Word: ardrey
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...Soviet Union, for example, Ardrey feels the hierarchy of the Communist Party is just what we might expect under the circumstances. Individuals have no opportunity for the "expression of individuality" through possession of private property, so they turn to dominance, and create an intense ranking system, their only means of attaining status...
...there is another, and more significant flaw in Ardrey's thesis. It must be clear to any careful observer that we are, in the words of Piel, editor of the Scientific American approaching a "propertyless" society. "The ownership of property," observed Piel, "is no longer the primary source of power, even economic power in our society. . . ." He goes on to note how modern consumers mortgage their homes, buy their cars on time and rent a good deal of what they need. He concludes that "the typical consumer owns no property in the classical meaning of the term...
Since they have persisted through many species of animals distantly related to man, Ardrey concludes that drives of territoriality and dominance are ancient. He now turns to more recent, and more specialized additions to man's behavioral inheritance. He studies the first...
There is some evidence that Australopithecus used a bone club, fashioned from the lower part of an antelope but the proof is not conclusive. It satisfies Ardrey, and he jumps to a definition of man as a weapon-maker. The weapon, he claims, is "the hallmark of our culture...
This predatory vision of man's development is a violent one, but Ardrey tends to look upon all evolution as a harsh process. He claims death is the agent of natural selection, and mutation, the agent of adaptation. Actually, most selection is more gentle. Mutations are rare. Fluctuations in the gene pool of a species, caused by new gene combinations resulting from individual matings, are responsible for most adaptive changes in a species...