Following on from Jonny's post yesterday, here's a quick review of Frans de Waal's Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes. I spent most of yesterday afternoon sitting in the sun reading it, having been inspired by Jonny to go and read all I could about de Waal's theories. (Quick disclaimer: I haven't quite finished the book.)
Chimpanzee Politics is de Waal's account of the complex social interactions between the chimpanzees at Arnhem Zoo in Holland. His intention is to illustrate how, contrary to what many at the time thought (the book was published in 1982), chimpanzees possess a complicated and subtle 'society', one which could certainly be described as "political". Already de Waal is beginning to draw parallels between chimpanzee and human culture and behaviour, something that he continued to work on throughout the nineties and to the present day.
De Waal writes with an appealing, almost narrative style, making the book feel more like a biography than an academic treatise. In the introduction he gives a short overview of chimpanzees in general, and the Arnhem colony specifically, before discussing his ethological approach to studying them. This straddles the laboratory experiments of animal psychologists and the naturalistic observations made in the field, by patiently making minute, detailed records of the day-to-day life of the colony. Doing so allowed de Waal and his assistants to develop an instinctive grasp of the relationships between the chimpanzees, whilst backing up these observations with quantifiable data that they later processed with computers.
De Waal admits that his descriptions of the chimpanzees behaviour tend towards anthropomorphism, using language such as "kissed" and "embraced" where more careful commentators might talk of "affinitive behaviour". He recognises that there is a risk of projecting human emotions on to the chimpanzees, in a distinctly unscientific way, but argues that going too far in the other direction is equally mistaken, arising from a fear of identifying too closely with what we would rather dismiss as brutish animals. This is an interesting point, and one which I think requires some careful consideration. Certainly some of de Waal's reports feel suspiciously anecdotal, but at the same time I agree that it is important to acknowledge the remarkable similarities between chimpanzees and ourselves.
The bulk of the book consists of the power struggles that took place in the colony between 1976 and 1978. The original alpha male, Yeroen, was eventually overthrown by a coalition between two other males, Luit and Nickie. However soon after Nickie switched sides, overthrowing Luit with the aid of Yeroen. The way in which the apes form and break coalitions is fascinating, as are the subtle, intricate structures that result from these coalitions. Being alpha male is not as simple as just being the strongest chimpanzee in the troupe, you also need a degree of cunning and political acumen. The females play an important role in these struggles too, being able to defeat a male who's acting up by mobbing him en mass.These are not the passive harems that many depictions of apes seem to tend towards.
In fact, one of my favourite passages in the book describes how a posturing male will pick up a stone or stick to use as a weapon, only to find it being prised out of his hand by a calm female. If he picks up another, she will patiently take it away from him again. Females will defuse conflict in other ways as well, pulling males apart and grooming or embracing them. Even more amusingly, distressed males will seek comfort from them, running off for a quick hug or kiss in the middle of a confrontation.
It is these kinds of observations, delivered in a witty, stimulating style, that make this book so engaging. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in de Waal's theories (discussed by Jonny in the post I linked to in the opening paragraph), to anyone who would just like to learn a bit more about chimps, and even to anyone just looking for a bit of light reading for the holiday.
de Waal, F. 1982. Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes. London: Unwin Paperbacks.
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