passages-denial-becomes-harder-against-eight-calm

# The denial becomes harder to maintain once... > The denial becomes harder to maintain once primatologists stop describing chimpanzees as furry ambassadors of innocence and simply write down what they do. Across five decades and multiple African study communities, researchers compiled 152 observed, inferred or suspected chimpanzee killings. Ninety-two percent of participating attackers were male, most killings occurred between communities, and killers outnumbered their victims by a median ratio of roughly **eight to one**. Human disturbance did not explain the violence. The evidence fit adaptive accounts in which lethal aggression increases access to territory, resources or mates, and the method is as consistent as a recipe: several males find a lone male, seize the arms and legs so the body is stretched flat and cannot protect itself, and then the biting begins on the face, the hands, the feet and the genitals, with fingers and toes commonly bitten away and the testicles torn off while the victim is still screaming. Eight against one. Not insanity. Not a tantrum. Not a lapse of moral equilibrium. **An advantage.** {{Savagery is not always rage. Sometimes savagery is eight against one, and the eight are calm.}} **Source:** [[books/Chimping Out|Chimping Out]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The denial becomes harder to maintain once primatologists stop describing chimpanzees as furry ambassadors of innocence and simply write down what they do. Across five decades and multiple African study communities, researchers compiled 152 observed, inferred or suspected chimpanzee killings. Ninety-two percent of participating attackers were male, most killings occurred between communities, and killers outnumbered their victims by a median ratio of roughly eight to one. Human disturbance did not explain the violence. The evidence fit adaptive accounts in which lethal aggression increases access to territory, resources or mates, and the method is as consistent as a recipe: several males find a lone male, seize the arms and legs so the body is stretched flat and cannot protect itself, and then the biting begins on the face, the hands, the feet and the genitals, with fingers and toes commonly bitten away and the testicles torn off while the victim is still screaming. Eight against one. Not insanity. Not a tantrum. Not a lapse of moral equilibrium. An advantage. Savagery is not always rage. Sometimes savagery is eight against one, and the eight are calm.” — Bryant McGill https://bryantmcgill.com/passages/passages-denial-becomes-harder-against-eight-calm ```