Current Issue March 2014 magazine cover  Save 81% off the
newsstand price!  Unlike the chest-beating primates of popular
imagination, Brazil’s northern muriquis are easygoing and highly
cooperative. (Mark Moffett / Minden Pictures)  Humans Would Be
Better Off If They Monkeyed Around Like the Muriquis  Biologist
Karen Strier has been studying these peace-loving Brazilian
primates and their egalitarian lifestyle for decades  In
reality, as Strier’s work would underscore, the primates are a
varied group, with diverse social structures and far more
complex behavior. Descended from a tree-dwelling ancestor living
some 55 million years ago in Africa or Asia, the group includes
tarsiers, lemurs, lorises, monkeys, apes (such as gorillas,
chimps, bonobos, gibbons) and hominids. Monkeys, characterized
by long tails and flat, hairless faces, are generally divided
into two types: Old World monkeys, such as baboons and macaques,
live in Asia and Africa. New World monkeys, including muriquis,
are descended from ancestors t