Chimpanzee Referents and the Emergence of Human Hunting

The use of referent taxa, and especially chimpanzee referents, in modeling human evolution has been harshly criticized. No doubt, chimpanzee data are often misused in models of early hominid behavior. But, those misuses are examples of careless, formal analogizing. In contrast, it is equally possible to create non-trivial chimpanzee analogies. These analogies can, in turn, be linked together to construct credible models of human evolution, from which emanate hypotheses that are testable using paleoanthropological data. Unique among potential referents, chimpanzees are very closely related to early hominids and some populations reside in ecological contexts that are comparable to those of our African ancestors. It is these two variables that form the core of evolutionary behavioral ecology. We exploit chimpanzee and early hominid continuities and employ non-trivial analogies to provide a model of basal hominid hunting. The model is testable and the topic is worthy because hunting and meat-eating are argued by some to be the basis of human sociality.