Ayn Rand and Charles Darwin: Resolved

or

Tetrahedral Man
by

Norman J. Berls
Version: 2002:001; March 17, 2002
© April 2000, Norman J. Berls
http://lonestar.texas.net/~lochness/darwin/ ( MAIN DOCUMENT)

http://lonestar.texas.net/~lochness/darwin/content_4.html

Simian Relatives: Chimpanzees and Bonobos

Chimpanzees are especially interesting in that, as our closest living relatives, their
behavior provides some insights into the behavior of our pre-human ancestors. I submit
that it is plausible that their behavior is close to what human behavior would be were it
not for human intelligence. In reality we have two close chimpanzee relatives. The one
we are all familiar with is formally called Pan troglodytes and the other, the "pygmy
chimpanzee," is formally called Pan paniscus. Hereafter I will use "chimpanzee" to refer
to Pan troglodytes and "bonobo" to refer to Pan paniscus. I will reserve "chimp" to refer
to both.
Despite having been historically referred to as a "pygmy chimpanzee," the bonobo is
really only slightly smaller than the chimpanzee. However the differences between these
two species involve a great deal more than just size. In particular there are striking
behavioral differences that are going to complicate my efforts to isolate the foundations
of human behavior.
Both chimpanzees and bonobos form social groups that have been identified as "party-
gangs" by anthropologists. I will refer to them simply as "gangs." Chimpanzee gangs
vary in size from just a couple individuals up to dozen or more, and their size fluctuates
considerably depending upon the availability of food resources. Bonobo gangs tend to be
larger and more stable, and their size does not fluctuate as much. Chimpanzees eat mostly
fruit but also meat when it is available. Bonobos eat fruit, herbs and meat when it is
available. The difference in diet is due to the fact that chimpanzees share their range with
gorillas, and the gorillas consume the herbs. Bonobo gangs tend to be larger and more
stable because their food resources are more varied and are not shared with so many other
competing species. When food resources run short for chimpanzees, they leave their gang
and look for better conditions elsewhere.
Chimpanzee males play very intense dominance games with each male seeking to be the
dominant or alpha male of the gang. Dominance games involve raucous displays
involving loud vocalization, hurled and dragged objects, posturing, physical assaults and
intense political intrigues. A male may achieve alpha status simply on his own, but more
often his ascent is dependent upon the support of allies. Other males are more likely to be
useful to the alpha male as allies, but females constitute a significant political force in
determining which male becomes alpha and how long his tenure is. Alpha status affords a
male first choice of food resources, females in estrus and pretty much any material
resource available to chimpanzees. The alpha male may deny other males access to
females in estrus even when he himself is sated. An older female may temporarily
dominate her own son, but ultimately, every male chimpanzee becomes dominant over
females. This state of affairs is sustained by the facts that
Males are physically bigger than females (sexual dimorphism).
Males have a psychology that more readily motivates them to physical violence.
Males have large canine teeth which can be used to tear flesh whereas females do not.
Subordinate chimpanzees are required to make appropriate subservient gestures when a
superior male is about, and failure to do so can result in a physical assault. This rule
applies to both males and females. Although all males try to become the alpha male, the
alpha males' time in that position inevitably comes to an end. A male who loses alpha
status may remain within the chimpanzee gang, or he may be totally ejected depending
upon how many enemies he has and how severely alienated his enemies are.
The alpha male and his allies (often relatives) are the organizational hub of the
chimpanzee gang. Even when times are bad the alpha male and his allies remain together
in the same geographical area. Each gang controls a geographic area, which is to say that
de facto, the alpha male and his allies own the geographic area. They defend their
territory from encroachment and seek to encroach upon surrounding territories.
Encroachment involves periodic stealthy forays into surrounding territory for the purpose
of isolating and killing an individual from another gang. Usually it is males who are the
victims of these forays, although occasionally a female may be killed. Sometimes females
will accompany males on a foray. A female has a much better chance of being accepted
into a foreign gang than does a stray male. This piecemeal predation can result in one
chimp gang exterminating another over a period of time. This predation is very dependent
upon opportunity, in that chimps only attack when the odds are many to one. Thus
massed confrontations between chimpanzee gangs do not occur.
Chimpanzee males organize hunts for meat with the most common prey being monkeys.
Sometimes females will accompany males in hunts, but in the end the alpha male
becomes the owner of the meat and, he typically will hand out portions to favored
members of his gang. Males who provide meat are greatly favored by females.
This discussion of violence among chimpanzees is a discussion of anomalies. Even the
alpha male spends most of his time relaxing, browsing for food, sleeping and grooming
other chimps... including his rivals for the alpha male position.
Among bonobos, the institution of the alpha male exists in that there is one, and he can
often impose his will on any other individual member of the gang. However, his power is
much more limited than that of his chimpanzee counterpart in that bonobo females ally
themselves with each other and as a group can impose their will on the alpha male.
Bonobo females control food resources, and males may have to scavenge to get by. Also
females will gang up and physically assault a male who is too aggressive. Indeed, the
