I was watching a program on National Geographic last month about a troop of monkeys who lived at a Hindu temple in India. I missed the start of the program so I'm not sure if the temple was dedicated to the animals or they had just decided to take up residence there but people who came to the temple often brought food for the monkeys.
There were 3 bathing pools in the temple and it was decided to close 2 down and drain them so they could be cleaned. This meant that only one gate to the temple would remain open and there would be a reduced amount of visitors allowed in.
Within a couple of days of the visitor numbers being reduced and less food being brought in for the monkeys the troop of about 80 split into two equal sized groups. The first group lead by the original matriarch, her family and other monkeys of appropriate size and status forced the other group to split off by attacking them and then took up a position by the only open gate to aquisition the food that was still comming in.
The splinter group made up of mostly smaller monkeys were not allowed to come near the open gate and within a day were forced to move from the temple to the nearby town in search of food. This was a high risk strategy because danger of injury or being caught was increased.
What can we expect from humans once needed resources become scarce? Will we sit back and do without or try to aquisition more for ourselves by creating divisions along cultural, ethnic and religious lines?
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Interesting analogy Neal. I would argue that humans would act in very similar ways to the monkeys. In fact, there is evidence of that already. It is called the Iraq war.New comment
Hi Philip,
There are three strategies possible to human beings when resources become scarce.
Warfare; the acquisition of resources from neighbouring peoples by violence.
Rationing; the equitable distribution of scare resources amongst the population.
Dispersal; the removal of a section of the population therefore increasing the percentage of the resource available for the remainder.
I agree that the Iraq war was a resource grab but it is a different strategy to achieve the same ends. Its also possible in a sever situation for more than one of these strategies to be employed by a nation state. Germany in WWII used all 3 strategies, invading neighboring countries, rationing necessary goods to its population and dispersing those of lower status (Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals etc) on trains to death camps.