by Doug was the leader of his chimpanzee group. He quickly had a call from human observers as a fair and tolerant alpha man. One day he was separated by the group for some health examinations together with a young, self -confident man, Vis and Vis -allies, Zsabu.
We couldn’t see what happened from our point of view, but you could hear it. Scream and beat. Something started. Doug had been attacked by the two men and had to be hurried by the retains.
When he appeared, he was not seriously injured, but clearly desperate – this huge man screamed, crouched and more numerous. We had never seen him in our months of observation.
Little Jones, a low -ranked man who was often selected by his colleagues, approached him and began to make submissive gestures. Doug hurried over to assemble him for a few moments, with the weaker chimpanzees crouched down when Doug pushed on him.
For many of the approximately 40 chimpanzees in the group, this seemed to be a green light in order to offer Doug also comfort and calming. It was an extraordinary sight.
Most of the group approached Doug and kissed him and kissed him. There was also mutual genital touch and several luden Doug to assemble them. This type of extreme consolation is rare in chimpanzees, which are reserved for very special circumstances.
People often think that animals only use sex for reproduction. For many animals and birds, sex can play a comparable social role for what it plays in humans. As we saw in these studies on the chimpanzees in the Chimfunshi Sanctuary in northwestern Sambia, sex can help to relieve the tension, to relieve stress, strengthen bonds and even repair relationships.
Chimpanzees against Bonobos
We spent months to watch the chimpanzees in Chimfunshi and to live in simple concrete bungalows near their large, forested housings. We spent almost the whole day every day to watch them and to live on behalf of their soap opera.
You have the privilege of getting to know every chimpanzee, almost like a person – how you go, look and sound. Even the silhouettes of your body when you go away in the half -darkness as the light of the day.
We compared your sexual behavior with a group of Bonobos that a little more than 1,000 miles away in Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary near Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chimpanzees and Bonobos are the closest relatives of the people who deviated from us 5 and 7 million years ago. They still share around 98.7% of our DNA and offer us fascinating insights into how we may have been before we became human.
The researchers used to use chimpanzees as poster boys of human evolution and ignored our less understood but also important other cousin. In recent times, however, researchers have been more interested in Bonobos and compared the two types.
Like humans, both chimpanzee and bonobos have a rich and complex social life. In both species we see striking differences in the use of tools, cultures, social tendencies and even the amount that they operate in conflicts.
That means there are fascinating differences between the two types. Bonobo groups are monitored by coalitions of dominant women and their sons, while the chimpanzee hierarchy is normally structured around an alpha man and his male buddy.
Bonobos are generally considered peaceful and tolerant, while chimpanzees have drawn the short straw in public relations, which are often represented as violent, competitive and even murderous.
However, some of these differences are controversial. For example, some Bonobo groups are less tolerant and more aggressive than some chimpanzee groups, while both monkeys peacefully and cooperate.
Chimpanzees can be tolerant and tender together; You can help others in need and comfort them in need. You will often release your aggression by charging or making a lot of noise without absolutely coming.
A feature that is still firmly connected to Bonobos is its increased sexuality. Whether in the wild or in captivity, they usually run sexual interactions in almost all age and sex combinations.
Sex seems to help them cope with social problems, e.g. B. the repair of social ties after fighting and facilitating cooperation, such as sharing food.
However, our study showed against assumptions that even this difference is not as it appears. When we compare the two species directly in similar sanctuary environments, we found that chimpanzees also navigate sex to navigate tense social situations, as we saw with Doug, and to reconcile after fighting.
Both species have similar sexual repertoires, although the genito-genital rubbing rhythmic occurs in a “missionary” position with each other-in Bonobos, especially in women, more often.
Chimpanzees, especially men, often assemble and keep the genitals of their allies, especially while conflicts either within their group or with other groups. They often bump against each other, and these behaviors seem to play a calming and tension -reducing role.
As with bonobos, we see all different sex combinations, sometimes with more dominant chimpanzees who carry out the assembly, but sometimes vice versa. In the meantime, chimpanzees are more of other behaviors such as kissing the body.
Human development
The proof that both bonobos and chimpanzees use sex to cope with social problems indicate that our last common ancestor would have done this – and most likely also early people.
Our results show the idea that human sexuality is uniquely complex. Far from being a cultural construct, the social role of gender from our ancestors to our modern societies seems to play through time.
Similar to our primates -people also rely on other strategies that go beyond sex solution, such as verbal and physical confirmation. However, sex remains a strong and often overlooked tool in human social dynamics.
And just as the sexual behavior of bonobos and chimpanzees reflects their social structures, human sexuality is also influenced by our societies. The way we use sex – for intimacy, pleasure, binding and negotiation – can be one of our oldest and flexible properties.
Back in Chimfunshi, Doug was not discontinued after his discussion with Vis and Zsabu. The expression of the intimate affection of the community increased his position as a leader of the group, which later consolidated with a different incident that day.
The whole community seemed to eat quietly until Doug and his tight male allied Pan suddenly attacked Vis and his mother Violet, the dominant woman. They both have body lamb and sent a clear message that the group was not under new administration. The violence did not go on and Doug still leads to this day.
This article will be released from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Jake Brooker receives funds from the Templeton World Charity Foundation (various Intelligences Initiative).
Zanna Clay receives funds from the Templeton World Charity Foundation (various intelligences initiative) and the European Research Council H2020 Start (802979)
