Understanding world history, imperial cults, and contemporary politics through the perspective of the moral relativism and weaponization of primate hypothalami.

The history of the world as viewed from the perspective of the hypothalamus

The history of the world can be told many different ways. One of the ways it hasn’t been often told is through the perspective of the hypothalamus, an ancient part of the brain of all vertebrates, and has since been found to predate vertebrates.

The hypothalamus governs some of the most basic functions for living, for example our heart beats, our temperature regulation, our crave centers, our mood, our gender, and our sexual preferences.

As the cravings, motivations, and moods of the oldest known rulers in history through to the modern day were in part shaped by their hypothalami – understanding the history of the world through the perspective of the hypothalami is an exceedingly interesting learning exercise.

The history of the hypothalamus

There are many different cell types that have evolved for more than 3 billion years, and one of the types of cells types that were created were animal cells.

Animal cells come into existence in geological time about 665 million years ago, corresponding to a time when the Earth was nearly entirely frozen, an era known as the Cryogenian period, but where this seems to be an average based on other finding, with more recent findings as recent at the Ediacaran period about 538 million years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenian

“Animals are found as long ago as the Ediacaran biota, towards the end of the Precambrian, and possibly somewhat earlier. It had long been doubted whether these life-forms included animals,[87][88][89] but the discovery of the animal lipid cholesterol in fossils of Dickinsonia establishes their nature.[90] Animals are thought to have originated under low-oxygen conditions, suggesting that they were capable of living entirely by anaerobic respiration, but as they became specialized for aerobic metabolism they became fully dependent on oxygen in their environments.[91]

Many animal phyla first appear in the fossil record during the Cambrian explosion, starting about 539 million years ago, in beds such as the Burgess shale.[92] Extant phyla in these rocks include molluscs, brachiopods, onychophorans, tardigrades, arthropods, echinoderms and hemichordates, along with numerous now-extinct forms such as the predatory Anomalocaris. The apparent suddenness of the event may however be an artefact of the fossil record, rather than showing that all these animals appeared simultaneously.[93][94][95][96] That view is supported by the discovery of Auroralumina attenboroughii, the earliest known Ediacaran crown-group cnidarian (557–562 mya, some 20 million years before the Cambrian explosion) from Charnwood Forest, England. It is thought to be one of the earliest predators, catching small prey with its nematocysts as modern cnidarians do.[97]

Some palaeontologists have suggested that animals appeared much earlier than the Cambrian explosion, possibly as early as 1 billion years ago.[98] Early fossils that might represent animals appear for example in the 665-million-year-old rocks of the Trezona Formation of South Australia. These fossils are interpreted as most probably being early sponges.[99]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalia

Vertebrates (animals with bones or an internal skeleton) are a type of animal that came on the scene of life about 518 million years ago, an era known as Cambrian Age 3, so shortly after animals come onto the scene.

The hypothalamus part of the brain is at least as old as vertebrates, and there is research proposing the hypothalamus came even earlier than vertebrates and so earlier than 518 million years ago.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf7452

The tunicates studied in this invertebrate animal (animals without bones or an internal skeleton) research, were found to have rudimentary or derivative hypothalami with the following functions. 

“The evolution of the vertebrate head is linked to the advent of several key innovations such as neural crest and cranial placodes. The closest living relatives of vertebrates, the tunicates, have been shown to contain sensory neurons that are related to derivatives of both tissues (1–5). However, less is known about the evolutionary origin of the “crown and summit” of animal innovations: the vertebrate brain. In this study, we use an extensive single-cell transcriptome fate map of the Ciona tadpole to characterize the neural cell types comprising its simple brain, or sensory vesicle (6) ...

