ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the behavioral propensities which would seem to be sufficient for increasing social bonds and group solidarity if subject to selection. The good fellowship among male chimpanzees is something that could be worked upon by Darwinian natural selection because it is clearly a male proclivity and, thus, represents one route to forging stronger group bonds when such bonds were necessary and critical to fitness in wide-open habitats. Since humans do much the same when trying to determine the emotional states of others, this behavioral propensity was surely enhanced when selection worked to expand the emotional capacities of hominins and, later, size of the neocortex. The early rewiring of primate brain for visual dominance was one contributing factor to this propensity to read face and eyes. The natural ability of both human and ape infants to imitate oral–facial movements of caregivers indicates that they are predisposed to learn non-verbal gestures carrying meanings at a very early age.
