For the past few decades the African apes called bonobos have been the favorite animal of the social liberals. The reason is that bonobos are regarded as peace-loving, love-making animals. At the Bonobo Conservation Institute they describe bonobos as "hippie" chimps who "make love, not war." Supposedly bonobos are bisexual apes who engage in incessant and indiscriminate sexual activity as an alternative to power struggles and male wars of domination. I'm surprised the Democratic Party hasn't changed its symbol from the donkey to the bonobo.
Well, maybe the liberals should put their bonobsession on hold for a while...
The July 30 issue of the New Yorker has a fascinating article on the work of the German anthropologist Gottfried Hohmann, who is considered the world's leading authority on bonobos in the wild. The key term here is "in the wild." Most of the research on bonobos to date has been done by the Dutch anthropologist Frans de Waal. Studying bonobos in cages, de Waal discovered that bonobos seem to have sex a lot: oral sex, anal sex, all kinds of sex. In de Waal's famous portrait, the bonobo emerges as a creature much more interested in sex than in work or power or anything else. In other words, de Waal's bonobos bore a startling similarity to the Dutch.
Hohmann's work shows that de Waal got it mostly wrong. Yes, bonobos act a bit weird in captivity, but what would you do if you were stuck in a cage? What else is there to do except look for unoccupied orifices? Just as people in prisons engage in all kinds of strange behavior, so too bonobos that are locked up behave in unnatural ways. "Unnatural" here means anti-Darwinian. Hohman's suspicions about de Waal's work were aroused by his recognition that the peace-loving promiscuous bonobo would not make sense under Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin posits a struggle for existence and throughout nature this means a struggle for survival, reproduction and power. So how could bonobos be different?
Turns out they aren't. Observe bonobos in the wild for long periods of time, and they don't act much different from other kinds of apes. De Waal's famous contrast between the bonobo and the chimpanzee turns out to be largely illusory. Bonobos too have power struggles. There is patriarchy among bonobos, just as with other apes. "It was so easy for Frans to charm everyone," Hohmann says. "He had the big stories. We don't have the big stories." What Hohmann is leaving out here is the human tendency to distort evidence to suit our prejudices. Libertines and other social liberals loved Margaret Mead's now-discredited accounts of promiscuity in Samoa because they made the Samoans into libertines. Once the Samoans were shown not to conform to the liberal expectation, bonobos were fashioned into the new Samoans.
Now the liberals have to look for another mascot. Who will it be: the Andalusian ant? The New Zealand platypus? Perhaps these fellows should stick with the donkey.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 5)
31. It seems the liberals don't quite get the point of this blog, it ain't about sex, it's about trumpeting some "unnatural" act as proof to justify a position that you "progressives" (LOL) take, only to find out that you are wrong. Once the truth is know, you back pedal faster than you can recite the definition of IS.
Big Dawg at 4:58PM on Aug 3rd 2007
32. Well, I see all the liberals have jumped on this one spouting that Dinesh is obsessed with the "sex lives of liberals" and of course, Republicans are guilty of more sex scandals etc etc. Liberal blog responses are like 6 year old. They ignore the point and are the intellectual equivelant of " I know you are but what am I?
I saw a television show within the past 6 months that "captured" the Bonobo experience and the voice over narrator stressed the exact points Dinesh was making. That the Bonobo, sexually prosmiscious, socialist, anti-patriarchy, and peaceful problem solvers, may in fact have something to teach us mere mortals.
It's not about the Bonobos, it is about liberals skewing scientific and natural data to fit their orthodoxy. Similar if you will, to the 3 million homeless or the half million women whose husbands beat them to pulp every Superbowl Sunday.
John Gleason at 6:23PM on Aug 3rd 2007
33. Big Dawg and John Gleason --
Right on. I completely agree. Someone needs to give some of these people a lesson in basic argument. Either that or reading comprehension. They keep falling into these fallacy traps either because they're too lazy to address the actual point or they're intentionally misreading it. Either way, it just comes across as very unintelligent.
It's crazy how "big news" such as the original perception of bonobos is spread when it seems to support a particular theory (liberal or conservative or otherwise) ... but then when that information needs to be modified or retracted, the updated story suddenly gets little to no attention at all.
eM at 6:54PM on Aug 3rd 2007
34. Sir, it is idiots like you who contribute to the stereotype that conservatives are brainless morons. You write some of the most ridiculous crap I've ever seen. Please go away and stop making conservative people look bad.
Cecilia at 7:07PM on Aug 3rd 2007
35. You've got to laugh at anyone thinking that certain sexual behaviors are still linked with one's political affiliation. The idea of free-love, liberal hippies cornering the market on sexual profligacy was debunked long ago--like in the '70s.
Many readers of today's blog won't even know or remember that there WAS an association.
Fred at 7:12PM on Aug 3rd 2007
36. This is for the typical ignoramus [NUMB-SKULLS] whining about DD's blog: who's simply reporting the results and open for discussion. The findings of: sex obsessed/starved Euro anthros' with "Nothing Better to Do" but focus on the FREE For ALL SEX habits of tree swinging animals" For crying out loud! BLOG OUT will ya!
Mo at 7:47PM on Aug 3rd 2007
37. Most homo sapiens live neither in cages nor in the jungle.
Joe Bob at 8:23PM on Aug 3rd 2007
38. I thought bonobos madde turkish taffy? Mmmmmmmmmm. turkish taffy.
Charles Almon at 10:41PM on Aug 3rd 2007
39. We can learn a lot from monkeys in captivity. I frequently meet people, all day, I'd like to throw feces at.
Charles Almon at 10:46PM on Aug 3rd 2007
40. The perfect liberal is a cross between donkey, snake, and monkey. . . stubborn, deceptive, and perverted. You kind of feel sorry for them in a way because their guilt laden demanding shrieks are just ways to hide thier lack of intelligence. They cannot stand intelligence superior to their own. This motivates their devouring passion to aspire and bring the more fortunante down. It is the strategy of envy.
robert decell at 4:22PM on Aug 4th 2007
41. Hello? The real story is not about bonobos so much as about the people who write about them. A lot of so-called scholarship is not subject to any meaningful peer review, let alone verification; it's just passed along to an undiscriminating media and a gullable public. DD may like to jab the Democrats while he's at it, but the take-home news is about people, not apes. Sheesh! A Real Liberal could give him a vigorous fight on fair terms, but he's got nothing to fear from this bunch. And no material, either.
HM at 1:38AM on Aug 4th 2007
42. dinesh comes off as a petulant, snotty and very articulate child, but this piece was pretty funny. I bet coulter sleeps w/a picture of this guy under her pillow.
I do remember reading a couple free love-ape stories. I thought at the time the subject was politicised. but dinesh, was the sex ape really such an insidous, crypto-liberal weapon of propaganda?
well, I guess we probably can't be too careful these days regarding information being manipulated for ideological purposes, can we? we might find ourselves setting up camp in tehran...
geisler at 2:06AM on Aug 4th 2007
43. .... then it dawned on me... Dinesh D'Souza is trying to be funny!!!
(..think I'm gonna throw up now...)
pboyfloyd at 7:19PM on Aug 4th 2007
44.
"THIER" lack of intelligence ?
You know - anyone can make a mistake or two - but how many times do we see this type of thing from "superior" intellects discussing the "lack of intelligence" from others ? As far as being more FORTUNANTE goes - I really don't think that there are many out there who envy your "superior intelligence."
max at 3:47PM on Aug 5th 2007
45. Well at least now the Left will stop politicizing these poor monkeys.
Now lets see, which other animal will they turn to now?
Ken Berg at 1:05PM on Aug 6th 2007