Bonobos: The GREATEST of Ape
You're an ape. You realize this, right? A knuckle-dragging, butt-scratching, dirty ape.I have a somewhat eclectic taste. I can find a little nugget of interest in most anything. So the other night I was watching a documentary on the Bonobo ape on PBS. I find watching PBS brings me closer to my inner-Bill Moyer. Anyway...
The Bonobo ape, a close cousin to humans and chimps, is a quite interesting little monkey (yes, I know that an ape is not a monkey). This ape is only found on one big bend in the Congo River, deep in the jungles of central Africa. As I watched this documentary, it dawned on me, the Bonobo is truly the greatest of Apes. If anything, this ape is further evolved than humans. All of the scientists basically agreed. They fit perfectly into their well-organized theories on what the structure of society should be. Humanity has so much to learn from them.
As I thought about it, I agreed! Bonobo society is, in fact, a paradise! Take for example these few (according to PBS) Bonobo facts:
- Bonobo society is non-violent. Unlike chimps and humans, they are tolerant of other bonobo groups and reject violence. Other Bonobo groups can come visit their territory, eat their food with out fear of being attacked.
- Bonobo society is strickly matriarchal. Female Bonobos control society. Although stronger than females, male Bonobos lack the friendship/alliance networks that Chimps have which they leverage to control society and keep the females in line. Without control, male bonobos eat the leftovers, wander through the jungle and get beat up by the women. The female Bonobo sisterhood is strong and keeps males as second-class citizens.
- In Bonobo society, casual sex is strongly encouraged. Whether it is male-male, male-female, female-female, mother-son, it doesn't matter. Conflicts are resolved, social greetings made and friendships confirmed through this curious social behavior.
- In Bonobo society, fathers are irrelevant. Because of a matriarchal society where casual sex is encouraged, Fatherhood is, uhh, irrelevant. Mothers, along with the broader society, take care of the young. As a result of the rampant casual sex, none of the male Bonobos can be sure if they're actually the father of any individual Bonobo baby anyway.
But, PBS being PBS, they also included the one requisite plot characteristic found in all PBS documentaries - humans suck and EVERYTHING wrong with the world can be blamed on these genetic mutants gone wild. In this particular show, it was the civil war in the Congo that took place causing more natives to EAT more Bonobo meat, thus endangering this Congolese eden. Yum.
What a perfect documentary! What a perfect ape society! If only humanity didn't exist, the world would be perfect!
This stuff just makes me laugh.
2 comments:
I disagree. The perfect ape or hominid, that would be perfectly acceptable to PBS would be none -- at least no males. The GreenPeace crowd are very tolerant, but they're not tolerant of anything that might despoil the precious Earth by breathing or eating or walking.
The hemp and wheatgrass crowd will consider humans to be perfectly "evolved" the day that humans become extinct. Okay, maybe some Gaia priestesses could survive, and some neutered male drones; and maybe someone to fly the GreenPeace private jet around;also, maybe a caterer who specializes in organic FairTrade food.
I agree with your blog post. Bonobos seem to have a very diserable lifestyle...hardly any fighting and very strong social ties. Humans have made war and intolerance part of our universal culture so maybe bonobos have evolved in the right direction and we have turned down the wrong road.
Thanks for the post. The documentary was well-made, I thought. =)
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