Abstract

MARTINEZ-CONTRERAS, JORGE. Darwinian Altruistic Issues. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2009, vol.14, suppl.1, pp.383-390. ISSN 0120-548X.

In 1871 Darwin mentioned that he would rather descent from a monkey than from -savages-. The monkey in question was a Papio hamadryas baboon that, in Brehm's account, saves an infant from a pack of dogs. The -savages- were the now disappeared Fuegians, whom he visited in the Beagle's voyage, in 1833. Why Darwin through he was a very good observer of animal behavior could not discern the social characteristics of the four hunter-gatherer human societies he knew in Tierra del Fuego? Our aim in this work is to try to elucidate this dilemma.

Keywords : Darwin; fuegians; hamadryas; altruism; egoism.

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