Video of the day -- what are we.....really?
Humans are a great ape species, and this is the key to understanding the true nature of our sexuality and of our violent impulses. Two of the other great apes -- the chimpanzee and the bonobo -- are much more closely related to us than an African elephant is to an Indian elephant. Their social behavior can shed light on the roots of our own.
Ryan makes a lot of points which will be of interest whether you agree with them or not. There are more diverse ideas here than one usually finds in popular discussions of human-ape behavioral comparisons.
One thing he is definitely wrong about is warfare among chimpanzees. It's been observed in several independent cases and the claim that it's somehow caused by human interference has been well debunked.
Found via this post by Professor Taboo.
posted by Infidel753 at 3:08 AM
7 Comments:
Certainly was a real good and interesting educational video, this would be a good video for kids in school, as far as getting some understanding about ourselves. I think that alot of folks never give it much thought, about sex, relationships, why we do what we do etc, they just act on impulse, and much of that impulse is combined with our society and how we act, mingle, economics, etc. For me, much has to do with I guess, how we were raised, childhood experiences, fetishes, etc ... but many folks probably dont know much or think much about it. I think myself, looking back, that staying in a brothel as a teen, and being treated well, as if these women were my own mother ... that it made me kind of favourable towards prostitutes/ prostitution ... being, I didnt suffer from bad experiences as some kids do as far as sexuality or being sheltered from folks that were sexually a little more liberated. Even by 19 years old, I made good friends with a neighbour who was my age, and she was what is called transgender today, and she was very attractive too, like a model ... she participated in competitions/ shows, and she was very kind to me. But I attribute some of my sexuality views/ opinions, pretty much on when I was a kid. Plus, I lived through the "free love" era (hippie times), where sex was very frequent with mates, that you didnt really create any other bonding with, besides a good time basically. But that is only my opinion, as far as my experience, and perhaps what molded me on my views.
Ranch: You were probably very lucky to grow up living with prostitutes instead of nuns, given all the horror stories about the latter.
It's too bad so many people grow up with stultifying religious taboos about sex which take them years to overcome, if they ever so.
I just looked at this, as far as my upbringing, because I was curious, why so many things that bother some folks, I didnt feel the same way about. I also look at my parents for example (not realizing none of this as a kid, because these things were normal in my upbringing). But my parents always displayed lots of romance in the open, you know ... like necking/ passionate kissing and related. Then of course my mom, was very outspoken about all the sexy men, whether on the tele or the street ... however, my mom also separated from my a couple times, when my dad was friends with ladies in the neighbourhood or wherever ... a few ladies kind of liked dad, and if they were blondes in particular, you would hear about it from mom (she had a temper too) ... no doubt she was crazily in love with dad, and dad was really a romantic type guy actually. The reason I looked at this too ... was because I met and knew several folks that were raised in rural areas of Texas, and also raised around alot of religion, mostly baptist families (my mom and dad, never even would talk about stuff like, God, Satan, Heaven, Hell, Bible or whatever), like their parents never openly talked about sex, or were passionate around them about their love and attraction to each other, such as my parents. But several of these folks I met and knew, had very different views I noticed on relationships, sexuality, etc ... some were even disturbed by some stuff I would maybe say, so I had to be somewhat more sensitive around them. So ... I was wondering to myself ... what would I be like today, if I was raised in a rural baptist familia here in Texas? ... havent had my experiences as a kid? I feel, it is very possible that I would be and feel like them, instead of the way I am. ... if that makes any sense.
Lots of intereting information and ideas in this video. I became interested in Franz deWaal and his studies of bonobos more than 25 years ago. They are a fascinating species of apes. The tragedy is that we homosapiens share a common ancestor with pan troglodyte rather than pan paniscus (the bonobos), who are a more peaceful group. Truly, they are the original "Make Love Not War" species on the planet.
Once the idea that procreation is the only goal of human sexuality is discredited (as the video supports) the less power religion will have over human primates and humans can begin to behave more like their natural selves rather than have artificial taboos imposed on human sexuality by superstitious, repressed old men.
Ranch: Very possible indeed. A puritanical upbringing can really screw a person up. That's how those uptight people you talk about got that way in the first place.
Shaw: Actually, we're equally closely related to both of them. The common ancestor of the chimpanzee and the bonobo was about three million years ago, and our common ancestor with their common ancestor was about three million years before that. That is, six million years ago there was a split between the human line and the chimpanzee-bonobo line, and then three million years ago another split between the chimpanzees and bonobos.
Ryan does make some points suggest that we may be more bonobo-like than we realize. For example, that human soldiers get PTSD from being exposed to the horrific violence of warfare, suggesting that such violence isn't natural to us (chimpanzees don't seem to suffer similar stresses from the horrific violence of warfare between their own groups).
Thankfully, I am not my impulses, and I am a person, not an ape.
Every person is an ape -- an intelligent ape, but an ape nevertheless.
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