bonobos--horniest chimps

[Jon Ford]

>From: meadow <meadow@austin.rr.com>
>Reply-To: meadow@austin.rr.com
>To: telebob x <telebob98@hotmail.com>
>CC: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>Subject: Re: Is Roger chicken or egg?
>Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 09:22:50 -0600
>
>i'm still mulling the bonobos.  without a dictionary, does anyone know what
>they are?
>d

Dian, Bonobos are sex-maniacs, closest cousins to humanoids, and their 
behavior could be the key to world peace :


    The Horniest Apes on Earth:   The  Bonobo Way , Peace Through Pleasure

                                                 by Susan Block, Ph.D.

Deep in the soul of the hot, wet swamps of the Congo, there is a tribe. It 
is here, in their wild erotic Garden of Eden, in the middle of war-torn 
territory, that our closest cousins, the bonobos,
live and share a powerful kind of pleasure, and make an extraordinary kind 
of love.

                                     Just in case you don't know a bonobo 
from a bonsai tree, bonobos, classified as Pan paniscus,are also called 
pygmy chimpanzees in primatology circles. We call them the hornies apes on 
Earth. Some scientists say they're closer
to humans than common chimps, though that's debatable. They certainly look 
more like us, with their longer legs, smaller ears and more open
                                     faces with higher foreheads. Sexually 
speaking,the genitals of bonobo females are rotated forward
like those of human females, so that they can have face-to-face sex rather 
than just "doggie    style," with the male mounting from behind, like  most 
other primates. Basically, bonobos can do
  "it" in almost as many positions as we can, and they do do it--a lot.   
Bonobos have some kind of sex almost every day, usually several times a day.

Females are in heat for three-quarters of
their cycle, and many of them copulate
even when not in heat, a sexual pattern
more like human females than that of any
other mammal. Though common
chimpanzees only partake in basic
reproductive sex, bonobos share all kinds
of sexual pleasures, including cunnilingus,
fellatio, masturbation, massage,
bisexuality, incest, body-licking, sex in
different positions, group sex, and lots of
long, deep, wet, soulful, French kissing.

Like tantric sex practitioners, or just like
two people very much in love, copulating
bonobos often look deeply into each
other's eyes.


Such loving passion, such sexual dexterity, such clever, horny playfulness 
is found nowhere
else on Earth except among certain humans.

But that's not all that makes our kissin' cousins, the bonobos, so worthy of 
our
attention-worthy enough to be our official mascots here at the Dr. Susan 
Block Institute
(we even call our staff the "Bonobo Gang"). It's not just how they have sex, 
but how they
use sex-- to maintain friendly relationships, to ease stress (e.g., Don't be 
nervous, come
here and sit on my face), as a form of commercial exchange (e.g., I'll give 
you a blowjob if
you give me a banana), and to reduce violent conflict. That is, they seem to 
use sex to make
peace. And that, in a coconut shell, is why we love bonobos.
                                Scientific observation has revealed that 
social
                                interactions among bonobos are far less 
hostile than
                                among common chimps. This is not to say that 
bonobos
                                never fight; they just do so a lot less. 
Unlike common
                                chimps (and humans, of course), bonobos have 
never
                                been observed deliberately killing members 
of their own
                                species. Among bonobos observed both in the 
wild and
                                in captivity, sex and mutual pleasure are 
keys to
                                keeping the peace, reinforcing social 
relations based
                                upon the give and take of sensual, erotic 
pleasure rather
                                than on pain and force and fear.

Apparently, all that hot sex just cools 'em out.


