Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

For discussion of cultural traditions in animals, including references to many specific cases, see Bonner, J. T. (1980) The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press); Galef, B. G., Jr. (1995) “Why Behavior Patterns That Animals Learn Socially Are Locally Adaptive,” Animal Behavior 49:1325—34; Lefebvre, L. (1995) “The Opening of Milk Bottles by Birds: Evidence for Accelerating Learning Rates, but Against the Wave-of-Advance Model of Cultural Transmission,” Behavioral Processes 34:43-54; Menzel, E.W., Jr., ed. (1973) Precultural Primate Behavior (Symposia of the Fourth International Congress of Primatology, vol. 1) (Basel: S. Karger); Gould, J. L., and C. G. Gould (1994) The Animal Mind (New York: Scientific American Library). For an excellent survey of animal cultural traditions, see Mundinger, P. C. (1980) “Animal Cultures and a General Theory of Cultural Evolution,” Ethology and Sociobiology 1:183-223.

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Japanese Macaque (Itani 1959; Gouzoules and Goy 1983:47; Eaton 1978; Wolfe 1984:152); Stumptail Macaque (Chevalier-Skolnikoff 1976:512; Bertrand 1969:193-94); Savanna Baboon (Ransom 1981:139). In Hanuman Langurs, mounting between females may also have a cultural component, since it exhibits wide variability not only between individuals but also between geographic areas. It occurs frequently in some regions (e.g., Jodhpur, India), less frequently in others (e.g., Abu and Sariska in India), rarely in others (e.g., Sri Lanka), and not at all in still others (e.g., some parts of Nepal) (Srivastava et al.1991:504—5 [table V]). Heterosexual courtship patterns in Common Chimpanzees also exhibit cultural variations (cf. Nishida 1997:394, among others).

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Bonobo (Savage-Rumbaugh et al. 1977; Savage-Rumbaugh and Wilkerson 1978; Savage and Bakeman 1978; Roth 1995; S. Savage-Rumbaugh, personal communication). Drawings, verbal descriptions, and “glosses” of the hand signals and their meanings in the accompanying illustration are based on these sources. For alternate descriptions of some of these gestures, as well as gestures used in nonsexual situations, see de Waal 1988:214-21.

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Bonobo (Savage-Rumbaugh and Wilkerson 1978:334; Roth 1995:75, 88).

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Bonobo (Savage-Rumbaugh et al. 1977:108).

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Linguists studying the structure of American Sign Language, for example, have identified a continuum of iconicity in signs, ranging from transparent signs (quasi-mimetic gestures whose meaning is readily identifiable from their form, even to nonsigners) to translucent signs (gestures in which a connection between meaning and form can be discerned but not automatically identified without knowing the meaning of the sign) to opaque signs (gestures in which all form-meaning correspondences have been lost). According to these criteria, the Bonobo gestures would fall primarily in the transparent-translucent range. For further discussion see Klima, E.S., and U. Bellugi (1979) The Signs of Language, especially chapter 1, “Iconicity in Signs and Signing” (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

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This gestural system has only been observed in captivity, albeit in “untrained” Bonobos. Studies of wild Bonobos have so far revealed a less elaborate communicative repertoire associated with sexual interactions, although researchers have identified similar types of communicative exchanges prior to some episodes of sexual activity (e.g., Kitamura 1989:54-55; Enomoto 1990:473-75). It must also be remembered that many behaviors are easily missed in the field (especially given the particular difficulties of observing wild Bonobos; cf. de Waal 1997:12, 63—64, 70, 76—77); hence it is possible that more elaborate gestural repertoires do occur in wild Bonobos but have yet to be observed. For more on the issue of behaviors that are only observed in captivity as opposed to the wild, see chapter 4.

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Hewes, G. W. (1973) “Primate Communication and the Gestural Origin of Language,” Current Anthropology 14:5-24; Hewes, G. W. (1976) “The Current Status of the Gestural Theory of Language Origin,” in S. Harnad, H. Steklis, and J. Lancaster, eds., Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, vol. 280, pp. 482-504 (New York: New York Academy of Sciences).

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Bonobo (Roth 1995:4-45).

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