MENTAL EVOLUTION IN THE PRIMATES 1 37 



SOCIAL RELATION AND ORGANIZATION 



Human social relations are conditioned by sentiments, 

 and the evolution of social life in the primates almost 

 certainly has paralleled the evolution of affective experience 

 and expression. Man and ant, by radically different evolu- 

 tional change, have attained highly serviceable forms of 

 social relation and organization. It is illuminating to con- 

 trast the social hfe of these two types of creature. Whereas 

 human social evolution is characterized by the enhancement 

 of the value of the individual as social object, that of the 

 ant is similarly marked by subordination of the individual, 

 through speciahzation, to the v^elfare of the group. Among 

 men and apes the social unit is the family; among ants it is 

 the colony. 



Through the several classes of primate one may trace the 

 evokition of social consciousness and its behavioral mani- 

 festations toward mutuality of interest, self-subordination, 

 cooperation and altruism. 



Were we to pursue further the topic of evolution of social 

 consciousness and the appearance of social types of organiza- 

 tion and institution in the primates, we should encroach 

 on the materials of the next chapter, "Social Evolution." 

 Therefore we bring to a close this brief presentation of 

 evidences of mental evolution in the primates, forthwith 

 summarize our conclusions, and suggest a few books which 

 the interested reader may find helpful. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Critical comparison of the psychobiological character- 

 istics of existing classes of primate: lemur, tarsier, monkey, 

 ape, and man, as definitely suggests evolutional changes 

 during descent as do the findings of comparative anatomy 

 and embryology. 



Because in a short chapter it is impossible to present 

 the varied materials and evidences of mental evolution 

 systematically and completely, we have selected six con- 

 spicuously important aspects of the highly complex mental 

 and behavioral life of the primates to exemplify materials 

 and degrees of resemblance and to supply typical indications 

 of their relation in descent. 



