Was the human being a natural born predator from the beginning?

Question

Curious whether the human being was born with a predator instinct or he developed it. And if he developed it what were the causes?

Answer 1

I feel that the ability has always been there whetther necessity has brought it out or not is the question.

Most people are docile, and comfortist especially the majority of Americans.

Most of your second and third world countries are full of human predators.

All it is, is whether or not your environment requires you to be or not.

Answer 2

Don't quote me on this..... but scientists believe the human was not a predator but rather a hunter/gather type species. Or we would scavenge dead animals. I guess the development of the instinct was because of the urge to defend ourselves, then eventually led to hunting for game.... and so it all unfolds to what we are now.

Answer 3

I believe the key word is "Survival". Man,as a predator, kills for the pleasure. Lower forms of animal life kill for food and survival . Man was instilled with the predatory instinct or he would not still be here.

Answer 4

depends on your definition of when we became human beings. Our early hominid ancestors were not predators, they were scavengers who went to kill sites after the predators left to get meat, and were mainly omnivores. Once we evolved to the point of using tools, we started using them to chase away the predators to get to the kill sites. Eventually we began to use tools as weapons to hunt. Although humans are "predators" in the sense that we do hunt animals for food, we as a species were not born with this instinct, but rather developed it due to tool use in order to obtain a higher protein diet.

Answer 5

I thought we lost most of our instincts relying on materialistic things so much. Canines = Meat eaters,

Thats got to mean something ?

Answer 6

The primate's forward facing eyes, needed to judge distances between tree branches, allowed them to also become predators.  All predators must outwit their prey to thrive & thus they tend to have a larger brain than their prey. The early hominids were primarly plant eaters that occasionally ate insects & scavenged meat from the kills of predators. The ability to walk upright did allow them to see over obstacles & avoid predators, as well as to carry scavenged meat back to the safety of trees.

The extra protien allowed for more rapid brain growth in the fetus & young.  Eventually the use of rocks to crack open bones & obtain the marrow, that most predators could not reach, allowed a richer & more plentiful source of protien. Somewhere along the way Homo hablis developed the ability to fashion butchering tools from these rocks (allowing them to cut off & carry away pieces of scavenged meat.)  More meat allowed a bigger brain & larger growth. Homo hablis used fire, & hunted small animals, but it is not known if they could create fire. Fire did allow them to cook foods & acquire further food sources.

Homo erectus eventually evolved from hablis (this is disputed because they did co-exist for 400,000 yrs or so.)  Homo erectus was very successful, made & used fire, made hunting tools & weapons. About 800,000 years ago the erectus developed the evolved wrist that allowed precision striking methods needed for finer stone implements & weapons. They migrated out of Africa (about 1.3 million yrs ago) & are thought to be the founders of both neanderthal & sapien populations.

To answer your question, yes, we come from a long line of predators, but we are mainly opprotunists that take advantage of any situation that offers us a reproductive advantage.

Answer 7

We have very few predatory instincts.  They are basically all taught.