Summary
Professor James Tilley finds out what we can learn about politics from the power struggles within chimpanzee groups and how our evolutionary past may affect the political decisions that we make today. Interviewing primatologists, evolutionary psychologists and political scientists, he explores the parallels between our political world and that of other primates. These include the way politicians form coalitions, how people choose leaders, loyalties to parties and even how, and when, we go to war. These similarities to other primates reflect our evolutionary heritage and the way in which stone-age human groups settled disputes internally and externally. Producer: Bob Howard.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:41.0 | Thank you for downloading this program from the BBC. |
| 0:44.0 | In this edition of Analysis, Professor James Tilly |
| 0:48.0 | explores in primate politics what politicians can learn from chimpanzees. |
| 0:55.0 | Yeroon, the long-standing leader, was close to giving up. |
| 1:00.0 | A political drama, the late 1970s, the Netherlands. |
| 1:04.5 | His increasingly autocratic leadership had allowed an ambitious younger rival |
| 1:09.3 | to pick off his supporters one by one. |
| 1:12.3 | As Yeroon's former self-confidence evaporated. his supporters one by one. |
| 1:12.6 | As Yeroon's former self-confidence evaporated, |
| 1:15.5 | the young pretender sensed victory |
| 1:17.7 | and offered him a position in a new administration. |
| 1:21.7 | Yeroon accepted, but secretly made a key alliance with another younger rival, |
| 1:27.8 | Nicky. Working together, they managed to overthrow the new incumbent. |
| 1:33.0 | But while Nicky was installed as the new leader, |
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