this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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I mean it may not be true for wolves, but it definitely is true for gorillas and chimps who are very closely related to us. Also most societies from hunter gathering bands all the way up to multi-national empires usually have a single male at the top. Is that right, probably not. Is it natural?, sort of. There seems to be a drive in a lot of men to dominate society and reach the top of the hierarchy. If you combine that natural drive with someone naturally capable to reach the top of the hierarchy and you get an alpha male. You also don't have to be an incel to recognize a lot of women are attracted to these driven capable men.
The question isn't whether alpha males exist, it's what we as a society should do with them. We shouldn't idolize them and let them rule over us. We should harness there drive and capabilities to help society as a whole
It's not true for gorillas or chimps either - and those groups don't share a social structure. I have a feeling that you are not well informed on this topic.
You could say it's not true for bonobos but I have no idea how you could make the case that a silverback gorilla is not an "alpha" unless you have some very specific definition. Just pulling from Wikipedia as I'm lazy, but if you have better sources please provide them:
That seems to describe an alpha beta hierarchy structure to me. With chimps it may be a little less obvious and more variable but still, according to wikipedia again:
And
Yes humans have way more complex social structures but almost always there is a hierarchy of men at the top usually with a single man at the apex, call them alphas, the patriarchy, the oppressors, the greats or whatever you want, they exist. Denying their existence or the fundamental drive powering them only helps to obfuscate there motives. We as a society need to recognize those people and harness them for the benefit of society instead of the benefit of themselves.
Chickens have a dominance hierarchy too. And so do rats under some conditions. The dominance literature that I know of does not make it sound great. Dominant makes are like the loud drunk guy at a party who wants fight - people just generally avoid him. So they're socially isolated bullies. Robert and Caroline Blanchard from University of Hawaii is good for this work, and Robert Sapolsky for work on stress hormones.
Petersdorf and Higham are a great summary of the variety in the primate world. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118584538.ieba0308