Distant Relatives

Maybe it was because it was so late at night and my brain was getting a little loopy, but I found this section of my Anthropology book to be quite hilarious. The whores of the nonhuman primate world. I believe the phrase should be, "going at it like bonobos."

"Bonobos have the highest rates of sexual contact of all nonhuman primates. Sexual contact occurs among all possibly sex and age combinations, although rarely between close relatives. Bonobos thus have high rates of social or recreational sex, and this pattern is related to lower rates of conflict compared to chimpanzees. Bonobos use sexual contact to prevent conflict and to resolve post-conflict situations. Attractive food, or almost anything of interest to more than one bonobo, sparks sexual interest. The two bonobos will suspend potential competition for the item of interest and briefly mount each other or participate in what primatologists refer to as G-G (genital-genital) rubbing. G-G rubbing is unique to bonobos and may qualify as a cultural innovation. This activity appears to distract the two parties are reframe the relationship as one of alliance and cooperation rather than competition and conflict. In one example of conflict prevention, when one mother struck another mother's infant, the two females participated in intense G-G rubbing rather than hostility, and peace was the outcome."

-Barbara Miller, Cultural Anthropology