Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Bonobos busted making war as well as love

Many researchers (Frans de Waal comes immediately to mind) have long suspected that frequent bonobo copulation in zoos was a stress response as much as anything else. Well, bonobos making war — even females certainly provides indirect confirmation to that idea.

Now, I don’t doubt that bonobos are nonetheless, more peaceful than common chimpanzees, on whom they were found hunting. But, the “free love primate” is dead.

And, thank doorknob for that. From where I sit, this idea was a cross-species version of psychological projectionism.

And, in terms of evolutionary psychology, it was probably a dangerous idea, too.

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