220 EVOLUTION: THE AGES AND TOMORROW 



tribe, but it might be of interest at this point to enlarge a 

 little on the primate contributions to these origins. Man un- 

 questionably diverged from the ape stock and ascended to 

 his present level through ape-like ancestral forms and still 

 clearly shows the anatomical and behavior stamp of his an- 

 cestors. Observation of monkeys and apes shows that they 

 tend to gather together in clans of varying size with definite 

 territorial segregation. Some monkeys, the howlers of South 

 America, for instance, gather in well-organized clans. C. R. 

 Carpenter tells us that these clans seem to avoid each other 

 and that territorial rights are on the whole respected, but 

 that occasionally clashes do occur. In these cases the males 

 of each group advance toward each other howling their 

 abuse and sometimes there are brief skirmishes of biting and 

 clawing, and then hasty retreats. Dominance in monkey so- 

 cieties combes through conflict, with one or more males fight- 

 ing their way to the top of the social hierarchy. As pictured 

 by Carpenter a monkey group is a highly organized society 

 in something like the "peck-order" arrangement of chickens. 

 In gorillas we see something of the possible early family 

 life of primitive man. The grouping in gorillas is on the basis 

 of mature families: a patriarchal male, two or three wives, 

 and youngsters. These family groups are closed associations 

 in which the huge patriarchal male is dominant. Leadership 

 changes eventually when either the old male dies or a son 

 challenges him and wins. Losers in fights for dominance are 

 turned out of the group and wander about until they are 

 able to steal females from some neighboring family. In 

 gorilla country observers are agreed there is peace between 

 the varying-sized family groups. Each has a more or less 

 definitely set-off territory. Male gorillas are said to be very 

 ferocious if their homeland is threatened but otherwise quite 

 amiable. They are not at all aggressive and no gorilla group, 

 it is said, has ever been seen to attack another group. Males 

 meeting at the edge of territories threaten each other with a 

 show of teeth and with an awesome thunder they beat out 



