The killer ape theory or killer ape hypothesis is the theory that war and interpersonal aggression was the driving force behind human evolution. It was originated by Raymond Dart in the 1950s; later it was developed further in African Genesis by Robert Ardrey in 1961.
According to the killer ape theory, the ancestors of humans were distinguished from other primate species by their greater aggressiveness. Furthermore, according to the theory, this aggression remains within humanity, which retains many murderous instincts.
The theory gained notoriety for suggesting that the urge to do violence was a fundamental part of human psychology, The hunting hypothesis is often associated with the theory, because of similarities and because Robert Ardrey has developed both.
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Famous quotes containing the words killer, ape and/or theory:
“I believe there’s a killer in all of us. I know there’s one inside me. When you know the killer in you and you know also that you do not want to kill, you have to set yourself upon a course of learning. Not to kill that killer then, but to control it.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“The theory [before the twentieth century] ... was that all the jobs in the world belonged by right to men, and that only men were by nature entitled to wages. If a woman earned money, outside domestic service, it was because some misfortune had deprived her of masculine protection.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)