New Scientist - USA (2022-05-07)

44 | New Scientist | 7 May 2022

females, it is easier to explain: they have a

lifetime of maternal care for infants in front of

them, and picking up a doll or a log in the forest

and holding it like an infant is a way of training

themselves. And they imitate their own mum.

It seems as if you are saying that there are

certain behaviours that may be influenced

by biological sex.

There are certain sex differences that shine

through the gender differences. It helps us see

that you cannot get around biology. So, for

example, males tend to be more physically

violent than females. This is true for all the

apes that I know and is true for all human

societies that we know, so that is a behaviour

that is heavily influenced by biology.

However, I would never argue that a

biological predisposition towards a certain

behaviour means that you have to accept it –

we can ask “how do we work towards a

different behaviour?”

How can studying primates help us understand

more about human sex differences?

It can help show us when our assumptions are

wrong – sometimes we assume sex differences

that aren’t there. For example, it is often

assumed that women are less competitive,

less hierarchical, less good at being leaders.

expression and downplayed the diversity.

What we will no doubt learn is that other

primates tolerate variability a lot better than

human society. This is an important lesson:

human society tries to monitor and police

the expression of sex and gender identity

and roles to a much greater degree than

other primate societies do.

Bonobos are famously very sexual, having

sex with each other all the time – males with

males, females with females and males with

females. But what kind of variation in sexual

preference do we see in chimps?

Bonobos are perfectly bisexual. But in other

species, too, we see quite a bit of homosexual

behaviour, and some individuals are more

inclined to it than others. Biologists are very

used to this kind of variability. We understand

that no two trees are alike, even if they belong

to the same species and grow in the same

forest. But, somehow, human society is not

happy with variability. We hear things like:

“Why are you not acting like a man?” We get

upset by variation, even though we should

accept that everyone is different.

Even in animals, we don’t talk about

variability in sexuality that much.

There is a certain shyness about sex. Violence

and dominance and territoriality, no problem.

But not sex and eroticism – scientists shy

away from talking about this. I notice that

when I talk about the bonobo clitoris,

scientists get nervous. I always think that

is very unfortunate.

It surprises me that scientists are still

effectively behaving like the Victorians.

Yeah, but we have a long history of denying

female sexuality. You know, the idea that

females had a passive sexuality – that goes

back to Freud and all sorts of other people

who denied female sexuality. As a result,

bonobos were ignored because their

behaviour makes scientists uncomfortable

and doesn’t conform to the dominant

narratives in anthropology that stress

male affairs, such as hunting and warfare.

Studying ape behaviour is changing our thinking

in this respect. You talk about how it helps form

Male chimps

avoid attacking

the offspring

of females

they have

had sex with

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But all social mammals and birds that I know

of have female hierarchies and alpha females.

The term “pecking order”, for instance, comes

from hens, not roosters. In comparison with

other primates, it doesn’t hold up that women

cannot be leaders.

It’s the same with the idea that men are not

nurturing, which is often assumed – it doesn’t

really fit with the other primates. It is true that

male chimps and bonobos don’t show much

infant care, but if, for example, an orphaned

youngster is begging for attention, the males

are perfectly capable of caring for them and

may adopt the youngster, sometimes for years.

We touched upon gender identity with Donna.

What can primates teach us about that?

Gender identity is intrinsic: it expresses

itself very early in life, usually before puberty,

and is seemingly irreversible. We have

evidence that human gender identity is

detectable in the brain. So, unlike gender

roles and behaviour, gender identity is not

a social construct; it is part of who we are,

and this applies to everyone. By studying other

species, we can learn about the variability

in gender-typical behaviour. There is so

little that we know because scientists have,

like society at large, overlooked individual

variability. We have emphasised the typical