Male domination is the natural order of things, some say. But the primates we share nearly 99% of our DNA are bonobos who beg to be different.
Bonobos are great apes living in a society dominated by women, and are relatively rare among mammals, especially among species where men are bigger sex. Women are smaller than male counterparts, but they are the best ruler in bonobo society.
Scientists have been wondering how female bonobos maintain their motherhood. A study published Thursday in the Journal Communications Biology found that researchers who tracked six bonobo communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for nearly 30 years provided an initial evidence-based explanation of how female bonobos acquire and maintain domination over the men in the community. They found that women form a coalition with men and leaned their favorable balance of power.
When a male bonobo leaves the line, the nearby women unite to attack or threaten him. Men facing such conflicts lose their social rank, and the female enemy acquires it, gives better access to food, and gives companions to their sons.
Bonobos and chimpanzees are our closest living relatives. They were once thought to be slightly smaller, skin-skinned subspecies of chimpanzees, but scientists determined that they were separate species almost a century ago. These at-risk apes, found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are difficult to study in the wild.
To carry out this study, Harvard University behavioral ecologist Martin Surbeck and other scientists ran through the dense jungle for thousands of hours.
“I wake up around 3am and then walk for an hour or two to find the site where I built my nest the night before,” Dr. Surbeck said. “And you'll chase the group all day long until they'll build their nest again.”
Among primates, bonobos are known to make more love in addition to war. They perform rather heavy contacts, make adult toys, engage in homosexual sex. The idea that bonobos are hippies in the monkey world is widespread, as they have lower levels of sexual activity and violence compared to chimpanzees.
However, observations by Dr. Sarbeck and his team, and a team of other researchers, challenge the harmonious stereotypes of these primates. “Bonobos aren't as peaceful as people think,” said Maud Moogennott, an anthropologist at Boston University, not involved in the current research.
That includes gender conflict. Between 1993 and 2021, researchers observed 1,786 instances of men with women using beef. Examples include being proactive with a woman or her toddler, or monopolizing food. In about 61% of these fights, women worked with other women and won.
Such conflicts can be “very serious,” Dr. Sarbeck said. “It appears that a man has died several times as a result of the attack.”
Men are known to lose their fingers and toes in such conflicts. In one unfortunate incident, a man, Bonobo, at the Stuttgart Zoo, Germany, cut his penis by half during his battle with the two women. The surgeon was able to sew it together.
Using all the data they collected, Dr. Sarbeck and his team tested several hypotheses on how women can maintain power in bonobo society. After calculating the numbers, the only researcher who found evidence that the team supported was what one researcher called the “female coalition hypothesis.” Researchers say the average female bonobo has surpassed about 70% of the men in her community.
Dr. Mouginot said what Dr. Surbeck and his colleagues have found has confirmed that scientists like her have been doubting for decades of the source of women's power in the Bonobo Society.
“It's not so surprising to those who were on the field with Bonobos, but having real quantitative data from a variety of bonobo communities is really great,” she said.
Scientists have just begun to hurt the surface when it comes to lessons drawn from bonobos, so it's important to protect them.
“Bonobos are endangered species,” he said. “As our closest living relatives, they help us see the past. When we lose them, we lose the mirror for humanity.”
But for him, the study supports the idea that male domination is not a biological inevitability.
“Some people may think that patriarchy and male domination are evolutionary traits of our species, but that's not really the case,” Dr. Sarbeck said.
