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13 - Language perceived: Paniscus branches out
- Edited by William C. McGrew, Linda F. Marchant, Miami University, Toshisada Nishida, Kyoto University, Japan
- Foreword by Jane Goodall
- Afterword by Junichiro Itani
- Corporate Author Wenner-Gren Foundation
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- Book:
- Great Ape Societies
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 28 July 1996, pp 173-184
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Summary
LANGUAGE AS THE DOMAIN OF HOMO
Human beings have traditionally viewed their capacity for language as something special and unique amongst the creatures of the planet. The communication systems of all other animals have been described as ‘non-verbal,’ a term implying the absence of intentionality, symbolic encoding and internal structure (Hinde, 1972; Feldman & Rime, 1991). Because other animals purportedly were unable to produce acts of communication equivalent to language, linguists have assumed that all forms of communication employed by other species are primitive or biologically prewired. Information not generated by an extant emotional state is assumed to be beyond the communicative capacity of animals. Thus, it is thought that animals cannot, for example, intentionally communicate desires or plans to travel to a certain tree or to look for a certain type of food. In fact, even to speak of animals as having ‘plans’ is generally discouraged by the scientific community.
These presuppositions have prevented scientists from interpreting the communication systems of other animals, especially primates, in the same way that they interpret their own communications. The difficulties that result from such limitations are many. They can be realized by imagining what would happen if a scientist tried to decode an unknown human language by looking only at the relationship between the words of a speaker and the behavior of a listener.
10 - Male rank order and copulation rate in a unit-group of bonobos at Wamba, Zaïre
- Edited by William C. McGrew, Linda F. Marchant, Miami University, Toshisada Nishida, Kyoto University, Japan
- Foreword by Jane Goodall
- Afterword by Junichiro Itani
- Corporate Author Wenner-Gren Foundation
-
- Book:
- Great Ape Societies
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 28 July 1996, pp 135-145
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
The view that male–male sexual competition is lower in bonobos than in chimpanzees has recently been proposed (e.g. Ihobe, 1992; Kano, 1992). This view is based on the estimation that more estrous females are available to a male bonobo than to a male chimpanzee. (1) Maximal or semi-maximal perineal tumescence in adult females lasts for more than 20 days for bonobos at Wamba (Kano, 1992), whereas average durations of maximal tumescence for adult female chimpanzees are 9.6 and 12.5 days at Gombe and Mahale, respectively (Nishida & Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, 1987; Takahata et al., Chapter 11). There is no marked difference in cycle length, and in both species most copulations occur when females show sexual swelling (Takahata et al., Chapter 11). Hence, the sexually receptive proportion of each cycle is greater in bonobo females than in their chimpanzee counterparts. (2) Young nulliparous immigrant females of bonobos show continual estrus and the highest copulation rates (Kano, 1989). Although chimpanzee adolescent females also show semi-continuity or irregularity in genital swelling (Tutin & McGrew, 1973), they mate much less frequently with adult males (Goodall, 1968). This implies that male bonobos are attracted to adolescent swellings, while male chimpanzees are not. (3) Females of both species experience estrous cycles after conception, but sexual receptivity in pregnant bonobos appears to last longer.