Barbara Smuts on Male Aggression

Barbara Smuts makes a connection between aggressive behavior of primates and humans in her essay, “Apes of Wrath.” Smuts shares her story of one of her first encounters with nonhuman animal violence; she witnessed a male chimpanzee attack a female chimp that was in the early stage of estrus, which is when they are fertile and sexually receptive. Over many years, Smuts saw many other similar attacks among other animals as well. Smuts eventually began to believe “that a deeper understanding of male aggressive against females in other species can help us understand its counterpart in our own.” Through experiments of animal aggression, Smuts concluded that this behavior was a scare tactic that males used to make the females surrender and to establish ownership of females. Smuts believes that social relationships contribute to male aggression towards females. Females who join forces with other females tend to face less aggression than females who don’t. Females who form alliances with males may face protection against other males, but they are more likely to face violence or control under the male they befriended. Smuts then proceeds to compare these patterns of behavior to humans. She focuses on the importance of a strong female following and the social unacceptability of violence against women.

Smuts began her essay with an anecdote about a trip she made when she was in “Gombe National Park in Tanzania, trying to keep up with an energetic young female chimpanzee.” The story grabs the reader’s attention as well as acts as a seamless introduction into specific primate behavior that relates to human behavior. She then follows this up with loads of facts to support her claim of there being a correlation between primates and humans. Since Smuts is a scientist herself, she uses some information from her own experience and some from other experiments. These facts help Smuts prove to the reader that behavior among nonhuman animals is very similar to the male aggression seen in humans. Also the fact that Smuts is a scientist makes her more credible; the reader is more likely to believe what she says if the author has the education in that specific field.

The one thing about this essay that got me thinking was whether or not this essay is still relevant. This essay was published almost twenty years ago and so it’s hard to judge if her discussion about how men treat women is still relevant to present day. But at the same time, it could have to do with where I grew up. I didn’t grow up in a society where male aggression is normal or acceptable behavior. And I noticed that Smuts discusses the cultures of other places in the world other than the United States, including “South American Yanomamo…people of the Central African Republic…a community in Belize…Bosnia…China and northern India.” So it might be still relevant when looked at from a global perspective. It’s hard to determine how this applies to other countries twenty years later.