The anti-social violence ritual (threats, bluffing, posturing) is pretty much hardwired into humans, and most people are not aware that it can control them when confronted with triggers of the ritual. These are behavioural patterns we are all born with, and these conflict behaviours are emotional tidal waves. When triggered, they occur faster than conscious thought.

The ‘Monkey Brain’ was mentioned in a previous post, and the ritual it creates has been given the name ‘Monkey Dance’, because primates perform similar rituals.

An example of the monkey dance is as follows:

1.     A hard, aggressive stare.

2.     A verbal challenge, e.g., “What you lookin’ at?”

3.     An approach, often with the signs of increased adrenaline: arm swinging or chest bobbing, a change in colour, usually with the skin flushing.

4.     As the two square off, there may be more verbal exchanges, and then one will make contact. It will usually be a two-handed push on the chest or an index finger to the chest. If it is an index finger to the nose, it will immediately proceed to step No. 5. If there is no face contact, this step can be repeated multiple times until one of the ‘dancers’ throws…

5.     A big, looping punch.

It’s easy to get sucked in, and backing down from a monkey dance is extremely difficult and embarrassing, especially for young men.

It is primarily a young man’s game because these are the people who are trying to establish their place in this world and determine their social status. They tend not to be ‘bad’ people, but they have not yet learned to control their basic emotions and ego that comes with being older and wiser. Older (and wiser?) men still participate in the ‘monkey dance’, but it is far less likely to turn physical.

The defence against this is to walk away. If this doesn’t prove to be an option, such as them following you, then you have to be aware of them starting violence and pre-empt it with open-hand techniques such as pushing, palm heel or jamming techniques ( eg. Striking at shoulder to ‘jam’ their full punch technique).