156 Intra-community killing — the case of Zesta
Background to Zesta
Zesta (ZT) (Fig. 8.1) was first named on 17 February 1993 at which time he was a
subadult male. He is recorded as moving from subadult to adult status in December
- Thus by November 1998, when he was attacked, he had been an adult, with fully
descended testes, for a couple of years.^64 Our definition of an adult male is as follows:
‘Testicular development complete. Face fully black. Now dominates all females and
challenges other males.’ This last element of the definition is noteworthy: young adult
males are starting on the road to dominant status and thus do from time to time chal-
lenge adult males, which can lead to them being threatened or attacked by the more
dominant ones.
Newton-Fisher (2002a) studied the grooming relationships of the males of the Sonso
community from August 1994 to December 1995 when ZT was still a subadult. His
analysis of grooming partnerships (see Chapter 6, Fig. 6.2) shows that ZT was an
outsider among the males, but this is normal for a subadult male and was probably
related to ZT’s age.
Three years later, in 1998, ZT had become more sociable. Checking his grooming and
copulation records for the month preceding the attack, the following picture emerges
Fig. 8.1: Zesta (photo: J. Lindsell).
(^64) Later inspection of Zesta’s skeleton showed that his third molars were fully erupted, and his humeral
heads were fully fused, indicating fully adult status (Newton-Fisher, pers. comm.).