Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall & Phillip Berman

Author:Jane Goodall & Phillip Berman [Goodall, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO015000
ISBN: 9780446930420
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 1999-12-08T08:00:00+00:00

Fannie and Fax

(Michael Neugebauer)

Chapter 10

COMPASSION

AND LOVE

FROM THE EARLIEST YEARS AT GOMBE I had been fascinated and delighted by the friendly and nurturing behavior that I observed so often among the chimpanzees. Peaceful interactions within a community are seen much more often than aggressive ones. Indeed, for hours, even days, one can follow a small group of chimps and see no aggression at all. Of course, these chimpanzees are, as we have seen, capable of violence and brutality. But fights between members of the same community seldom last more than a few seconds and rarely result in wounding. For the most part, relationships between the members of a community are relaxed and friendly, and we see frequent expressions of caring, helping, compassion, altruism, and most definitely a form of love.

Chimpanzees are intensely physical. When friends meet, after a separation, they may embrace and kiss each other. When they are fearful or suddenly terribly excited they reach out to touch each other—sometimes they show a whole orgy of contact-seeking behaviors, embracing, pressing open mouths upon each other, patting each other, holding hands. Friendships are maintained and poor relationships improved by the most important of all friendly behaviors—social grooming. Grooming enables adult chimpanzees to spend long hours in friendly, relaxed physical contact. A session may last more than an hour as the participants work their way, with soothing movements of their fingers, over every inch of each other’s bodies. Grooming is used to calm tense or nervous companions, and mothers often quiet restless or distressed infants in the same way. And when chimps play, there is a lot of body contact as they tickle each other, and roll over and over in bouts of rough-and-tumble wrestling matches. Loud chuckles of chimpanzee laughter accompany these joyous play sessions so that even fully adult group members are sometimes compelled to join in.

As the years passed at Gombe and we learned more about who was related to whom in the chimpanzees’ complex society it became obvious that ties between family members were particularly strong and enduring, and not just between mothers and their offspring, but also between siblings. I learned a great deal from the hours I spent with old Flo and her family. I watched as she not only rushed to the defense of her juvenile offspring, Flint and Fifi, but also tried to help her adult sons, Figan and Faben. When Flint was born, Fifi soon became utterly preoccupied with the new baby. As soon as she was allowed, she played with him, groomed him, and carried him around. Indeed, she became a real help to her mother. Eventually I realized that all young chimpanzees are fascinated and delighted by new arrivals in their families, and that these sibling relationships persist over many years. Brothers become close friends as they mature and often then become allies, protecting each other in social conflicts or when under attack by other individuals.

These sibling bonds are adaptive in many ways. On one occasion, nine-year-old Pom, leading her family along a forest trail, suddenly saw a big snake coiled up.

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