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Lessons from the Bonobos Last month, during my review of the book, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness, by Marc Ian Barasch (www.compassionatelife.com), I summarized his chapter on the bonobo apes: “Sometimes when the world seems a lovelorn place,” states Barasch, “I contemplate a picture over my desk of two bonobo apes hugging and kissing with lush abandon, and I perk right up. I’m inspired by this species of primate whose social life, in the words of one zoologist, is ‘ruled by compassion.’” Curious to find out more about this primate who may truly be our closest relative, I logged on to Google and did a search. A wealth of information in the form of 31,300 sites was immediately at my fingertips. Most of the sites combine information on bonobos with pleas for donations to preserve both the bonobo habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo and saving their lives from the perils of the bushmeat trade. The sites range from sites like the Bonobo Initiative (www.bonobo.org), a five-star site that gives comprehensive information on these apes, to something called the Block Bonobo Foundation (www.blockbonobofoundation.org) with the home page headline, “The Horniest Apes on Earth ... The Bonobo Way: Peace Through Pleasure” and several videos of these apes literally making love not war. The Bonobo Initiative site is the place to go if you want a comprehensive overview of bonobos. The main sections of the site include links to sections like “What Is A Bonobo?,” “Where Do Bonobos Live?,” “What Is The Bonobo Initiative?,” and “How Can I Help?” According to the “What Is A Bonobo?” section, this question is difficult to answer. Since bonobos are complex beings with profound intelligence, emotionality and sensitivity, it is like asking, “What is a human?” The section points out that philosophers, scientists, and mystics have been trying to answer that question for thousands of years. Like their cousins the chimpanzees, bonobos are genetically closely related to humans, sharing 98.4% of our DNA. However, there are indications that bonobos are even more closely related to humans than other great apes. For example, bonobo anatomy most closely resembles Australopithecus, our early human ancestor. Also, bonobos walk bipedally, on two feet, more easily and for longer periods of time than the other apes. And they are highly intelligent. The great hope for humans in bonobo research, however, is that this closest of relatives is also peaceful, matriarchal and fairly egalitarian. The research on bonobos is literally turning much of the “selfish gene—see we’re just like chimpanzees” research on it’s head. Bonobos, as this section points out, seem to ascribe to the 1960s hippie credo, “make love, not war.” And they do make love in every conceivable fashion (including face to face and with French kissing—two other traits they share exclusively with humans). However, the loving goes far beyond sex, for the bonobos are very loving, too, showing care and compassion for each other in many ways. In fact, the sex seems to serve as tool for compassion. And that is something that our human society with its propensity to use sex as a tool of domination could learn from. The world has only recently become aware of the bonobos. In fact, scientists like psychologist Frans de Waal, who has pioneered bonobo research, believes that if scientists had studied bonobos along with chimpanzees, a very different view of the humans may have been hypothesized, one that included the genetic qualities of empathy as well as selfishness (De Waal’s in-depth view of the bonobos, Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, can be purchased on line at Amazon.com). The Bonobo Initiative site points out that bonobos have long been known and respected by indigenous African populations. The section “Stories and Songs” contains some fascinating information about the folklore surrounding the bonobos. The section points out that bonobos have been cherished, revered, and even feared by indigenous people of the Congo Basin, who recognize the apes as relatives from our distant past. Handed down generation to generation through the oral tradition, legends about bonobos have perpetuated traditional taboos against hunting these uncommon apes. Stories about the bonobos have been collected by Dr. Takayoshi Kano from Kyoto University, Japan. Examples of some of the story appear in this section. Here is one of them: How Man Came to Eat Beya, Bekau, Bolingo, Batohe, and Basenda—Transcribed by Sally Coxe with Lingomo Bongoli Man did not know that beya, bekau, bolingo, batohe, and basenda can be eaten as food. One day the man made a long journey into the forest. He finished all his food and did not have anything to eat. He was so tired that he fell down, weak from hunger. A bonobo found him lying down on the ground and, thinking that the man was ill, the bonobo wanted to help him. The bonobo consulted the man and found that he wasn’t really ill. His problem was only that he was hungry. At this time, the bonobo gathered his uncooked food, including beya, bekau, bolingo, batohe, and basenda and gave them to the man. Thus, the man ate bonobo’s food for the first time. And he was well satisfied with this food. When he came back to the village, he tried to cook beya and bekau, and found also that beya and bekau can be eaten after cooking. Today, man is still eating beya, bekau, bolingo, batohe, and basenda. Clearly bonobos, our closest relatives, need to be studied (or should that be befriended) and preserved. As the Bonobo Initiative site states, “Bonobos need you ... and we need bonobos.” A first step to saving the bonobos is spreading the word about this magnificent and magnanimous relative of ours. That’s what this column is all about. Then it’s time to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. The Bonobo Initiative site is searching for local activists who will volunteer to work on behalf of the bonobos in their own communities. And then there are the contributions of money, always needed for causes like this. You can make your donation on line at the site or by sending a check to Bonobo Conservation Initiative, 2701 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 702, Washington, DC 20008. Mary Montgomery-Clifford is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises ("Freelancing with Finesse!"), specializes in public relations, events, promotions, writing project and web authoring, development and publicity. Ms. Montgomery-Clifford has a Master's Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) in June 2002 and is working on a Ph.D. with a focus on the new scholarship of Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues in the Fall of 2002. She is also in the process of completing the Morris Pratt Institute Course on Modern Spiritualism. Contact her via e-mail at Monty764@aol.com, by phone at 773-235-8821 or at her web site at www.montymedia.com. |
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