191Chapter 5:9 Sexual selection for integrativeness explains neoteny

Nov. 1987); and ‘The high frequencies of intersexual association, grooming, and food sharing together with the low level of male-female aggression in pygmy chimpanzees [bonobos] may be a factor in male reproductive strategies. Tutin (1980) has demonstrated that a high degree of reproductive success for male common chimpanzees was correlated with male-female affiliative behaviours [again, ‘affiliative’ being an evasive, denial-complying, mechanistic term meaning friendly/ cohesive/ social/ loving/ integrative]. These included males spending more time with estrous females, grooming them, and sharing food with them’ (Alison & Noel Badrian, ‘Social Organization of Pan paniscus in the Lomako Forest,

Zaire’; The Pygmy Chimpanzee, ed. Randall Susman, 1984, p.343 of 435). 431 While the observations made in the popular documentary series Orangutan Island (about the rehabilitation of a group of juvenile orphaned orangutans on a protected island in Borneo) probably can’t be considered a product of rigorous scientific research, they do provide revealing footage and interesting commentary about orangutan behaviour. In one episode, an orangutan named Daisy, who is the dominant young female in the group (in the series she is described as ‘Sheriff Daisy’), is seen strongly reprimanding another young female, Nadi, who, according to the narrator, repeatedly behaves selfishly: ‘As usual, Daisy is keeping a watchful eye on all the action and she spies someone who is not playing fair—it’s repeat offender Nadi who is refusing to share [a jackfruit]… Daisy decides it’s her duty to step in… Daisy is refusing to allow Nadi anywhere near the eating platform because Nadi’s been upsetting the order in this peaceful community… Daisy is making Nadi pay for her behaviour, so to avoid starving Nadi has no choice but to leave’ (Animal Planet, episode ‘House of Cards’, 2007). Whether or not it is an accurate interpretation of events, the footage appears to fully support the commentary—a female is seen to be maintaining ‘the order in this peaceful community’. (Further illustrations of strong-willed, female primates insisting on integrative behaviour will be provided shortly in ch. 5:11.)

Chapter 5:9 Sexual selection for integrativeness explains neoteny 432 Yes, since it is the males who are the most preoccupied with competing for mating opportunities, the females must have been the first to select for selfless, cooperative integrativeness by favouring integrative rather than competitive and aggressive mates—and it was this process of the conscious self-selection of integrativeness, especially the sexual selection of less aggressive males with whom to mate, that greatly helped love-indoctrination subdue the males’ divisive competitiveness. Moreover, by seeking out less aggressive, more integrative mates, the females were, in effect, selecting those who have been the most love-indoctrinated. This raises the next point to be explained, which is that the most love-indoctrinated and thus most integrative individuals will be those who have experienced a long infancy and exceptional nurturing and are closer to their memory of their love-indoctrinated infancy; specifically, those that are younger. The older individuals became, the more their infancy training in love wore off. In the case of our ape ancestors, they began to recognise that the younger an individual, the more integrative he or she was likely to be and, as a result, began to idolise, foster, favour and select for youthfulness because of its association with cooperative integration. The effect, over many generations, was to retard physical development so that adults became more infant-like in their appearance—which explains how we first came to regard neotenous (infant-like) features, like large eyes, dome forehead, snub nose and hairless skin, as beautiful and attractive.

192 FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition

433 Consider, for instance, the neotenous or infant-like large eyes of seal pups and frogs, and the large eye spot markings together with the soft, typically infant-like, moppish ears of giant pandas—they are what make these animals so ‘appealing’. The following drawing of a panda depicted without its trademark spotted eyes and round ears, and with pricked ears and small eyes instead, shows just how quickly it loses its ‘cute’ appeal.

Illus

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Rob

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‘Would we care if they weren’t so cute? White out the black eye spots and give the ears points, and the panda loses much of its appeal’

Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Sep. 1989

434 To indicate the effects of the love-indoctrination, mate selection neotenising process, I have assembled the following photographs of infant and adult non-human primates, specifically bonobos and chimpanzees. 435 Firstly, the following three photographs, of an adult chimpanzee, an infant chimpanzee and an adult bonobo, show the similarity between the infant chimpanzee and the adult bonobo, indicating, as stated, the effects of the love-indoctrination, mate selection neotenising process.

