Bonobos, Left & Right - reply by Frans de Waal to New Yorker Article

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In this week’s eSkeptic we publish a hot and timely article by the world-renowned primateologist Frans de Waal, responding to a recent New Yorker article on bonobos, in which primate politics, both left and right, once again muddled the science. The spindoctoring of science for political purposes, of course, is a long and dishonorable tradition, so nothing new here in that regard. However, it is interesting that so many people wish to deny the undeniable relationship between humans and chimps, and at the same time cannot seem to help finding political meanings in primate behavior that supports either a liberal or conservative agenda. On so simple a question — how much sex and violence do chimpanzees and bonobos exhibit — rides so much political angst about human nature and culture. Fortunately the facts can help sort through the fiction, and Frans de Waal is just the scientist to be our guide.

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• Tags: anthropology, science, human
• Saved by Turadg Aleahmad on August 13, 2007.
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