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I'm no Scientist...
But it seems folly to me to immediately assume 'nature' is the source of this behaviour.
Isn't it possible that we (creatures in general) are genetically programmed to learn from our like-gendered ancestors, rather than those behaviours being themselves genetically predisposed?
Could it not be that young female chimps recognize that they are female, and choose to mimic their female elders? This would mean that the nurturing behaviours are learned, rather than genetic.
Really, the only way I can see to test this would be to completely separate chimps from their peers from the moment of birth, and completely isolate them from any display of nurturing behaviour... but I suspect that would cause it's own set of issues that probably spoil the reliability of the experiment.
But it seems folly to me to immediately assume 'nature' is the source of this behaviour.
Isn't it possible that we (creatures in general) are genetically programmed to learn from our like-gendered ancestors, rather than those behaviours being themselves genetically predisposed?
Could it not be that young female chimps recognize that they are female, and choose to mimic their female elders? This would mean that the nurturing behaviours are learned, rather than genetic.
Really, the only way I can see to test this would be to completely separate chimps from their peers from the moment of birth, and completely isolate them from any display of nurturing behaviour... but I suspect that would cause it's own set of issues that probably spoil the reliability of the experiment.
Excerpt for the unfortunate "it's" error in the last sentence. I wouldn't have written that.
I am not say "it IS learned"... just that it is still POSSIBLE it is learned.
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