The hypothalamus has long been considered to be an “ancient” region of the vertebrate brain. It is found in all vertebrates, from jawless fishes to humans (9–11). A homologous area is also thought to occur in invertebrate chordates such as cephalochordates (12). The hypothalamus controls homeostasis, metabolism, and reproductive functions through a variety of intricate interconnecting neural circuits. Previous studies suggested that coronet cells in the Ciona sensory vesicle correspond to a “proto-hypothalamus” and are homologous to dopaminergic neurons in the vertebrate hypothalamus (13, 14). More recent studies show that coronet cells also have nondopaminergic neurosecretory activities, raising the possibility that cellular subfunctionalization produced multiple specialized cell types in the vertebrate hypothalamus (15).”

Accordingly, the history of the world as viewed through the perspective of the hypothalamus begins at about this time, a little more than half a billion years ago, when the hypothalamus played a role in keeping the bodies of organisms alive, and reproducing, as a very simply type of brain functioning that has become more complex through to the modern era. 

“The sensory vesicle of the Ciona tadpole is composed of only 215 neural cells including 143 neurons (7, 8). It is primarily responsible for relaying sensory information, such as light, gravity, and mechanical cues, to the motor ganglion, which controls the rapid swimming strokes of the tadpole tail. The extreme simplicity of the Ciona central nervous system (CNS) has facilitated the elucidation of detailed lineage maps and the first comprehensive connectome of a chordate (7). Here, we attempt to incorporate the synaptic connectome, along with detailed single-cell transcriptome atlases, to explore the evolutionary origins of the vertebrate brain, particularly the hypothalamus.”

Accordingly, the original hypothalamus may not have had more than a couple hundred neural or brain cells, whereas the number of neurons or brain cells in humans exceeds 86 billion neurons.

https://www.brainfacts.org/In-the-Lab/Meet-the-Researcher/2018/How-Many-Neurons-Are-In-The-Brain-120418

As 4 mg out of 1400 mg of human brain composes the hypothalamus, this results in a small percent of brain cells or neurons allocated to the hypothalamus, less than one percent, which corresponds to about 245,714,285.71 brain or neuron cells out of the 86 billion neurons. 

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)01299-8

And so somewhere between a couple hundred neurons and 245,715,285 neurons our hypothalami developed increased functions beyond homeostasis, metabolism, and reproduction.

The modern day hypothalamus governs the following functions.

“The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating certain metabolic processes and other activities of the autonomic nervous system. It synthesizes and secretes certain neurohormones, called releasing hormones or hypothalamic hormones, and these in turn stimulate or inhibit the secretion of hormones from the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus controls body temperature, hunger, important aspects of parenting and maternal attachment behaviors, thirst,[3] fatigue, sleep, circadian rhythms, and is important in certain social behaviors, such as sexual and aggressive behaviors.[4][5]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus

The history of the world was largely written by aggressive males with toxic social, sexual, and aggressive behaviors, and where the hypothalamus is what in part determines gender in the womb, and gender identity once born

An important place to start with the history of the world from the perspective of the hypothalamus is the fact that most of history revolves around male rulers, and where the development of the hypothalamus in and outside of the womb plays a key role in determining gender, gender identity (male and female brain rations), and sexual preferences (affecting things like the preference for the smell of a specific gender).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexually_dimorphic_nucleus

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34238476/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0140-7

Accordingly, the hypothalamus plays a role in history from the perspective that it plays a role in the toxic nature of men around which history has been written, with some exceptions.

The toxic nature of males and other animals is much older than human beings

Working up to the history of the world from the perspective of the human hypothalamus, toxic males animals that aren’t human have been around for much longer than human beings have been around, and that is important in understanding why male humans and other animals can be so toxic today.

Humans are primates and so let’s begin our investigation into human history from the perspective of the hypothalamus there.

Primates come onto the scene around 85 to 65 million years ago, shortly before a massive asteroid the size of San Francisco slammed into the Earth near modern day Mexico, wiping out many of the largest land animals on Earth, and marking the end of non-avian dinosaurs.

“The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event,[a] also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction,[b] was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth,[2][3] approximately 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. Most other tetrapods weighing more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds) also became extinct, with the exception of some ectothermic species such as sea turtles and crocodilians.[4] It marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and with it the Mesozoic era, while heralding the beginning of the Cenozoic era, which continues to this day.

