Social behavior

“Bonobos are capable of altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience, and sensitivity.” - Primatologist Frans de Waal

Human and ape behavior

Humans and the Great Apes share a number of similar behavioral characteristics that potentially shed light on the rise of intelligence in humans. These characteristics include: tool using behavior, social group dynamics, capacity for language and comprehension, and levels of aggression.

Bonobos are perceived to be matriarchal: females tend to collectively dominate males by forming alliances; females use their sexuality to control males; a male's rank in the social hierarchy is determined by his mother's rank. However, there are also claims of a special role for the alpha male in group movement. Bonobo party size tends to vary because the groups exhibit a fission-fusion pattern. A community of approximately 100 will split into small groups during the day while looking for food, and then comes back together to sleep. They sleep in trees in nests that they construct. Bonobo groups are generally larger than other groups of apes, ranging from 11-15 in size. These groups congregate with larger groups frequently. In other apes, large congregations would cause high levels of tension and aggression.

Tool Using Behavior

All of the Great Apes have been observed using tools in one way or another. Infrequent tool use is generally attributed to lack of necessity in apes rather than lack of intelligence. The advanced tool use in common chimpanzees indicates that chimps recognize causal relationships, a marker of heightened intelligence. In addition, common chimp nutrition has been substantially influenced by tool using behavior, both in access to quality food (primarily protein from ant/termite fishing and nut cracking), and the efficient collection of that food. Evidence has been found showing tool use in chimps as early as 4,300 years ago It is likely that hominids were also engaging in this kind of behavior to efficiently fuel their increasingly metabolically expensive brains.

Language and Communication

Apes have the intelligence for language, but in a limited fashion. Common and bonobo chimps perform very well with sign language and with symbols, and can make “declarative and evaluative statements, use symbols with each other, engage in rudimentary conversational exchanges, comprehend requests for actions involving relational terms, understand basic metacommunications about symbols and symbol performance, utilize some rule-following grammatical structures, describe basic properties of their experience, and engage in deceptive communications. Chimpanzees tend to do most of their learning from members of their group who are their age or older. Facial expressions and body language are also very important communication devices, as they are in humans. Human expressions, such as bearing teeth when angry, can be traced back to primitive routes wherein aggressive animals bear their teeth to display canines, despite the fact that humans no longer possess lethal canines. Both humans and the great apes express aggression through body posture, facial expression, and vocalization http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Human_and_ape_behavior - cite_note-pitcairn-18.

Social Behavior and Aggression

Observations in the wild indicate that the males among the related common chimpanzee communities are extraordinarily hostile to males from outside the community. This does not appear to be the behavior of bonobo males or females in their own communities, where they seem to prefer sexual contact over violent confrontation with outsiders. Bonobos ease the situation with sex and food sharing http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Human_and_ape_behavior - cite_note-dewaal-10. This is closely related to human cultural institutions such as cities and states, where many different people congregate in civility. In addition to this, bonobo society tends to be egalitarian, and sharing of food is very common. Male/female relationships are strong, and males must be accepted by higher ranking females if they are to ascend in rank. As in humans, power brings more females and mating opportunities for apes. The more powerful a male is, the more a female will want to mate with him in order to protect herself and her offspring. Since competition for females is high among apes, male rivalries are high. Males either have to rely on their strength or their bonds with other males in order to ascend in rank and achieve status (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Human_and_ape_behavior - cite_note-schaik-6). Chimpanzees in particular are very adept at forming human-like political coalitions, since they cannot possibly expect to achieve or maintain power without significant cooperation on the part of other males. Without this cooperation, other coalitions of males could easily overthrow an alpha chimp regardless of his strength and size.

It is hypothesized that this strong bonding between male chimpanzees is the reason for the human-like genocide that groups of chimps inflict upon other groups of chimps. Chimps have been observed forming raiding parties with the sole intent of crossing into enemy territory to wreak destruction and violence upon the enemy group. They act with strategy and tact as they sum up their opponent and decide to mount an attack. When they do attack, it is generally on the weak or outnumbered. The attacks are brutal, and cannibalization is common. Although it is unsure exactly why these raids take place, it is thought that the strong bonds and trusts males form within their group causes distrust and disdain for outsiders.

Bonobos offer a stark contrast to the rest of the Great Apes due to the fact that females are generally in positions of power rather than males. This is due to the matrilineal nature of bonobos. Estrus in females is less prominent, and they mate with as many males as possible. They do this to keep males in a constant state of ignorance as to whether or not offspring belong to their lineage. Since males cannot know whether or not a child is theirs, they are more invested in the safety and protection of all females and offspring. This behavior also allows status to be tracked through females. Females form strong bonds with each other to counter male aggression, and will often attack a male if he exhibits roughly 85% the size of males.undesirable behavior or attempts to assert himself on females. Sexual dimorphism in bonobos is remarkably similar to human sexual dimorphism, with females reaching

Sexual social behavior

"make love – not war"

Bonobos also differ from the rest of the apes in their use of sex. They do not exclusively have sex for reproduction. Some scientists perceive the use of sex as a greeting, a means of forming social bonds, a means of conflict resolution, and post-conflict reconciliation.They use sex to ease tension, as a social bonding tool, as a means of trade for food, to determine rank, as a sign of friendship, and for pleasure. This is very similar to humans, who use sex for similar reasons. Bonobos are the only non-human animal to have been observed engaging in all of the following sexual activities: face-to-face genital sex , tongue kissing, oral sex, and genital massage. Sexual interactions take place between males and females, females and females( GG rubbing or genital-genital rubbing), and males and males. In one form, two males hang from a tree limb face-to-face while "penis fencing. Another form of genital interaction, called "rump rubbing", occurs to express reconciliation between two males after a conflict, when they stand back-to-back and rub their scrotal sacs together.  They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by sex or age, with the possible exception of abstaining from sexual intercourse between mothers and their adult sons.   Monogamous pairs are not seen in bonobos, which is in accordance with human behavior. Prominent monogamy is observed in only 20% of human societies, primarily in hunter/gatherer and agricultural societies.

What we learn from bonobo?

The conclusion

1. We humans and bonobos share genetically 98.4%.

2. Bonobo communities are peace-loving and generally egalitarian. The strongest social bonds are those among females, although females also bond with males. The status of a male depends on the position of his mother, to whom he remains closely bonded for her entire life.

3. Bonobos are capable of altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience, and sensitivity.

4. Bonobos are the only non-human animal to have been observed engaging in all sexual activities. They do not exclusively have sex for reproduction. . Bonobos ease the situation with sex and food sharing.

5. Bonobo females tend to collectively dominate males by forming alliances; females use their sexuality to control males. ­­­­­­­

6. In my opinion if we want peace in this world, we better of choose women to be our political leaders.­­­­­­

References:

Frans B. M. Waal 

Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution, Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-674-00460-4.

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are

Linda Marie Fedigan: Primate paradigms: sex roles and social bonds

William H. Calvin: A Brief History of the Mind: From Apes to Intellect and Beyond

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo - cite_note-miller-46

http://www.answers.com/topic/bonobo

http://hhal.net/id108.html

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Human_and_ape_behavior

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/LIFE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_classification

http://cboonkham.startlogic.com/id107.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geochronology

http://web.archive.org/web/20091229003212/http://www.stratigraphy.org/upload/ISChart2009.pdf