I'll say right off the bat that it's late here and this won't be a very concrete post, but i just wanted to post something. Some people keep babbling about this fabled human morality that's somehow distinctly separate from all other social animals, but how different is it, really? I don't know how about your definition, but to me morality means adherence to behavioral structure which promotes healthy atmosphere in a group. It is 'moral' to help others, possibly at the cost of your personal benefit. Donating to charity, for example, or adopting a child whose parents were killed, etc. The concept of "fair" is expected to be respected by 'moral' people, and not only people. Perceptions of what's fair vary, but that's another story.

Anyway, watch this cute video and see how monkeys respect fairness:



PS: anyway, there's a point somewhere there, make of it what you will.

That's a good point, the value of the items being shared (either sentimentally or monetarily) has a sway on choices that the video did not address.

As for religion, I don't think it is the only reason people have morals, and I think most animals probably do have some basic sense of altruism, which might be nothing more than an instinct to keep the species alive. What religion does though is attempts to fine tune and manipulate what we consider right and wrong, even if the basic aspects of morality are innate, some things, such as most types of sexual morality, are only seen as "bad" because a given church says so. Even if on some level two gay men, or a fetishist might feel guilty naturally, religion enforces that and uses it to increase the fear, and ultimate obedience to a given deity.

Here is another video (no longer dealing with altruism or morality) which i found interesting:



Although of course, for the monkey the reward is the biggest priority. Children may repeat the sequence because that's what an authority told them to do.