most violent assaults among bonobos occur within the gang and are carried out by
females against males. All this is made possible by the generally greater availability of
food resources for bonobos. Bonobo gangs are larger and much more stable than
chimpanzee gangs. Bonobo females have an opportunity to form alliances that is
generally not available to chimpanzee females. Then, too, bonobo males have a generally
less aggressive demeanor than chimpanzee males.
Although bonobo gangs control a piece of territory, they do not have the intense
confrontational attitude towards neighboring gangs that chimpanzees have. So far as I can
tell, there is no documented evidence of bonobos killing members of neighboring gangs.
Meetings between gangs start out tense but often turn into social occasions involving
copulation.
Bonobos hunt and consume meat, but I have found relatively little documentation of this
behavior as compared to that of chimpanzees.
Chimp females devote a lot of time and energy to caring for their young. In fact, it is fair
to say that this is their primary occupation. Chimp children, like most mammals, are born
in a state of near helplessness. Without the care that female chimps lavish upon their
children, chimps literally would not exist. This care involves not just simply supplying
food but also in tending to the psychological needs of young chimps. Females teach their
adolescent daughters how to care for children by at first allowing them to briefly care for
a youngster and then progressively shifting more and more parental burdens onto the
adolescent daughter. By the time a female chimp reaches her first estrus, she has a lot of
experience in tending to children. This training is critical; female chimps are not born
with the knowledge of how to care for children.
Female chimpanzees are dominated by male chimpanzees. They not only acquiesce in
these circumstances but seem to actively promote them. Females tend to find the alpha
male to be the most attractive sexual partner. They rely upon the alpha male to protect
them from excess violence from other males of the gang. In effect, the alpha male is the
policeman or government of the gang. They rely on all males to deal with predators
operating from outside the gang, and that includes chimpanzees from other gangs as well
as predators from other species. If they are together long enough in a stable gang, female
chimpanzees will develop friendships and alliances. This can make them into a potent
political force and give them major influence in determining who the alpha male is.
Females have been known to support one male in an alpha male dispute by engaging in
coordinated physical violence against his opponent.
Female chimps are eager to get meat to eat. For them meat is a concentrated dose of
nutrients that can be had elsewhere, but only at the cost of considerable time and effort.
Female chimpanzees have been known to go on a rampage and kill children that are not
their own, although this form of behavior is relatively rare. Female chimpanzees have
also been known to briefly leave a gang and engage in sexual liaisons with males of a
neighboring gang.
Chimpanzee males and females only have a sexual interest when the females are in
estrus. During this time the female genitalia swell and change color. Chimpanzee males
can easily tell when a female is receptive and male dominance relationships usually
determine which male chimpanzees get to mate. The alpha male especially tends to
become agitated at the sight of a female in estrus mating with another male. He may
acquiesce in the situation depending upon the political status of the other male and
especially if the other male is a political ally. Despite all this, no male is ever completely
excluded from sexual relations with females because sooner or later the alpha male has to
sleep, and he can never be everywhere at once.
Female bonobos give no external indications of when they are in estrus. Bonobos engage
in sexual relations on a more-or-less continuous basis without much significance being
placed on the sex of the partner. Male dominance relationships in bonobos have little or
no influence on bonobo sexual practices. Bonobos can be accurately described as a
thoroughly hedonistic bisexual species, whereas chimps are a conspicuously patriarchal
and consistently heterosexual species.
Within the gang and beyond just the alpha male, chimpanzees set up a social hierarchy
that involves every member of the gang regardless of sex. A chimpanzee with a higher
status gets first choice of available resources vis-a-vis a chimpanzee with lower status.
Also chimpanzees with higher status tend to be preferred sexual partners. Chimpanzees
spend a lot of time grooming each other, and grooming is done on a more-or-less non
preferential basis. It serves to knit together a social organization that is stressed by the
hierarchy system.
Likewise bonobos have a social hierarchy system, but females play a much different role
in it. The alpha male is usually the son of the alpha female. It would probably be more
accurate to say that bonobo society is headed by an alpha female than by an alpha male.
Although the alpha female is not more physically powerful than the alpha male, she has
allies that will back her up in a physical confrontation whereas the male does not.
Chimpanzees select and use tools. This can involve picking up a convenient stick and
lobbing it ,or it may involve the careful selection of a twig with just the right properties
so that it can be used to tease termites out of a mound. This use of tools is invented
behavior. Chimpanzees in widely separated geographic areas will use different tools. This
is to say that they will know the use of some tools but not of others.
To the best of my ability, this summary is an accurate reflection of chimpanzee and
bonobo behavior. I have had considerable difficulty in isolating the real behavior of these
species. From the reading I have done it is obvious that many researchers are afflicted
with one degree or another of "political correctness." Bonobos are politically correct;
chimpanzees are not.