We are at the time of the year when we think about families more than probably other times during the year. So I thought will be nice to make a comparison of how similar monkeys and human families are?
Depending on the human society, families came in different sizes and forms, in the same way monkeys families varies depending on the species. So we have big families with several males and females and many young members of different ages, we also have families were the males are not the father of the younger ones, we also have families with lots of aunts or lots of uncles and families with just a mother, a father and their youngsters.
Same as in human families conflict appears motivated by the same reasons…. Resources…either mates or food. In humans food resources had a cover that we can put all under money.
Same as in humans, monkeys strongest relationship with the out world started with their mothers and the closest members of their groups. Through them they learn about how their world works? where they can find food? who are their friends? and who are their enemies? where to move and sleep?
Also, same as humans, in monkey’s families, mothers sometimes have the support of sisters and grandmothers to educate their babies. Sometimes they help carrying the babies other times they help watching over them while playing. And they always give alerts when some danger is close to them or give their lives to protect them.
Monkey’s families also have individuals who are greedy, jealous or just difficult, same as human families. Although some human families expel those members some others just accept them and deal with them in a different way. In a similar way monkey’s families also have some of these complicated members. They can also be expelled or just relegated to the edge of the family group depending on how much support they have from other members of the group or how much the alpha males tolerated them.
But all these families, human and monkeys, are the center of their societies. They are the center of their social lives and all are based on the same biological principle to pass their genetic information to the next generation.
I wish you all a happy holiday season and let’s hope we all can accept the diversity of our human families during this season.

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