So about those baboons?

[Treaclewell]

I can't find the thread where the baboons were mentioned. The troop with aggressive males who infected each other with fatal STDs, changing the behaviour of the troop to much more peaceable, a change which lasted at least 7 years. The poster thus attributed the change to culture rather than anything else.
I wanted to post on that but I can't find it.
Because that does not hold at all. The aggressive males had removed themselves from the gene pool, leaving it calm and untroubled for the new culture to be established. It was both nature and nurture.
How that can be applied to Hom sap is a problem.

I don't know about the thread but there are essays and books by Robert Sapolsky about that - it's worth looking for a podcast or article by him about it because he's really engaging. The more aggressive, bolder males all foraged in a compost pit which was contaminated with TB I think, leaving the more gentle males. Totally fascinating!

I was going to suggest Robert Sapolsky but though I have listened to about a dozen of his podcasts, and I watch his regular YouTube sessions, I don’t remember any mention of gentler baboons being spared. From his descriptions, I don’t think there is such a thing as a gentle baboon. Sadly TB wiped out all the tribes of baboons that he’d been studying and others as well.

I just had a quick look and here's the paper on it although I know I've heard a more digestible summary somewhere: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020106

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5165484-gisele-pelicot-utterly-floored-by-this?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

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