Lemurs Legacy

The roots of human romance lie in the consort bond introduced by our primate cousin, the lemur, more than 40 million years ago, asserts naturalist Russell. Lemurs originated the habit of treating a mate as an exclusive possession. The legacy of this behavior, he claims, is human monogamy, ``a grand biological and cultural illusion of faithfulness'' which produces offspring with the least social disruption. Female dominance, prevalent in lemur troops, gave way to male dominance among apes. Like chimpanzees, writes Russell, human males wage war or fight in order to redirect aggression outside the group; females seldom engage in physical violence, but when they do, it is mainly to protect their resources. This intriguing study of the nascent science of ``evolutionary psychology'' seeks to explain such human characteristics and behaviors as romantic love, rape, gender roles and social organization with recourse to the direct observation of nonhuman primates. Illustrations. (May)