Male bonobos really don\’t
Male bonobos really don’t fit the human male ideal. Frans de Waal
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Male bonobos really don’t fit the human male ideal. Frans de Waal
Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathetic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral. Frans de Waal
Female bonobos form a strong sisterhood. They rule through female solidarity. Frans de Waal
Bonobo studies started in the ’70s and came to fruition in the ’80s. Then in the ’90s, all of a sudden, boom, they ended because of the warfare in the Congo. It was really bad for the bonobo and ironic that people with their warfare were preventing us from studying the hippies of the primate … Read more
Most men probably wouldn’t want to live the lives of bonobos. They’re constantly clinging to their mothers’ apron strings. They lack the ability to make decisions about their own fates, something that we and male chimpanzees practically consider our birthright. Frans de Waal
I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened if we’d known the bonobo first and the chimpanzee only later—or not at all. The discussion about human evolution might not revolve as much around violence, warfare and male dominance, but rather around sexuality, empathy, caring and cooperation. What a different intellectual landscape we would occupy! … Read more
Bonobos may have a brain that’s a third the size of ours, but they’re remarkably intelligent. Claudine Andre
Bonobos don’t really have that darker side. So that’s where they could really help us is how could it be that a species that has a brain a third of the size of ours can do something that with all our technological prowess we can’t accomplish? Which is to not kill each other. Claudine Andre
Bonobos really violate a rule of nature where usually if you’re bigger, you’re going to be dominant. But here, females are actually smaller. But they’re still not dominated by males because they work together. Claudine Andre
Bonobos are unique among great apes because they are not dominated by males. Claudine Andre