Of Bonobos and Men
2007-08-17 · Original WordPress address
Great article about Bonobos over at Skeptic Magazine:
I understand the frustration of field workers with the image of bonobos as angels of peace, which is not only one-dimensional, but incorrect. On the other hand, anyone who objects to the occasional hyperbole (such as “chimpanzees are from Mars, bonobos are from Venus”), should realize that no one would ever have heard of the species — and no reporter would have considered them for a piece in The New Yorker — if they’d been described as merely affectionate. Possibly, one or two decades from now a new image of the bonobo will emerge, one more complex than what we have today. This is already happening thanks to detailed studies of their socio-ecology, observations that nuance the dynamics of female dominance, and video-analyses of their natural communication.
Everybody knows humans are violent like Chimps and garsh dern it, why can't we be all sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, like the Bonobos? We're so damned violent, right?
Well, no. The violent crime rate in the U.S. is 0.161%*. This means if you followed a band of 15 Americans around for 28 years, you'd only have a 50-50 chance of seeing someone get raped, beaten up, murdered or otherwise violently crimed. That sounds more like the docile Bonobos than the red in tooth and claw Chimps.
*which is a relatively violent place... there's three times as many rapes and four times as many murders as the world average