Nov 20 2008
RP) Comparing Adams and Orangutans
And third, both in the field and in the laboratory, studies of chimpanzee behavior are producing numerous, increasingly clear parallels with human behavior. It’s not just that these apes pat each other on the hand to show affection, or kiss each other, or embrace. Not just that they have menopause, develop lifelong friendships, and grieve for their dead babies by carrying them for days or weeks. Nor is it their ability to do sums like 5 plus 4, or to communicate with hand signs. Nor their tool use, or collaboration, or bartering for sexual favors. Nor even that they hold long-term grudges, deliberately hide their feelings, or bring rivals together to force them to make peace.
- Wrangham, R. & Peterson, D. (1)
A fundamental thrust of my undertaking is that of comparative psychology: to understand more about the human species by studying other animals, particularly the great apes. But is it a justified approach?
The Hebrew word “Adam” means mankind. When we compare the behavior of Adams to that of other primates are we committing the sin of comparing apples to oranges? To a degree—of course. But to another, greater degree the comparison is fitting.
Most of us have learned that there is a considerable degree of genetic similarity between primate species. In fact, human beings are more genetically similar to the chimpanzee than the chimpanzee is to the gorilla. But what about behavior? Genes are one thing, but are we really like other monkeys and apes?
In the following posts I will be sharing a number of colorful ways in which humans are chimp and primate-like in their behavior. Then I will more fully explore the social and emotional similarities of the species, as well as the potentially warring (group aggression) and status-obsessed nature of our kinds.
But first let us venture beyond tool use—of which much more is becoming understood about the chimpanzee proclivity to engage in it (2)—and instead engage in a bit of “much ado about penises.”
Did you know that when chimpanzees greet, the males will sometimes finger each other’s scrotum? It’s believed to be a means of reducing tension—the behavior exhibiting friendly intentions on both parts. Those amusing animals! But wait, did you also know that in a few, remote New Guinea tribes—human tribes—that a standard greeting between males can include the gentle lifting of the other’s testicles?(3) Those amusing humans!
Moving closer to the point (pun intended), in many primate species the presentation of the penis is a threat and/or dominance display. Some species have brightly colored organs to accentuate the act. And an erect penis makes the behavior even more emphatic.(4)
Okay, every once in awhile a human male will trod out to a public area in his army boots and trench coat and flash his privates. And okay, back in the jungle of New Guinea there are males who, when they head off to war, wear long tubes on their penises, tied in the upright position.(5) But certainly contemporary human males don’t go flashing their man-part as a display of dominance and/or status . . . or do they?
You could say that a genital display is often made in the spirit of a urine marking for the eyes.(6) Some sentinels primates sit at edges of territory to signal to strange and potentially opposing conspecifics with their organs. The message? I’ve got testosterone and I’m not afraid to use it.
Among ancient Greek artifacts there are sculpted sentinel posts. These rectangular markers, called “Ithy-phallic Hermes” and dating back to 500-100 B.C.E., consist of a human head on an erect phallus. The face pointed outward, toward where strangers may come. (7) Beware, I’m loaded with testosterone and not afraid to use it.
No, I’m not going to argue that parking a Lincoln Navigator in your driveway is today’s equivalent of the Ithy-phallic Hermes. But consider this possibility: Our autos are our possessions, something we tend to care about and protect. When driving, we have our own mobile piece of property we do get defensive about. If someone threatens your car by their aggressive driving you may even feel the desire to, say, flash your middle finger at them. The gestures and expressions of “fuck you” and/or “suck this” are not so much acts of sexuality as they are of intended domination.
On the football field an athlete who has made an impressive play in which he “dominated” the opposition will frequently get all hopped up and do a little dance or perhaps simply point at his flexed bicep muscle while nodding his head: That’s right, I’m the man. Don’t mess with me or I will fuck you up. Not quite a penis display, but the motive and effect are similar if not the indirectly identical.
And what about the god of the Bible, the invisible great alpha of a people? Does he have the most impressive penis of all? Lacking that, does he engage in displays aimed at accentuating his power? Stay tuned to find out.
For now allow me to present this teaser of analogous god/primate behavior. You have, no doubt, heard that monkeys will throw their excrement at people. It is possible that you, yourself, as a member of the great ape family, have hurled the expression “eat shit” at a rival. As for the god of the Bible, in at least one verse he shows not his true colors, but his true nature when he threatens to “spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts.” (Malachi 2:3, King James Version).
As science progresses it is becoming increasing more difficult for educated human beings to deny their animal nature. The next step in this progression, I believe, will include the recognition of the animal nature of the deities human beings have invented and worship.
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(1) Wrangham, R. & Peterson, D., Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Houghton Mifflin, NY, 1996, p. 24
(2) http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/feb/chimpstools.shtml
(3) Ehrlich, P. R., Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2000, p.195
(4) Bourne, H., The Ape People, Putnam, New York, 1971.
(5) Bourne, H., 1971.
(6) As a predominantly visual species with noses far removed from the turf, visual displays make more sense than the leaving of scents.
(7) Wickler, W., “Socio-sexual Signals and their Intra-specific Imitation among Primates,” in Morris, D. (ed.) Primate Ethology, Aldine, Chicago, 1967.
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[post first appeared here: http://almightyalpha.blogspot.com/2008/04/comparing-adams-and-orangutans.html]
