Why are men (generally) more violent then women? Why are men (generally) drawn to competition? Is the idea that masculinity means having courage and strength just a complete cultural construct or is their a biological underpinning to it? Well, our guest today makes the case that we can look to our closest animal relatives, the great apes, to find answers to these questions. His name is Dr. Richard Wrangham and he is a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University. He's the co-author of the book, Demonic Males: Apes and Origins of Human Violence. In today's podcast, Dr. Wrangham and I look at what we can learn about human masculinity from chimpanzees and other apes. We discuss the biological underpinnings of masculinity as well as patriarchy and what insights we can gleam from that. It's a super fascinating show.
