Rituals, such as burying the dead, indicative of advancing social bonding, are of special significance to the understanding of the emergence and survival of human beings, i.e. modern Homo sapiens.

 

Early human-like apes, found to have a predominantly vegetarian diet, from microscopic examination of fossil tooth calculi (tarter)*, were more likely victims of predation, rather than murderous, meat-eating aggressors, as first surmised by Raymond Dart, in 1925, having examined the skull of the Taung Child, which he named Australopithecus africanus. 

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Also clearer among paleoanthropologists, is that earlier, differing hominins possessed varying mosaics of features, some features more advanced, as seen with more human-like lower limbs, posture and bipedalism, while retaining earlier, more primitive forms of cranial size and shape, in the same individual.

 

Humans, in their cooperative and bonding behavior, have developed the highest degree of relational complexity among terrestrial mammals, features selected by evolution. This suggests that complex, cooperative behavior promoted reproduction and survival in earlier, human-like groups, within the harsh environments of the African landscapes.

 

Such an historical perspective suggests that "survival of those who collaborate, cooperate, and work together," represents a more precise way of re-conceptualizing "survival of the fittest".

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