Dr. Bonaventura Majolo has successfully been awarded a prestigious Leakey Foundation Grant of $13,300.
Scientists have long recognized the importance of research on inter-group competition in non-human primates for our understanding of human warfare. Competition between groups and warfare are considered two factors that have had a significant effect on the evolution of altruism, parochialism and group processes in humans. For example, archeological and ethnographic data show that inter-group conflicts played an important role in favoring group-beneficial behaviors in humans. Data analyzing this topic in non-human primates are rare. This project, run in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Radford (University of Bristol) aims to analyze if and how inter-group competition affects intra-group social relationships in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in Morocco. This project will help understand the evolutionary history of inter- and intra-group processes in humans.