The power behind this astonishingly peaceful, highly
erotic "paradise" lies in bonobo social organization.
Unlike common chimps and the other great apes,
bonobo society is not male dominated. Females are on
essentially equal footing with the boys. "Female power
is the sine qua non of bonobo life," writes Dr. Richard
Wrangham in Demonic Males, "the magic key to their
world." Female bonobos have strong relationships with
each other, creating a chimp version of "solidarity" or
"sisterhood," even though adult females in any one
group are generally not sisters, or blood-related at all.
Bonobo female solidarity helps to keep the males in
line; if a male is so arrogant as to attack a female, her
"sisters" will all jump on him. By contrast, the males
almost never form alliances with each other, either to
defend themselves or attack females.  Bonobo "ladies" strengthen their 
friendships through "lesbian" sex, frequently performing
what researchers call "genito-genital rubbing." The Mogandu people have a 
much more
appealing, expressive name for this act of rapidly rubbing their large 
sensitive clitorises and
labia against each other: hoka-hoka. Sounds like a sexy sort of dance, 
doesn't it? That's
what it looks like, the bonobo tango, but it's quick vulva-to-vulva action 
rather than slow
cheek-to-cheek. Bonobo females grow closer to each other as they do the 
hoka-hoka,
consolidating their social connections along with their orgasms. These 
highly sexed
females are also far more likely to initiate sex with the males than any 
other great ape females (including humans!). So the bonobo guys get a pretty 
good deal: Give the ladies
some respect, and get plenty of sex, all year 'round.

Moreover, since the males do get plenty of
                                       sex-from confident, horny females wh 
disguise their ovulation time-they don't compete with each other so much. 
That is,  male bonobos don't seem to partake in the
deadly "wars," raiding parties and other acts of ape "terrorism" so 
prevalent among male common chimps, and humans. They also tend
to resolve any conflicts they might have by mounting each other or engaging 
in oral or manual sex. As Dr. Franz de Waal points out
in Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, "common chimps resolve sexual issues with 
power. Bonobos resolve power issues with sex." The latter seems to be safer 
and more fun for everyone.

What I call "The Bonobo Way" is a very simple philosophy (after all, these 
aren't geniuses, they're chimpanzees) that we all know deep in our bones, 
but that we seem to forget in the  midst of our busy, lonely, fearful, 
stressed, repressed, polluted, violent lives:

                              Pleasure Eases Pain
                            Good Sex Defuses Tension
                             Affection Calms Terror
                             Love  Lessens Violence
                                 Females Rule
                      And You Can't Very Well Fight a War
                         While You're Having an Orgasm

My philosophy of Ethical Hedonism applies the principles of The Bonobo Way 
to the far
more complex, civilized lives of human ladies and gentlemen. Ethical 
hedonism supports
the repression of violence and the free, exuberant, erotic, raunchy, loving, 
peaceful,
adventurous, consensual expression of pleasure. Every day, as ethical 
hedonists, Max and
I, the Bonobo Gang and our friends try our best to practice the Bonobo Way 
of peace
through pleasure. It's a worthwhile path, has occasional potholes, but is 
lots of fun to travel.

But meanwhile, the actual bonobo chimpanzees are extremely endangered. There 
are only
about five thousand or so in their natural habitat in the Congolese jungle, 
plus a few
hundred scattered around zoos and primate centers throughout the world. 
There may be
even less right now. As war, the logging industry and environmental problems 
wreak havoc
with their lives, their chances of survival drop further. Even though it's 
against the law to kill
bonobos, many desperate hunters do so anyway, killing adult bonobos for meat 
which they
sell on the black market, and occasionally capturing babies to sell as pets 
to people who
usually can't take care of them.
The current war in the Congo is especially devastating to all forms of life 
in that rain forest,  including the bonobos. Time is running out quickly. 
Our hairy, horny, kissin' cousins will simply die out very soon if we humans 
don't make an active effort to help them.

There are various attempts at bonobo preservation by primatologists like 
Japan's Takyoshi  Kano in Africa, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's Bonobo Protection 
Fund in the United States and  Sally Coxe's Bonobo Conservation Initiative. 
Gay Reinartz at the Milwaukee Zoo is working  to conduct a bonobo census, so 
we can get a clearer idea of just how endangered they are.
Dr. Tony Rose and Karl Ammann are working through the Bushmeat Project to 
help save
the bonobos and other Great Apes.  I hope that what you have learned here at 
the Block Bonobo Foundation site inspires you to  practice the Bonobo Way of 
Peace through Pleasure, and to do what you can to help save
the actual bonobos in the jungle


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