deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. Animals have many of the emotional capacities needed for relationships: many animals maintain alliances for years and some engage in caring friendships. Over the past few million years our human brains and minds have been strongly shaped by our ancestors’ increasing interdependence; we need each other in ways that most animals do not, and thus we care about how others feel about us more than most animals.. If we are to grow toward a healthy and just society, we must understand that we are not isolated islands, but connected in subtle but powerful ways.

Mark Reimers, neuroscientist and humanist