Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes

In the year I was born the Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal delivered a highly popular and influential book about the chimpanzees of Arnhem Zoo, the Netherland facility housing the largest captive population of the apes in the world. At first such a book might not have seemed so exciting, the well-known studies of Jane Goodall or Diane Fossey among apes in Africa making a group of chimpanzees in a zoo seem bland by comparison, but de Waal took advantage of the opportunities for detailed observation the captive setting provided and painted a vivid picture of the complex social life of chimpanzees in Chimpanzee Politics. Twenty-five years after its first publication, the book has recently been updated with new information about the chimpanzees of Arnhem and a selection of color photographs, the supplemental materials adding to what was already an excellent book. The true strength of Chimpanzee Politics lies in de Waal's ability to guide the reader step-by-step through the complex social interactions of the chimpanzees, the story of the various dominance shifts and reconciliations being fairly easy to follow. Even when some of the interactions become a little confusing, the book includes a smattering of diagrams that help to show how the groups feelings toward a certain member oscillated back and forth over time, for example. These are especially helpful as de Waal shows that while physical strength or the ability to beat another chimpanzee in a one-to-one confrontation is important, coalitions and support from other members of the group can make or break dominance hierarchies in ways that we might not expect. Indeed, the males Luit, Nikki, and Yeroen are the main "characters" of this tale, each having their time at the top (but only through cooperation and coalitions). Ultimately, as reported by de Waal in the paper "The Brutal Elimination of a Rival Among Captive Male Chimpanzees" published in 1986, Luit was fatally injured by Nikki and Yeroen, a fact that is included in the epilouge as de Waal admits he did not want to initially end his book on a dark note. The power shifts between the three males don't make sense without an understanding of the females in the group, however, and de Waal does spend some time describing the behaviors and social habits of the females. A little more explanation and detail in this area would have strengthened the book, especially since female chimpanzees in the wild disperse from their home populations and are not constantly in close contact with each other, but de Waal does spend some time talking about the rough time the male chimpanzees received when introduced to the group when it was dominated by a female named Mama. Eventually the males achieved dominance, but even so they still relied on the support of females during the periods when one male was on his way to displacing the dominant male as the alpha, so females are not merely relegated to the objects of the males sexual desires and nothing else. In fact,

The parallels de Waal draws between human and chimp politics are interesting, ironic, and often amusing. They seem so valid--if one can look objectively and without prejudice--that I found myself both fascinated and amused throughout the whole book at the similarities between both chimp and human customs and politics. The difference between us and the chimps is that a thin surface veneer of ideology and beliefs hides the true nature of politics for us, and the sex and the money which are really at the root of it. There lies the real difference between us and chimps. Beneath the slightly polished surface veneer, and a very thin veneer it is--are the same motivations that drive the chimps. Humans like to pretend to high ideals and noble beliefs and values, but the sad fact is that all too often, despite our more evolved brains, we live down to our lower natures rather than up to our higher consciousness (assuming that even exists, which I'm not convinced it does) and values. There is a reason for that, which is that our brains still contain those more primitive structures and areas of the brain, such as the limbic system, which still control and drive and motivate and control our behavior on a day to day level, and so we retain that core of "chimp" or paleomammalian behavior despite our supposedly more evolved cerebral cortices. I've had the opportunity to observe mating rituals by a troop of mandrills (which are related to baboons) and also rhesus macaques, and I noticed many resemblances to de Waal's chimps, except that the mandrills and macaques probably aren't as intelligent or quite as varied in their behavior. But the basic elements of power and sex, which de Waal discusses in regard to the chimps, were still there. One difference was I noticed that many times a female would present to a male mandrill or macaque, and the male would refuse, although the female was obviously receptive. Such refusals seem less common among chimps. As you may know, chimps are more promiscuous than humans, humans being somewhat more monogamous--but probably not as monogamous as we're all brought up to believe. So perhaps male mandrills and macaques are more choosy than chimps, which is something one associates more with female sexual behavior. Since all mandrill and macaque females pretty much look alike (well, at least to us :-)), I presume this had something to do with the female's place in the social hierarchy. But getting back to de Waal's book, his research dovetails very well with the neurobiology (which was my field) and there is no better or more interesting writer on the subject. Overall this is a fascinating and well written book on the subject.

Frans de Waal is one of the most prominent primatologists writing about non-human primates today. Unlike Jane Goodall, who studies chimpanzees in the wild, de Waal observes captive chimp behavior at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Georgia. Although de Waal's strength lies in his ability to find echoes of human behavior in chimpanzee interactions (a stance that is still controversial in some circles), he is careful not to read absolutes into his observations. He is keenly aware that the species are not identical, only closely related. CHIMPANZEE POLITICS begins by introducing the highly individualized personalities of the chimpanzees de Waal studied, and then progresses to specific examples of political behavior: power plays, diplomacy, perks at the various levels of the hierarchy, and the traits that give rise to this complicated chimpanzee social structure. Photographs, both black-and-white and color, serve to further document de Waal's observations. Although many people have made much of how this work illuminates human behavior, it is ultimately about chimps, not people.This book was written for the layman, and its ease of reading makes it accessible to a wide range of readers. Highly readable and insightful, CHIMPANZEE POLITICS would make a strong addition to the libraries of those interested in the nature of primates, both human and non-human.

Chimps, it is said, are not able to perform cognitive tasks that a three-year-old human could master with ease. THis book shows how tricky it is to compare human and chimpanzee intelligence: the machiavellian chimpanzee princes in this gripping saga may not read or write, but appear to grasp the long-term consequences of their day-to-day activities, and plot deviously to gain power in the quicksand of shifting alliances. No three year old child has this kind of concentration and determination, to my knowledge! It makes for gripping reading, and raises fascinating questions about the evolution of our own intelligence, social hierarchies and power-seeking instincts. You'll want to read it again as soon as you've finished...

excellent book. de waal's thesis, as i understand it, is finding and exposing analogies to human behavior among other animals in order to better understand human behavior (a thesis he extends in _good natured_ to show that our "animal" behaviors are also behaviors of kindness and compassion) _chimpanzee politics_ reads like a novel as it follows chronicles the group dynamics of a chimpanzee colony over several years; and in those group dynamics we see enough sex, scheming, and politics to fuel a soap opera or election campaign. the mirror that de waal holds up to us through this book is at once funny, fascinating, and humbling. if one reason you read novels is to appreciate the universality of the human condition (that is, that you like to live vicariously in other times or places to experience conditions as other humans do), then get this book and prepare yourself to appreciate just how universal much of our condition really is. you might be surprised at just how easily you vicariously experience life as chimpanzees do.