Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape
by Frans B. M. de Waal, Frans Lanting
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frans B. M. de Waal, Frans LantingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-10-27
ISBN: 0520216512
Number of pages: 200
Publisher: University of California Press
Book Reviews of Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape
Book Review: Our Gentle Cousins
Summary: 5 Stars
In the popular imagination, the word "ape" conjures a brutish image, evoking a bestial human past in which life contained little more than the ruthless struggle for dominance. Until relatively recently, our knowledge of our genetic cousins seemed to confirm this picture; most apes, including chimps, have strongly hierarchical societies characterized by male dominance and frequent power struggles. The bonobo, however, has shattered scientists' assumptions about primate behavior. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into the complex lives of these gentle apes.
If bonobos could chant slogans, they would probably be imploring us to "make love, not war." Physically, bonobos differ little from other chimps, except for their smaller size. Yet their social lives are remarkably different. Although males are larger and capably of physically dominating females, female bonobos enjoy dominance within a relaxed, relatively fluid hierarchy. Unlike chimps, which can be quite violent toward members of their own species, bonobos are adept at resolving conflicts. Mostly, they achieve this through sexual behavior that would make any fundamentalist preacher turn purple (including homosexuality). Both in the wild and in captivity, they display a level of emotional intelligence that is amazing to find in a nonhuman animal, which the book documents through striking, often humorous anecdotes.
De Waal offers an intriguing discussion of how the bonobo's unique society may have evolved. Interestingly, he postulates that females became promiscuous, bonded with other females, and developed nearly year-round displays of sexual receptivity in order to counter the male habit of infanticide that sometimes occurs in chimps. Since females banded together to defend each other (and each other's offspring), and since males had no way of telling which offspring was their own, infanticide apparently disappeared. Meanwhile, as a result of their bonding, females became dominant.
Lanting's photos are striking, most of all because of the humanlike quality that comes through in so many of them. There is an astonishing...moving, in fact...familiarity in their facial expressions, intelligent eyes, gestures, and postures.
It is deeply tragic that this species, like so many, is threatened with possible extinction. Even though we have much more to learn about bonobos, their behavior raises thought-provoking questions about "human nature" and where we come from. Perhaps the "ape within" has a capacity for not only violence and patriarchy, but for cooperation and female influence as well.
Summary of Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape
This remarkable primate with the curious name is challenging established views on human evolution. The bonobo, least known of the great apes, is a female-centered, egalitarian species that has been dubbed the "make-love-not-war" primate by specialists. In bonobo society, females form alliances to intimidate males, sexual behavior (in virtually every partner combination) replaces aggression and serves many social functions, and unrelated groups mingle instead of fighting. The species's most striking achievement is not tool use or warfare but sensitivity to others.In the first book to combine and compare data from captivity and the field, Frans de Waal, a world-renowned primatologist, and Frans Lanting, an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, present the most up-to-date perspective available on the bonobo. Focusing on social organization, de Waal compares the bonobo with its better-known relative, the chimpanzee. The bonobo's relatively nonviolent behavior and the tendency for females to dominate males confront the evolutionary models derived from observing the chimpanzee's male power politics, cooperative hunting, and intergroup warfare. Further, the bonobo's frequent, imaginative sexual contacts, along with its low reproduction rate, belie any notion that the sole natural purpose of sex is procreation. Humans share over 98 percent of their genetic material with the bonobo and the chimpanzee. Is it possible that the peaceable bonobo has retained traits of our common ancestor that we find hard to recognize in ourselves?
Eight superb full-color photo essays offer a rare view of the bonobo in its native habitat in the rain forests of Zaire as well as in zoos and research facilities. Additional photographs and highlighted interviews with leading bonobo experts complement the text. This book points the way to viable alternatives to male-based models of human evolution and will add considerably to debates on the origin of our species. Anyone interested in primates, gender issues, evolutionary psychology, and exceptional wildlife photography will find a fascinating companion in Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape.
For Frans de Waal, man is not the only moral entity, as he made clear in his last book--Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. The author has long been intrigued by chimpanzee politics and mores, and now he has turned his human heart and scientific mind to a species science has tended to celebrate solely for its sex drive. Bonobos may look like chimps, but they are actually even closer to us--far more upright, physically, for a start. Furthermore, where chimpanzees hunt, fight, and politic like mad, bonobos are peaceful, often ambisexual, and matriarchal. (Of course, hyenas are matriarchal too, but that's another story ...) De Waal's collaborator, Frans Lanting, has been photographing these gentle creatures for some years and augments the primatologist's explorations and interviews with hundreds of superb color shots. The penultimate picture is of bonobos crossing a road while schoolchildren stand watching, a short distance away. If, as the truism goes, all books about animal behavior are ultimately about us, this exploration of the bonobo may be a step in the right direction.
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