Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
solicitude for their wounded, and do not abandon a wounded comrade
during a retreat till they have ascertained that it is dead and that
they are helpless to restore it to life. Thus James Forbes narrated in
his Oriental Memoirs a fact of such resistance in reclaiming from his
hunting party the dead body of a female monkey that one fully
understands why "the witnesses of this extraordinary scene resolved
never again to fire at one of the monkey race."(22) In some species
several individuals will combine to overturn a stone in order to search
for ants' eggs under it. The hamadryas not only post sentries, but have
been seen making a chain for the transmission of the spoil to a safe
place; and their courage is well known. Brehm's description of the
regular fight which his caravan had to sustain before the hamadryas
would let it resume its journey in the valley of the Mensa, in
Abyssinia, has become classical.(23) The playfulness of the tailed apes
and the mutual attachment which reigns in the families of chimpanzees
also are familiar to the general reader. And if we find among the
highest apes two species, the orang-outan and the gorilla, which are not
sociable, we must remember that both--limited as they are to very small
areas, the one in the heart of Africa, and the other in the two islands
of Borneo and Sumatra have all the appearance of being the last remnants
of formerly much more numerous species. The gorilla at least seems to
have been sociable in olden times, if the apes mentioned in the Periplus
really were gorillas.
We thus see, even from the above brief review, that life in societies is
no exception in the animal world; it is the rule, the law of Nature, and
it reaches its fullest development with the higher vertebrates. Those
species which live solitary, or in small families only, are relatively
few, and their numbers are limited. Nay, it appears very probable that,
apart from a few exceptions, those birds and mammals which are not
gregarious now, were living in societies before man multiplied on the
earth and waged a permanent war against them, or destroyed the sources
from which they formerly derived food. "On ne s'associe pas pour
mourir," was the sound remark of Espinas; and Houzeau, who knew the
animal world of some parts of America when it was not yet affected by
man, wrote to the same effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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