Evolution of Trade Friendship and Social Cohesion

Studies of social cohesion and how it evolved in humans tend to focus on weighty matters like morality, but something as basic as friendship is just as important -- and perhaps even more fundamental. Thus it may be the case that complex communities and societies are ultimately based on smaller, simpler interactions between individuals.

Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, says we have only recently begun to appreciate the time and energy chimps invest in reciprocal relationships, and he compares chimp relationships to friendship. "These findings have prompted primatologists to use some terms that have in the past been reserved for humans." ...

If a male is transferring goods to another male, then Pruetz predicts that the male will expect support from the recipient of his largesse in any future aggressive encounter with other males. If a male shares with a female he is likely to expect sexual benefits from her. "But other age-sex classes were also involved," says [Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames], "and I think this reflects the cohesive nature of this chimp community." ...

"Social interactions are not random in a chimpanzee society," says Boesch. "Much of it is based on memory and long-term relationships including different commodities." ...

"Early hominids living in savannah environments would most likely have had a similar social system characterised by stable long-term relationships and might thus also have profited from food transfers," says Jaeggi. When early humans hunted large prey it cost them little to share their bounty. Even the hungriest caveman couldn't eat a whole antelope on his own but sharing created a sense of obligation in the recipients of his bounty.

Source: New Scientist, 10 December 2011

The development of friendships is based on the ability to develop cognitive skills like trust, long-term planning, long-term memory, etc. In turn, the development of friendships can form the basis of many other social relationship (outside of immediate kin, though those relationships can develop differently now). And all of this is necessary for the development of moral and ethical thinking.

You'll notice, of course, that there's no need to invoke gods, spirits, souls, or anything else supernatural or paranormal here. None of this is beyond the scope of nature or biology -- it's just that if we focus too much on how complex things are where we are now, it's harder to see or understand the earlier steps or building blocks that helped get us here.