Her discovery of this early branch of fierce, frightening females eroded the idea that aggressive male patriarchy is the natural state of affairs for all primates. Or, at least, it should have. Jolly’s groundbreaking discovery fell on deaf ears. Even her most studious revelations failed to undermine the prevailing idea that ‘order within most primate groups is maintained by a hierarchy, which depends ultimately primarily on the power of males’. In the sixties and seventies primatology was well and truly hypnotized by showy male dominance systems.This obsession began way back when the science
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