In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary or K–T boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows unusually high levels of the metal iridium,[5][6][7] which is more common in asteroids than in the Earth's crust.[8]

As originally proposed in 1980[9] by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter, it is now generally thought that the K–Pg extinction was caused by the impact of a massive asteroid 10 to 15 km (6 to 9 mi) wide,[10][11] 66 million years ago, which devastated the global environment, mainly through a lingering impact winter which halted photosynthesis in plants and plankton.[12][13] The impact hypothesis, also known as the Alvarez hypothesis, was bolstered by the discovery of the 180 km (112 mi) Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula in the early 1990s,[14] which provided conclusive evidence that the K–Pg boundary clay represented debris from an asteroid impact.[8] The fact that the extinctions occurred simultaneously provides strong evidence that they were caused by the asteroid.[8] A 2016 drilling project into the Chicxulub peak ring confirmed that the peak ring comprised granite ejected within minutes from deep in the earth, but contained hardly any gypsum, the usual sulfate-containing sea floor rock in the region: the gypsum would have vaporized and dispersed as an aerosol into the atmosphere, causing longer-term effects on the climate and food chain. In October 2019, researchers reported that the event rapidly acidified the oceans, producing ecological collapse and, in this way as well, produced long-lasting effects on the climate, and accordingly was a key reason for the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.[15][16”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event

There are many different types of primate groups.

“Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes). Primates arose 85–55 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted to living in the trees of tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging environment, including large brains, visual acuity, color vision, a shoulder girdle allowing a large degree of movement in the shoulder joint, and dexterous hands. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). There are 376–524 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the 2000s, 36 in the 2010s, and six in the 2020s.

Primates have large brains (relative to body size) compared to other mammals, as well as an increased reliance on visual acuity at the expense of the sense of smell, which is the dominant sensory system in most mammals. These features are more developed in monkeys and apes, and noticeably less so in lorises and lemurs. Most primates also have opposable thumbs. Some primates, including gorillas, humans, and baboons, are primarily terrestrial rather than arboreal, but all species have adaptations for climbing trees. Arboreal locomotion techniques used include leaping from tree to tree and swinging between branches of trees (brachiation); terrestrial locomotion techniques include walking on two limbs (bipedalism) and modified walking on four limbs (knuckle-walking).

Primates are among the most social of animals, forming pairs or family groups, uni-male harems, and multi-male/multi-female groups. Non-human primates have at least four types of social systems, many defined by the amount of movement by adolescent females between groups. Primates have slower rates of development than other similarly sized mammals, reach maturity later, and have longer lifespans. Primates are also the most intelligent animals and non-human primates are recorded to use tools. They may communicate using facial and hand gestures, smells and vocalizations.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate

Accordingly, the jump between a few hundred neurons and tens of millions of neurons can be in part explained by primate brains developing larger brains, relative to body size compared to other mammals, as mammals living in tropical trees with access to leaves, fruits, and smaller animals that other non-tree animals would have greater access to and where some tropical trees tower over the forest or jungle floor, away from many different types of predators, but not all predators, which is important to the continued development of the fight or flight lymbic system including the hypothalamus. The complex social interactions of primates as social animals (and tree animals having to deal with stealth tree predators like but not limited to big cats) have also been attributed to brain growth, along with other factors.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-really-made-primate-brains-so-big-180962717/

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2016.0244

Humans are great apes primates or hominids, which are about 13 to 20 million years old.

“The Hominidae (/hɒˈmɪnɪdiː/), whose members are known as the great apes[note 1] or hominids (/ˈhɒmɪnɪdz/), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); Gorilla (the eastern and western gorilla); Pan (the chimpanzee and the bonobo); and Homo, of which only modern humans (Homo sapiens) remain.[1]

Numerous revisions in classifying the great apes have caused the use of the term hominid to change over time. The original meaning of "hominid" referred only to humans (Homo) and their closest extinct relatives. However, by the 1990s humans, apes, and their ancestors were considered to be "hominids".

