They look almost identical, but behaviourally chimps and bonobos are very different, chimps are more aggressive and fight for dominance within thier troops, wheras bonobo's use sex as a way of relieving social pressures and don't seem to have dominance issues in the same way chimps do. They probably do have social hierarchies, but from what I gather they're less defined than those of chimps.
Thinking back to a previous thread about interbreeding with Neanderthals being a possible cause of autism, I wondered if we could learn from observing and thinking about our close genetic cousins, bonobo and chimps? I think we're something like 99% the same genetically. I wonder what made bonobo's decide to use sex rather than violence as a way of sorting out and easing social tensions and maintaining relationships? Bonobo's are bi-sexual, so its not just a way of females placating males, as far as I know encounters are consensual.
It made me wonder if there could be a corelations between NT's and ND's and if there are would ND's be chimps or bonobos? I suspect we'd be bonobos, but maybe thats just me, but it does make me think of the old saying 'I'm a lover not a fighter', is this an expression of chimp or bonobo in modern humans?
