What Can Bonobos Tell Us about The Family & Its Leadership?


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Posted by Carol on August 22, 2004 at 23:16:02

Several weeks ago in a discussion about the Loving Jesus Revolution and Peter Kelly's peculiar sense of self, someone (KG?) posted an interesting comment about Karen Zerby wanting the shift The Family into a gynocentric focus that was analogous to Berg's phallocentric worldview. The post pointed out that where Berg's penis once reigned supreme in the Family's prayer and revelation, the teaching that Family men should imagine themselves having a vagina was Zerby's matriarchal assertion of the queen's gynocentric dominance over the tribe.

When it comes to a gynocentric perspective, it turns out there are some very interesting apes called bonobos that look a lot like chimpanzees, but don't act act like them at all with regard to social organization. Almost all the great apes (including homo sapiens) chimpanzees create a social organization that is highly male dominant. The term "alpha male" is often used to identify dominant male chimps who maintain social order through aggression. The British primatolgist Jane Goodall, a widely recognized chimpanzee researcher, made this statement in 1971:

"The study of chimpanzee behavior and the study of chimpanzee aggression may be one way of learning a little more about human aggression."

For a nice videoclip the topic, see: http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_451.html

It turns out there's another ape that looks a lot like chimpanzees--it's sometimes called a pygmy chimp--that organizes it's society in a much different way. The bonobo is an ape with whom homo sapiens (that's us) share about 98% identical DNA. Biologically, it's the closest thing to humans in the animal kingdom. We can call the bonobos and chimps and other great apes "relatives" inasmuch as we share more genetic material with them than with other types of animals--sharks & pigs, for example. Whether or not we share a common ancestor with the great apes isn't really relevant. We look a lot alike, we act a lot alike, and when you get down to the DNA, we are more alike than not.

It turns out that bonobo apes organize themselves socially around dominant females, instead of large aggressive males. The "dominant" females are actually mothers supported by troups of sisters, daughters & aunts. These bonobo ladies don't rule like the alpha male chimps with a lot of chest-beating aggression. They bonobo matriarchs maintain order through sex--lots of it.

Bonobos have been called the sexiest apes on earth. The primatologist who's made a life career studying these apes is Franz B.M. de Wahl. When he first published his findings about the bonobos, primatologists were in an uproar because de Wahl's findings upset longstanding ideas about how the great apes all set up social order through the aggressive behavior of dominant males.

In bonobo society, there very little fighting within the families & clans or warfare between competing tribes. These apes live in a very lush part of the jungle in central Africa, so there isn't a lot of competition for food. This may have contributed to their unique strategy for organizing a peaceful society of apes.

Rather than using aggression to ensure survival of the fittest, the bonobos work it out by constantly mating with each other. Males & females, females & females, males & males, adult & juveniles, juveniles & juveniles--all possible combinations of genital stimulation occur between bonobo apes. If you search around the web, you can find some very interesting photos of bonobos having face-to-face sex like humans do. This is the only species of ape (other than humans) known to do this.

Franz de Wahl has a very famous article based on his years of observation of bonobo social behavior. Called Bonobo Sex & Society, it was originally published in a 1995 Scientific American. See http://songweaver.com/info/bonobos.html

Knowing about this makes me wonder if Karen Zerby & Peter Kelly aren't really just highly evolved bonobo apes. Or perhaps David Berg was really a bonobo ape trapped in the body of a chimpanzee? Could a study of The Family's social organization, particularly from the perspective of the matriarchs who maintain order at the very top of the organization, provide insight into the biological link between humans and the bonobos?

OK, I'll admit these research questions are absurd. Actually, most of the research that's been done on The Family to date isn't much less absurd. One of the biggest problems with the research done by investigators like Sell, Chancellor, Lilliston & Shepherd, and Melton is an unexamined assumption that this is an homogenous group of apes--all chimps, so to speak. Chimps and bonobos look a lot alike. The major difference (besides size) is in how they behave towards each other and maintain social order. That difference is HUGE.

I have yet to read a study on The Family that says anything about the caste system of leadership over the rank-and-file, e.g., WS, CRO & other selah homes versus Family life in the mission field and PR homes. Yet, without any understanding of the diversity in this population of apes, how can a study of a few thousand chimps & gorillas in PR & Mission Homes tell us anything about the bonobos in WS Homes? Isn't sharing a major expectation for people in WS Homes? Family members living in Missionary Homes might not all share like good bonobos, but I'm under the impression--from what is written by former members--that sharing still defines the social order in WS Homes. Mama Bonobo* certainly seems to think it's an important part of Family life, and those closest to her no doubt do what is required to sublimate their aggressive urges and stay connected to their inner vulvas.

It wasn't until fairly recently that primatologies understand how bonobos comprise a profoundly different & unique species of ape. Understanding who's in the general population of Family apes is an important area of study yet to be addressed by the academics making their fame and fortune from researching The Family. Karen Zerby, Peter Kelly, and the people who immediately surround them may very well be an entirely different species of ape than the homo sapiens found in Family study samples to date.

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*I have a great deal of respect & affection for bonobos. It is not my intention to disparage the magnificent character of this great ape by referencing Karen Zerby as "Mama Bonobo."



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