Scott, this post's for you - Bonobos and Chimpanzees
Scott is one of my dearest friends and also a frequent comment poster (that's not comment begging, Ted, that's an observation). We met purely by chance when he was assigned to be my roommate in room 714, Griffiths
Hall Dormitory, Unit II, U.C. Berkeley. I and others are convinced that this particular dorm was a cruel social experiment and there was a Sociology Grad Student living among us working on his thesis. But Scott and I worked well together. Travis was our neighbor and later Scott and Travis were roommates. And we're all still friends today. So there were pockets of success scattered throughout the largely dysfunctional living situation.Anyway- I remember the first book Scott recommended that I read. It was The Naked Ape. Scott beleives that we humans are essentially animals. I'm oversimplifying a more complex view, of course, but basically, Scott has far lower expectations of our species than I do. We recently had a discussion about whether a more enlightened, Democratic, and egalitarian, and peaceful society is possible. I was focussing on peace. Scott said he was surprised that we aren't more violent than we are, surprised we keep it together as well as we do, and that violence is simply human nature. I tend to acknowledge that we descended from apes, but I believe we are capable of accomplishing much more as a society than we have so far. So I tend to reject Scott's premise that we are glorified apes because I can't accept that we aren't capable of more.
Well, I recently subscribed to Spiegel's e-mail newsleter (it's free and so far, I recommend it for a nice balance of real news and interesting articles) and the following article was featured today.
(Click on the text below to go to the whole article.)
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW: THE TWO APES WITHIN US
Hippy Sex Fiends and Brutal Machiavellians
So if humans evolved from apes, which ones are our closest relatives? Dutch primate researcher Frans de Waal spoke with SPIEGEL about bloodthirsty chimpanzees, sex-crazed bonobos, the origin of the family and the nature of human beings.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,433327,00.html
What I love about this article is that it is a middle way between my own and my dear friend's views and philosophies. After reading it, I am better able to accept Scott's basic premise along with my own. I'm curious to hear what Scott (and anyone
else) has to say about the possibility that we have a dualistic human nature.What's funny to me is Scott is so much more a bonobo than a chimpanzee. Notice I didn't qualify that last statement as an opinion. I think all of my friends are mostly bonobos, really. Except maybe Tony. But he's only a chimpanzee when he has to be. And as much as I love Scott, if I were driving through a really bad neighborhood, I'd much rather have Tony riding shotgun, because
Tony's probably armed (he's a Sheriff's Deputy, not a wacky gun nut).
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 1:06 PM
4 Comments:
As an atheist, I'm sort of offended that you said we met by chance.
Wait, no, that's OK. . .
More to come.
Eric,
Thanks for honoring me in your blog. We were great dorm-mates, and we are lifelong friends. I do have strong opinions on humans as apes, humans as killing machines, and humans as good-doers. However, I am not an anthropologist, though I pretend to be one sometimes. Like now:
It seems like you were inspired by this article to suggest that we actually have some genetic basis for kindness and civilization, based on the Bonobo. This, for instance, can account for our ability to follow a Grateful Dead tour as part of a clan while refusing to engage in any hostilities beyond littering while indulging in free-love.
I’ll grant that we, as humans, share some of the characteristics of the Bonobo. But we’re clearly more violent than they are. And we’re a lot more violent than common Chimps, for that matter.
My personal opinion is humans deliver our brightest and darkest moments based on our ability to bond to one another. Therefore, we can be a band of brothers that shows heroism and professionalism on the battlefield. We can be a band of peers that is pressured to engage in abhorrent acts on the same battlefield. We can be a band of sisters that resist the oppression of men. We can be man and woman, man and man, or woman and woman that join together to carve our way through life while fighting for our families and against the many injustices that challenge us.
There is another factor: Our susceptibility to leaders.
Yet how we use the Bond is key to our success and our failures. Certainly there are individuals that act in good and bad ways, but the outcomes of the really good stuff (i.e. the ability to create a society to raise a family undisturbed) and the really bad stuff (ie. The Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide) is due to the same thing: our capacity to Bond really well. And one other thing: Our capacity to be led, like I said before. Good people can be led by bad leaders to do bad things, but the really good people rise above, to challenge the leaders when the leaders are bad.
I believe we are easily tied to our bonds: Bonds of comrades in arms, bonds of lovers, and bonds of friends. And thanks, Eric, for being my friend.
-Scott
(I am not Bonobo, I am Macaca.)
By the way, I plagiarized half my signature line in the last comment. Actually, I plagiarized an entire essay, which may be a first for plagiarism in a sig.
It's at the end of this article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401639.html?referrer=emailarticle
It's not plagiarism if you cite your source. But it's still a fabrication as you are not a macaca, you are a bonobo who likes to think he's a chimpanzee. Come on, when was the last time you were in a fist fight?
I did think that was clever, though - his essay. Reminds me of a story I heard where a student was taking a final and the question was "What is courage?" He supposedly turned in a Blue Book with two words: "This is."
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