Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World [Hardcover]

Dario Maestripieri, who is an associate professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago, has chosen here to write a popular account and analysis of his experiences with rhesus macaque monkeys. Macaques are the long-faced monkeys typically seen stealing food around Hindu temples in TV travelogues about India. Professor Maestripieri's decision results in a book that is easy to read, albeit a bit on the flippant side.

The idea is to compare for a general readership the behavior of rhesus macaques and humans: how we are the same and how we are different. Many similar and very valuable studies have been done with apes, so it is refreshing to read about the lives of our more distant primate cousins for a change. Whether Maestripieri and his editors at the University of Chicago Press should have taken a less colloquial approach is a good question. I was not put off by Maestripieri's style, but I was disappointed in the causal way he seemed to read the minds and intentions of the monkeys. If some of Maestripieri's surmises about what macaques may be thinking (and why) comes back to haunt him, it won't be a big surprise. Anthropological interpretations of animal behavior are notorious for leading field biologists astray. However Maestripieri is clearly an expert on primate behavior (author of over 125 scientific publications and editor of the text, Primate Psychology 2005) and so his interpretations are to be respected.

Nonetheless I would like to take issue with one of them. Maestripieri sees macaque females as using a reproductive strategy that favors having sex with the alpha male of the troop while secretly going off into the bushes with subordinate males. This way, Maestripieri reasons, she gets the best genes from the alpha male while taking out an insurance policy on her soon to be born infant in case something happens to the dominate male. Since macaque males, like lions and some other animals, have a tendency to kill infants from females with whom they have not mated, this seems a wise strategy. Macaque females typically mate with the alpha male when they are most fertile and with the lesser males when they are not fertile. It is interesting to note that macaque males, like their human counterparts, are not entirely sure about when the female is ovulating. Consequently sex becomes, as Maestripieri puts it, a political business for females. He adds that macaque females mate with different males, especially males from outside the troop, just in case the alpha male may be either sterile or too closely related genetically. Again this is good reproductive insurance.

All this is understandable and insightful. However to imagine that human females employ a very similar strategy, as Maestripieri implies, is too simplistic. What human females do FIRST is form a monogamous, long-lasting relationship with the best male available so that their children can have a secure situation in which to develop. Since human offspring are so much more vulnerable for so much longer than macaque offspring, and because human males are usually more nurturing than macaque males, this is a wise strategy. At this point the female, who is "in love" with her choice, doesn't fool around (usually!). However, after some time (the "seven year itch"?) the human female begins to think about upgrading the genetic input and becomes vulnerable to advances from men she perceives as alpha males. Or she may just move on to another male. The difference is that humans practice serial monogamy while rhesus monkeys are not really monogamous at all.

The real question about the value of this book is, do parallels with rhesus macaque behavior lend insight into human psychology? I think the answer is a clear yes. Indeed Maestripieri's central thesis is that the Machiavellian behavior of the macaques in which they selfishly strive for power and control in their relationships with one another is all too similar to the way humans behave. I think he makes this point very well. However there is one very big difference between macaque society and human society: rhesus macaque society is matriarchal while human societies are almost universally patriarchal. This makes a big difference, the main effect being that males in rhesus macaque societies are less important and less involved than they are in human societies. A lesser effect stems from the fact that it is the males in macaque society that leave their family while traditionally in humans it is females who typically go to live with their in-laws.

This brings up the subject of nepotism, to which Maestripieri devotes a chapter (Chapter 3 "Nepotism and Politics"). He begins with some pertinent observations on Machiavelli and contemporary Italian society, noting how nepotism is the key to academic advancement. I was surprised to read that Italian professors often keep a position open for doctoral candidates just in case a relative needs one! (p. 18) Maestripieri follows this with some observations on incest and dispersal, leading to the salient point that it is impossible to understand macaque behavior and their dominance structure without knowing who is related to whom. This apples to human society as well, of course, but is something we more or less take for granted. In macaque society the observer has to watch the females to discern relationships. In human society we also have last names. Interesting. (I guess I should also note that we now have DNA tests for both macaques and humans with the well-known interesting result that the biological father may not be who we think he is.)

Despite the almost jocular tone of the book at times and the lack of scientific rigor in some of Maestripieri's conclusions, I would recommend this book for professionals as well as laypersons because of Maestripieri's perceptive insights into primate behavior gained from many years of study and many years in the field. These insights help us to understand ourselves.