the male dominance hierarchy is the defining principle of primate life. It governs access to resources (namely food and those ‘passive’ females) and is established by the ability to fight. Following World War II, a preoccupation with the origins of human warfare quickly hijacked the emerging science of primatology, just as it was gaining momentum. Baboons, genus Papio, became the go-to model because they live in large social, semi-terrestrial troops on savannahs, similar to the environment scientists believed our ancestors inhabited.
