Duration : 0:3:30

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Duration : 0:3:41

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Sheldon Solomon:
As graduate students at the University of Kansas in the late 1970s Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, and I were interested in understanding the psychological underpinnings of prejudice and ethnic conflict as well as the nature and function of self-esteem. In 1980, I accidentally stumbled across the work of the late cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, who in books such as The Birth and Death of Meaning (1962), The Denial of Death (1973), and Escape From Evil (1975) argued that the uniquely human awareness of death, and the denial thereof, guides and directs a substantial proportion of human behavior. According to Becker, culture consists of humanly created (albeit quite unconsciously) beliefs about the nature of reality shared by individuals in groups to reduce or eliminate the potentially overwhelming terror engendered by the awareness of death by providing a sense of meaning and value that in turn confers the possibility of literal and/or symbolic immortality. Terror management theory resulted from our efforts to translate Beckers ideas into a formal theory that could be subjected to empirical scrutiny.

According to terror management theory, people “manage” the potential terror associated with death through a dual-component anxiety-buffer consisting of a cultural worldview (beliefs about the nature of reality that provide a sense that the universe is meaningful, orderly, and stable and that provisions for immortality) and self-esteem (the perception that one is living up to the standards of value associated with the social role inhabited by individuals in the context of their culture, and hence rendering them eligible for safety and security in this life and immortality thereafter).

Thus, while cultures vary considerably, they share the same defensive psychological function in common: to provide meaning and value and in so doing bestow psychological equanimity in the face of death. All cultural worldviews are ultimately shared fictions, in the sense that none of them are likely to be literally true, and their existence is generally sustained by social consensus. When everyone around us believes the same thing, we can be quite confident of the veracity of our beliefs.

But, and here’s the rub, when we do encounter people with different beliefs, this poses a challenge to our death-denying belief systems, which is why people are generally quite uncomfortable around, and hostile towards, those who are different. Additionally, because no symbolic cultural construction can actually overcome the physical reality of death, residual anxiety is unconsciously projected onto other groups of individuals as scapegoats, who are designated all-encompassing repositories of evil, the eradication of which would make earth as it is in heaven. We then typically respond to people with different beliefs or scapegoats by berating them, trying to convert them to our system of beliefs, and/or just killing them and in so doing assert that “my God is stronger than your God and we’ll kick your to prove it.”

In order to test terror management theory, we designed what we call the mortality salience paradigm, which basically entails asking people to think about their own death (e.g., by asking them to respond to some questions about dying, or by subliminal exposure to death-related words, or being interviewed in front of a funeral parlor) and then asking them to make judgments about people or events that either bolster or threaten important aspects of the individuals cultural worldviews. We hypothesize that to the extent that culture serves a death-denying function, then making mortality salient should increase affection and altruistic behavior toward those who share or uphold cherished cultural beliefs, as well as increase hostility and disdain to those who disagree with cherished beliefs, or merely hold different ones.

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Evil-Ernest-Becker/dp/0029024501

http://www.esi-topics.com/terrorism/interviews/SheldonSolomon.html

http://www.tmt.missouri.edu/

Duration : 0:4:17

Technorati Tags: becker, Conflict, culture, death, denial, ernest, escape, evil, existential, fear, from, Human, Management, meaning, Nature, Peace, psychology, sheldon, solomon, symbols, terror, theory, violence, war

Duration : 0:5:58

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Duration : 0:9:58

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Behaviorally the bonobo may be more like people than the chimp. However they are among the most recently discovered of species, thus, few people know about them.

The effects of captivity and of being around people may influence their behavior.
Bonobos are notable because they have very complex behavior and can resolve their conflicts by a variety of means that result in an overall peaceful society.

They look like people with neatly parted hair and red lips.

The individuals in this video were agitated about something. Bonobos normally are calmer than these; however, the video shows that they were able to get along peaceably.

More information:
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=bonobo+g-g+ru b&type=pb07&fr=flk2&u=www.nerve.com/Dispatches/Small/bonobo/ &w=bonobo+g-g+rub+rubs&d=RIEVsedmPh0j&icp=1&.intl=us

The Bonobo, also called the Pygmy or Gracile Chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) belongs to the species (with the common chimpanzee) that is most closely related to humans. Its DNA is 98% identical to that of humans and some researchers think they should be classified with the human species, i.e., Homo paniscus. Bonobos have relatively long legs, a matriarchal cultural, and are generally considered frugivorous. They often walk upright and have a human-like appearance. Frans de Waal, one of the leading primate researchers, has stated that the bonobo is capable of empathy, kindness, altruism, and compassion. E. Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin have extensively studied the ability of the bonobo to learn language. Kanzi has learned over 3000 spoken English words and around 400 lexigrams. He can understand simple grammatical sentences and possibly invent new vocal sounds. The bonobo is also an accomplished tool user.

The Chimpanzee -Chimp or Common Chimpanzee- (Pan troglodytes) is the species considered the most closely related to humans. They can weigh up to 155 lbs and stand up to 4 feet tall. Like people, they have long lives. For example Cheeta, the star of the movie, Tarzan, is 75 years old. They are native to Africa and four subspecies exist. They are highly intelligent, make elaborate use of tools, and can use language. A chimpanzee named Washoe learned up to 800 signs in American Sign Language. Researchers into chimpanzee language include Sally Boysen, Ohio State University, (who has taught chimpanzees to communicate using a computer), Noam Chomsky, and David Premack. Although chimpanzees are shorter than most people, they are much stronger. The average Chimpanzee has over 5 times the upper-body strength of a human male. A chimp, even a young one, can easily overpower a grown man.

The gorilla (gorilla gorilla) is the largest of all living primates. These African apes are divided into two species and 4 or 5 subspecies. Their DNA is 97-98% identical to that of humans and they are considered the next closest relative after the chimpanzee. Gorillas can be over 6 feet tall and weight over 500 lbs. They are highly intelligent. Some such as Koko have been taught a subset of sign language. They use tools for a number of purposes. Colo in the Columbus zoo is over 50-years old and the first gorilla born in captivity.

Duration : 0:5:20

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