Monkeys and Traditions

A thought-provoking story I recently read:

An anthropologist was doing research on some monkeys in a zoo. The monkeys were kept in a cage. A bunch of bananas were hung to the ceiling and a ladder was placed next to it. Every time a monkey tried to climb up and eat the bananas, the anthropologist would shower cold water on him. After a while, the monkeys ceased trying to reach up to the bananas. Even when someone did try, he was promptly beaten up and pulled down by the other monkeys. Cold water showers were no longer needed to dissuade them.

A few days later, the anthropologist removed a monkey from the cage and sent in a new simian. This new resident, unaware of ‘the rule’, would try to climb the ladder. The other monkeys would beat him up until ‘the rule’ was clear to him. Some days later, the anthropologist introduced a new monkey into the cage after removing one from the original group. This new monkey too would be beaten until he submitted to ‘the rule’.

Eventually, the anthropologist replaced all the monkeys from the original group. But ‘the rule’ prevailed. The new monkeys had never experienced the cold showers; they were just imitating the others. And thus, a tradition was passed on and followed even though the monkeys had not a clue why…

(Isn’t it time we stopped acting like the monkeys? After all, we are in a much more advanced stage of evolution. Or are we?)