Jan 14 2010
More than a Chimpanzee
“When relations between human societies are bad, they are worse than between chimps, but when they are good, they are better than between bonobos.”
- Franz de Waal (27)
Human beings are not “just” another, albeit naked, chimpanzee-like primate. We’ve got cognitive abilities and social habits that, if not fully unique to our kind, then are at least developed to a degree well beyond that of chimps and bonobos. Perhaps the flexibility/variability of our behavior is the most startling and important divergence of all.
As Paul Ehrlich described the situation, there seems to be greater variation among human group and human group (and individual/individual) than there is between any two primate species.(28) Of course, my skeptical self wonders just how sensitive/perceptive we are to the many-hued spectrum of animal behavior, particularly that are beyond the most visible part of the spectrum — to us.
Many human intellectuals (is there such a thing as a chimp, bonobo or orangutan intellectual?) have claimed that what separates us from the relatively slacking pack of the rest of the animal kingdom is language. No other species, after all, spends as much time thinking up lyrics to a song on this theme: “Oh baby, I really, really want you.”
Kidding aside — the use of fire, at least when viewed from a distance, ranks somewhere high on the list of special, and truly unique, human behaviors. Fire allows for the cooking of food, and cooked foodstuffs tend to be much more digestible than raw.(29) An added benefit would be burning away infectious microbes. Equipped with fire, our kind can not only digest more of the food we collect, but we can also expand our pantry, so to speak, to include otherwise less-edible foods.
“Because cooking caused the diet to be softer and more readily digested, it can readily account for the reduction in tooth area and gut size, as well as the increased energy needed for fueling a larger brain.” (30)
The use of fire for cooking is certainly a hallmark of the human. How else might we be distinctly different? (Beyond language and tool use.)
What about this class of behaviors as a potentially defining hallmark of humanity: insubordination? Yes, insubordination. No species is so good at circumventing and even toppling authority than our own.
As Christopher Boehm has discussed at length in his book, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, we are an uppity lot. As I will more completely explore in the next series of posts for my Almighty Alpha project (chapter title: “The Egalitarian Ape: All for All and None for One”), humans are cleverly capable coalition-builders. By acting collectively, the lessers can rise in power and/or reduce the power of others.(31)
Call it teamwork. That might just be the sine qua non of human uniqueness.
The power of coalitions is simple math: two males are twice the male as one. Additionally, with two agents the number of potential strategies increases. And while chimpanzees and bonobos manifest the social smarts necessary to create advantageous alliances, none come close to developing that set of skills to the extent we do. As a tool, perhaps this category of social behavior is unparalleled in its potential power. It is certainly unequaled among primates.(32) Was Homo habilis as handy, or more, with his and her social relationships?
Of course, that social “handiness” can manifest itself in ways we tend to view as “unseemly.” Perhaps we have simply excelled at behavioral avenues first paved by chimpanzees, including “lethal raiding, traditions of material culture, group hunting, intense male-bonding, male dominance over females.”(33) Any tool can be used numerous ways.
Granted, compared to us, the chimpanzee is a brutish creature. Yet perhaps even the chimp and/or the bonobo represent a step in the more “civilized” direction (socially crafty?). The chimpanzee is actually quite a remarkable creature in its own right. “More evolved,” one might argue, than other primate species. (34)
As for human beings, it is my opinion that even at our most emotionally sophisticated, our most socially . . . servile(?), we retain if not hair, figuratively speaking, then at least goose bumps — the remnants of a social piloerection system we still carry today.
It is also my opinion that many religious beliefs manifest not divine nature, but that of the primate. Concerns about sex, group violence, social strivings . . . it’s all there. When will we clearly see it?
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(27) de Waal, F. Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are, New York, Riverhead Books, 2005, p.141
(28) Ehrlich, P. R., Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2000, p.12
(29) de Waal, F. B. M., (ed.), Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us About Human Social Evolution, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, p. 137
(30) de Waal, F. B. M., (ed.), 2001, p. 138
(31) Boehm, C., Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999, p. 170
(32) Wrangham, R. & Peterson, D. Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Houghton Mifflin, NY, 1996, p. 232
(33) Wrangham, R. & Pilbeam, D., “African Apes As Time Machines,” in Galdikas, B. M. F., Briggs, N. E., Sheeran, L.K., Shapiro, G. L. & Goodall, J. (Eds.), All Apes Great and Small, Volume I: African Apes, Kluwer Academic / Plenum, New York, 2001.
(34) Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of the Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1986 , p. 442
