Our Inner Ape

There has always been an ever ending debate on the biological origin of human behavior and culture. Primatology, the study of human closest living relatives, makes an attempt to explain how humans and apes are alike. Frans de Waals who is a world renown leading primatologists explores the similarities between humans and two of his closest cousins regarding their friendship, desires, conflicts, group politics and even social manipulations. We must acknowledge that humans and apes share traits considering that we share a common ancestor as most scientists point out. De Waal’s book, Our Inner Ape, gives a holistic explanation of how chimpanzees and bonobos depict the most distinctive human characteristics of love, kindness, and power.
De Waal boasts of a 30-year experience studying primates in Netherlands and the United States and uses this opportunity to showcase how humans derive their values and traits from primates. His research discredits myths that primates have a complex lifestyle that is graced by battles for power and supremacy (De Waal, 63). Additionally, De Waal set out to dispense claims that all apes are gender insensitive primates which are generalized as over-sexed. Instead, the author of Our Inner Ape classifies these primates as any other animal that lives on the command of instinct. De Waal proposes that researchers ought to place emphasis on individuality and diversity while studying the ape societies.
Our Inner Ape unceasingly poses the question on which traits of the two primates parallels human behavior and characteristics.

This question revolves around the violent chimpanzees and the peaceful bonobo. De Waal has made attempts to answer this issue by subdividing his book into four chapters that examine the principal human characteristics of violence, power, kindness, and love. De Waal uses the first-hand experience to review the complexity of the primate personalities and their societies. The chimpanzee society is depicted as male dominated with a hierarchical structure where the alpha male is the group leader. However, the younger males will always use every opportunity they have to try and displace and take the position of the alpha male. On the other hand, bonobos occupy an egalitarian society with minimal fights over power (De Waal, 74). Instead, an older female is the group leader and is mandated the role of calming any tension in the group due to her experience and skills in conciliation and diplomacy. Power is a significant element of the primate society, but the two species varies on how power is unveiled and maintained.
The battle for power prompts violence and apes depicts human like manners. De Waal gives an analogy on how the struggle for male dominance among the chimpanzees leads to fights. He gives a story of how two chimps, Yeroen and Nikkie, plot an attack to get rid of an alpha male who had recently risen to power (De Waal, 43). The two engage the alpha male, Luit, in a fight with a motive of taking control over the group. Unfortunately, the male alpha succumbed to injuries inflicted during the fight. Humans fights for political dominance and some have to be eliminated to reduce competition. Humans should not condemn apes based on these ground since we also exhibit struggle for power. The violent nature of humans can be compared with the behavior of chimpanzee in the fight for power and dominance.
Apes are capable of showcasing kindness and love and thus discrediting science and the belief held by the society that only humans care. De Waal narrates how a caring bonobo at the Twycross Zoo rescued and assisted a helpless bird in flying (De Waal, 2). Additionally, he recounts how a female gorilla at a Chicago zoo showcased its caring nature by cradling a three-year-old who had fallen into the primate’s cage (De Waal, 3). This is clear proof that apes have empathy over how they feel over their species and humans. Sometimes, humans tend to believe that kindness emanates from our culture, but De Waal argues that it dates back to the era while humans were still apes. Even after evolving and splitting, humans are believed to retain their kind nature of caring for fellow human beings and other animals. He points out that fight among these primates later leads to reconciliation as a sign of empathy and mutual kindness. Humans follow a similar course in solving challenges that they encounter on a daily basis. The bottom line would be recognizing and acknowledging that most of our habits and values are derived from those of our ape cousins.
Despite sharing food, engaging in a game of dominance and forming alliances for collective tasks, apes indulge in sex either for reproduction or gratification purposes. However, sometimes sex is also pursued political and social dominance. Unlike chimpanzee, bonobos do not fight for sexual command, and instead, any male has an equal opportunity of mating with any female in the group (De Waal, 89). This may lead to sibling rivalry since stepchildren violence is considered a matter of concern. Just like humans, apes have a set of trade-offs that determine the grounds under which reproduction may take place. The chimpanzee discourages extra pair mating where the alpha male ensures that all the offspring are his (De Waal, 99). However, the emergence of a new alpha may prompt him to kill all the offspring of his predecessors. This is an abhorrent behavior which both the bonobos and humans strictly deject. Despite having a high rate of extra-pair mating, humans acknowledge infanticide and the siblings form a nuclear family with minimal stepchildren violence. Peaceful coexistence in human beings emanated from controlled sexual expressions and reduced blatant sexual competition.
The belief that we are essentially apes or we evolved from apes gives room to explore the selection process deployed in evaluating our morality and how competitive and aggressive we can get (De Waal, 237). Nature is blamed for human predicaments that tend to categorize humans as either belonging to the most basic and the noblest class in the society. Apes cannot be entirely used as a mirror of humankind considering that humans have already taken over the consistently dynamic world. Increased human population prompts encroachment of the primate dwellings. The living space of these primates is on the gradual decrease as humans seek a settlement. De Waal points out that losing chimpanzees and bonobos denotes a significant loss to humankind. This is because they are human closest living relatives who represent our inner ape-like nature. The book Our Inner Ape emphasizes the need to appreciate our ape-like traits while trying to evaluate what it means to be human.
De Waal’s Our Inner Ape is a compelling book that reminds humans that they are who they are due to evolutionary changes from their closest relatives, apes. However, De Waal offers more on the evolution aspect rather than just a mere means of survival and replication of genes. Humanity assumes similar traits to primates, but nature influences their lifestyle. Most of the differences can, therefore, be attributed to the dynamic world and the need to change with time and circumstances of survival. Nature dictates how various human features may be depicted based on the uniqueness of human beings in addressing issues of morality, monogamy and the need for a nuclear family. The only difference between humans and apes arises while focusing on the nature of the society and what is within our environs. Despite the fact that humans evolved in a closed environment, they ought to acknowledge and adapt accordingly to the modern and closed urban lifestyle.
De Waal argues that attempts to evaluate which species among the two primates depicts similar traits to humans are fruitless. Instead, he argues that humans are bipolar where we have features of both apes and chimpanzees (De Waal, 237). This is because humans can neither be explained by selfish genes nor exhaustively use Darwinian theory to explain their competition. Just like apes, humans live in communities where they share and diverge on various habits. The rift between apes and humans is very minimal and can be attributed to adaptation to a changing and dynamic society. Drawing from primatology, De Waal shows how much we learn about humans from chimpanzees and bonobos based on their kindness, love, violence and struggle for power. The author uses vivid narrations to explore the individual traits of each ape and how their lives resonate our lifestyle. This motivates readers to rethink and consider visiting the nearest zoo and spend time with these primates.
Work Cited
De Waal, F. (2006). Our inner ape: A leading primatologist explains why we are who we are.
Penguin.