While our collective culture may have evolved alongside technological advancements, we are still ruled by the same instincts that once drove our ancestors to fight for survival. This is the central thesis put forward by Jorge A. Colombo in his book “A New Approach to Human Social Evolution: Persistence of Ancient Drives in Behavior and Development” and previous relevant works.
From Ancient Predators to Modern Power Players: Modern Power Struggles Are Rooted From Ancient Survival Instincts
Background
Colombo is a medical doctor, a university professor, and a researcher with research interests in neuroendocrinology, comparative studies on brain development, and social structures. He has authored and published conference papers, articles, books, and book chapters on a wide range of general and niche topics within the realms of biology and sociology.
His recent book, which was published in February 2025, explores and discusses how evolutionary survival instincts, such as dominance and aggression, still shape modern society, leading to power struggles, inequality, and social divisions. He noted that society will continue to experience problems like authoritarianism, economic disparity, environmental crises, and social injustice unless humans consciously recognize and counteract these drives.
This is not the first time Colombo put forth this idea. He also discussed closely related ideas in the books “Our Animal Condition and Social Construction,” which was published in 2019, “The Homo Within the Sapiens,” which was published in 2021, and “Dominance Behavior: An Evolutive and Comparative Perspective,” which was published in 2022.
Key Argument
Colombo argues that the organization of the human brain changed after the transition from prey to universal predator. However, the human species still had to contend with the notion of mortality, thus resulting in the maintenance of basal drives, basic responses, and thresholds of behavioral expressions at the core of its neural circuits in the basal brain.
The plasticity of the human brain has added a neurobiological scaffolding on top of its basal drives or primal instincts to survive. This has allowed the emergence of traits such as creativeness, cognitive expansion, artistic expression, progressive toolmaking, and rich verbal communication. These traits did not deactivate nor suppress those ancient drives.
Modern human behavior is still influenced by primal survival mechanisms developed when earlier pre-human ancestors shifted from prey to top predators. Colombo identified these instincts. These include dominance, territorialism, and fight-or-flight responses. He further noted that all three are present and persist in modern political and social systems.
Several examples of modern expressions of ancient drives are provided. For instance, in political settings, authoritarianism or fascism and propaganda are expressions of aggression, competition, and dominance. These same primal instincts are also expressed as punitive beliefs in religions and thought control and punishment in education and child-rearing.
The struggle for power and resources is still evident across the different facets of modern social and economic structures. Colombo argued that the rise of economic inequality as evident from poverty and class struggles, militarization and geopolitical conflicts, and consumerism and the culture of excess stems from deeply embedded survival instincts.
Hence, despite advancements in human creativity, cognitive abilities, and human communication and interactions, humans remain bound to primal instincts or ancient drives because the human brain evolved from a survival-driven past. Primitive predispositions are not eliminated but masked or diverted by culture, religion, and social structures.
Implications
Colombo maintains that these unchecked primal survival instincts or ancient drives have resulted in negative outcomes like exploitation of resources, environmental destruction, social inequality, and even the creation of weapons of mass destruction. Remember that he has associated these problems with the inherent drive for dominance and competition.
Furthermore, because modern humans also have cultural drives, these are often in conflict with ancestral survival drives. This is the reason why there is a need for conscious intervention through better education and targeted policy reforms. The absence of a conscious effort to understand and counteract these primal instincts will result in the perpetuation of modern power struggles across the different facets of modern social and political structures.
Colombo is not the first scholar to draw a link between ancient survival instincts and modern human behavior. British primatologist Richard Wrangham examines the dual nature of human aggression in his book “The Goodness Paradox” while Dutch evolutionary psychologist Mark van Vugt posits that male psychology has been shaped by intergroup conflict.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Colombo, J. A. 2025. A New Approach to Human Social Evolution: Persistence of Ancient Drives in Behavior and Development. 1st ed. Routledge. DOI: 4324/9781003571544
- Wrangham, R. 2019. The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution. Profile Books
- Vugt, M. V., Cremer, D. D., and Janssen, D. P. 2007. “Gender Differences in Cooperation and Competition.” Psychological Science. 18(1): 19-23. SAGE Publications. DOI: 1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01842.x