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arjieyesterday at 11:37 PM4 repliesview on HN

Huh, I went looking into this after reading this story and gorilla culture is interesting. Apparently, gorillas don't have a teaching culture (in comparison to us, I suppose) so during their long growth into adults they have to pick up a lot of cues by observation. This group, in particular, is a famous group called Pablo's group because when it was initially followed the leader was a Pablo, who was soon deposed by a chap named Cantsbee with Pablo remaining on in a non-dominant position. This kind of multi-male system allowed the troop to grow large, and it progressed for two more generations when this chap decided to neither take the Leave And Start Anew nor the Stay And Gently Takeover approach.

Apparently, female gorillas have an effectively large amount of freedom in this scenario and they'll switch tribes if they don't feel they're being effectively led. Lots of interesting stuff in here.

I have this personal theory that Cooperation Ability is the superpower of all living beings and that's how we get bigger things done. You know mitochondria and other cells cooperated and formed modern cells. As things aggregated more we got bigger and bigger beings till the point where we have nation-sized beings. And I notice that many successful societies have strong cultures of internal cooperation, though they might schism, e.g. Abrahamic religions. Anyway, I'm some way through Darwin's Cathedral (recommended to me by an LLM when I asked about this idea) and that book plus the story of this tribe have served to shove me firmly into the land of absolute belief in this idea haha!


Replies

robot-wranglertoday at 8:35 AM

> Pablo's group because when it was initially followed the leader was a Pablo, who was soon deposed by a chap named Cantsbee

Heh, I assumed Pablo was the scientist studying it, looks like we're in Swahili names now. That chap Cantsbee and the others all have wiki bios![0] Anyway Cantsbee does have a ridiculous and whimsical name that cannot compare to the honor and majesty of something like Ubwuzu, but he did ok for himself and his people, he really did.

> a calm but powerful leader, rarely getting into altercations or fights with other gorillas. He led with grace, strength, and serenity. Cantsbee "resolved conflicts rather than starting them, protected his family with vigilance, and rarely resorted to aggression

Remember the Cant.

[0]: https://gorillabase.fandom.com/wiki/Cantsbee

pryelluwtoday at 12:55 AM

Was not expecting the opportunity to imagine what a gorilla school would look like when I clicked on this thread. Thank you.

sandworm101today at 12:13 AM

And did they mention what happens to the 80+% of males that dont make it to silverback status? Few like to talk about the darker sides of gorilla life.

As for teaching cultures, it isnt about IQ. Cats and dogs teach thier young, both wild and domesticated species.

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rexpoptoday at 12:22 AM

Well, sure. There's more resources than any individual, or even individual bloodline could ever exploit alone.

Annihilate your competition, and you won't eat in lean years.