Adult chimpanzee; infant chimpanzee; and an adult bonobo

436 In addition to their remarkably neotenous physical appearance, there is also a marked variance in features between individual bonobos (which is also apparent in the very different facial features of the two bonobos pictured standing upright earlier, after par. 413), suggesting the species is undergoing rapid change. This in turn suggests that the bonobo species has hit upon some opportunity that facilitates a rapid development, which evidence indicates is the ability to develop integration through love-indoctrination and mate selection.

193Chapter 5:9 Sexual selection for integrativeness explains neoteny

437 The photographs below of an infant and adult chimpanzee also show the greater resemblance humans have to the infant, again illustrating the effect of neoteny in human development.

Infant and adult chimpanzee from The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould, 1981

438 And finally, the following photograph of a chimpanzee foetus at seven months shows body hair on the scalp, eyebrows, borders of the eye lids, lips and chin—precisely those regions where hair is predominantly retained in adult humans today, again illustrating the effect of neoteny or pedomorphosis in human development. (‘Pedomorphosis’ comes from the Greek pais, meaning ‘child’, and morphosis, meaning ‘shaping’.) Clearly, humans are an extremely neotenised—love-indoctrinated—ape. Interestingly, a report on the fossilised remains of our 4.4-million-year-old ancestor Ar. ramidus describes it as having a ‘short face and weak prognathism [projecting jaw] compared with the common chimpanzee’ (Gen Suwa et al., ‘The Ardipithecus ramidus Skull and Its Implications for Hominid

Origins’, Science, 2009, Vol.326, No.5949), indicating that this physical retardation or neotenisation was well underway by this point in our ancestral history.

194 FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition

439 So, we humans did learn to recognise that the older individuals became, the more their infancy training in love wore off and, therefore, the younger an individual, the more integrative he or she would likely be, and it was this selection for youthfulness that had the effect of retarding our development so that we became more infant-like in our appearance as adults. As stated, this was how we came to regard neotenous features—large eyes, dome forehead, snub nose and hairless skin—as attractive.

Chapter 5:10 The importance of nurturing in bonobo society 440 An indication of how bonobos have been able to develop the nurturing love-indoctrination process more than chimpanzees, is that female bonobos have, on average, one offspring every five to six years and provide better maternal care than chimpanzees. Bonobos are born small, develop more slowly than other ape species, and stay in a state of infancy and total dependence for a comparatively long period of time—being weaned at about five years of age and remaining dependent on their mothers until between the ages of seven and nine. Chimpanzees are weaned at about four years of age and remain dependent up to the age of six (on average), while the biological weaning age for humans is considered to be between five-and-a-half and six years, which is closer to the five years of bonobos. Biologists have noted that an individual’s lifespan is, amongst other factors, ‘related to the postnatal development rate’ (Richard Cutler, ‘Evolution of longevity in primates’, Journal of

Human Evolution, 1976, Vol.5, No.2), and so it is possible to deduce that the selection for a longer infancy period had the side effect of lengthening all the stages of maturation, which may explain how humans acquired our comparatively long lifespan. 441 The primatologist Takayoshi Kano’s long-running study of bonobos in their natural habitat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has observed this prolonged infancy in practise, reporting that ‘The long dependence of the son may be caused by the slow growth of the bonobo infant, which seems slower than in the chimpanzee. For example, even after one year of age, bonobo infants do not walk or climb much, and are very slow. The mothers keep them near. They start to play with others at about one and a half years, which is much later than in the chimpanzee. During this period, mothers are very attentive…Female juveniles gradually loosen their tie with the mother and travel further away from her than do her sons’ (Frans de Waal & Frans Lanting, Bonobo:

The Forgotten Ape, 1997, p.60 of 210). As alluded to in this passage, the bond between mother and son is of particular significance in bonobo society where the son will maintain his connection with his mother for life and depend upon her for his social standing within the group. For example, the son of the society’s dominant female, the strong matriarch who maintains social order, will rise in the ranks of the group, presumably to ensure the establishment and perpetuation of unaggressive, non-competitive, cooperative male characteristics, both learnt and genetic, within the group. Again, historically, it is the male primates who have been particularly divisive in their aggressive competition to win mating opportunities and, therefore, the gender most needing of love-indoctrination—as this quote makes clear: ‘Patient observation over many years convinced [Takayoshi] Kano that male bonobos bonded with their mothers for life. That contrasts with chimpanzee males who rarely have close contact with their mothers after they grow up, instead joining other males in never-ending tussles for dominance’ (Paul Raffaele, ‘Bonobos: The apes who make love, not war’, Last Tribes on Earth.com,

2003; see <www.wtmsources.com/143>).

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