topics: |  neuro-science | biology | brain | language

Bonobo chimpanzees - happiest species in the planet.  not in many zoos -
because of their sexual behaviour - which is very humanlike.

very egalitarian and empathetic society sexual behaviour is not just a part
of their behaviour that is set aside - it permeates everything in their
lives.  It's a part of their overall lifestyle, for communication, for
conflict resolution.

humans have compartmentalized behaviour, but this may have been a different
evolutionary path.  Many people think humans are special in some way.  The
ability to have social thought.  The Bonobo is very humanlike in its
bipedalism - the chimpanzee is more angled while walking, and is not as
comfortable walking.  The early australopithecine may have walked similar to
the bonobo - though for the latter, the hip bone does not have to
oscillate too much.  Many wild bonobos walk bipedally, often for long
distances.

Tasmanians discovered around 16th c.  didn't have fire, no stone tools.
Perhaps our differences may be more cultural than biological...  many of the
biological imperatives of human-ness are already present in the bonobo, a
close relative.  

The bonobo is shown following instructions in lighting a fire ("get the
lighter from my pocket"; "now douse it with water"), and playing pacman.

blurb:
  Savage-Rumbaugh's work with Kanzi, a laboratory-reared bonobo, has led to
  Kanzi's acquisition of linguistic and cognitive skills similar to those
  of a two and a half year-old human child. Apes, Language, and the Human
  Mind skillfully combines a fascinating narrative of the Kanzi research
  with incisive critical analysis of the research's broader linguistic,
  psychological, and anthropological implications. The first part of the
  book provides a detailed, personal account of Kanzi's infancy, youth, and
  upbringing, while the second part addresses the theoretical, conceptual,
  and methodological issues raised by the Kanzi research. The authors
  discuss the challenge to the foundations of modern cognitive science
  presented by the Kanzi research; the methods by which we represent and
  evaluate the abilities of both primates and humans; and the implications
  which ape language research has for the study of the evolution of human
  language. Sure to be controversial, this exciting new volume offers a
  radical revision of the sciences of language and mind, and will be
  important reading for all those working in the fields of primatology,
  anthropology, linguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive and
  developmental psychology.