Beta Male
I’ve had this conversation on a few occasions, I believe that the defining factor that seperated human beings from other mammals was the creation of the Beta Male. The Beta Male represents he who may exceed in a certain respect though is not technically leader of the entire group. Division of leadership allowed for a number of advantages that could not be found in an alpha dominated tribe. Primarily, the death of the alpha male no longer created as great a power vacuum. It is possible that real complex language would not even be a requirement until there was some division of authority. What the alpha wanted, occured. Now, there could be more complex disagreements that were not necessarily a power struggle. The hunter may have to convey to the leader that there was food to be had, a sentry may have to communicate to the alpha that there was trouble to be had. Over time the rate of communication would have to increase. The sentry would not only have to say, ‘threat’-but would also have to communicate the level of threat. The hunter would no longer just say,’food’, and wait for the Alpha to determine whether it was a valid hunt. Individuals increasingly had to think on their own and had to communicate these more complex original thoughts. Leadership became shared.
Some, including myself at one time, believe that it is possible to be all things at one time. That we could create the perfect man or women who is supreme at all tasks. I do not, I believe that division of authority/labor is a fact of nature and of our lives. I used to believe that it would be great if each person could know how to construct a television set, fix their own plumbing, build a computer, improve their cars performance-etc,etc. Yet with such multitasking would come an overall limit to how much we can achieve. Insects can often be drafted to perform other tasks, but the overall complexity of each task is quite limited.
It is my opinion that the emergence of the beta male in the pre-human species allowed for the first branch from the animal kingdom to modern humanity. That without him we would not have developed a complex language, we could not have formed societies without a division of power, invention would be primitive at best as there would be no individual specialization- and social growth/new ideas would be much harder to emerge in society as they would have had to come through the few tribe leaders rather than within a random element of the tribe itself.