The earlier restrictive meaning has now been largely assumed by the term hominin, which comprises all members of the human clade after the split from the chimpanzees (Pan). The current meaning of "hominid" includes all the great apes including humans. Usage still varies, however, and some scientists and laypersons still use "hominid" in the original restrictive sense; the scholarly literature generally shows the traditional usage until the turn of the 21st century.[5]

Within the taxon Hominidae, a number of extant and extinct genera are grouped with the humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas in the subfamily Homininae; others with orangutans in the subfamily Ponginae (see classification graphic below). The most recent common ancestor of all Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago,[6] when the ancestors of the orangutans speciated from the ancestral line of the other three genera.[7] Those ancestors of the family Hominidae had already speciated from the family Hylobatidae (the gibbons), perhaps 15 to 20 million years ago.[7][8]

Due to the close genetic relationship between humans and the other great apes, certain animal rights organizations, such as the Great Ape Project, argue that nonhuman great apes are persons and should be given basic human rights. Twenty-nine countries have instituted research bans to protect great apes from any kind of scientific testing.[9]

In the early Miocene, about 22 million years ago, there were many species of tree-adapted primitive catarrhines from East Africa; the variety suggests a long history of prior diversification. Fossils from 20 million years ago include fragments attributed to Victoriapithecus, the earliest Old World monkey. Among the genera thought to be in the ape lineage leading up to 13 million years ago are Proconsul, Rangwapithecus, Dendropithecus, Limnopithecus, Nacholapithecus, Equatorius, Nyanzapithecus, Afropithecus, Heliopithecus, and Kenyapithecus, all from East Africa.

At sites far distant from East Africa, the presence of other generalized non-cercopithecids, that is, non-monkey primates, of middle Miocene age—Otavipithecus from cave deposits in Namibia, and Pierolapithecus and Dryopithecus from France, Spain and Austria—is further evidence of a wide diversity of ancestral ape forms across Africa and the Mediterranean basin during the relatively warm and equable climatic regimes of the early and middle Miocene. The most recent of these far-flung Miocene apes (hominoids) is Oreopithecus, from the fossil-rich coal beds in northern Italy and dated to 9 million years ago.

Molecular evidence indicates that the lineage of gibbons (family Hylobatidae), the "lesser apes", diverged from that of the great apes some 18–12 million years ago, and that of orangutans (subfamily Ponginae) diverged from the other great apes at about 12 million years. There are no fossils that clearly document the ancestry of gibbons, which may have originated in a still-unknown South East Asian hominoid population; but fossil proto-orangutans, dated to around 10 million years ago, may be represented by Sivapithecus from India and Griphopithecus from Turkey.[10] Species close to the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans may be represented by Nakalipithecus fossils found in Kenya and Ouranopithecus fossils found in Greece. Molecular evidence suggests that between 8 and 4 million years ago, first the gorillas (genus Gorilla), and then the chimpanzees (genus Pan) split off from the line leading to humans. Human DNA is approximately 98.4% identical to that of chimpanzees when comparing single nucleotide polymorphisms (see human evolutionary genetics).[11] The fossil record, however, of gorillas and chimpanzees is limited; both poor preservation—rain forest soils tend to be acidic and dissolve bone—and sampling bias probably contribute most to this problem.

Other hominins probably adapted to the drier environments outside the African equatorial belt; and there they encountered antelope, hyenas, elephants and other forms becoming adapted to surviving in the East African savannas, particularly the regions of the Sahel and the Serengeti. The wet equatorial belt contracted after about 8 million years ago, and there is very little fossil evidence for the divergence of the hominin lineage from that of gorillas and chimpanzees—which split was thought to have occurred around that time. The earliest fossils argued by some to belong to the human lineage are Sahelanthropus tchadensis (7 Ma) and Orrorin tugenensis (6 Ma), followed by Ardipithecus (5.5–4.4 Ma), with species Ar. kadabba and Ar. ramidus.”

Here it is important to note that the most savage and most criminal behaviors found in humans are common behaviors found in other primates, and where chimpanzee brains develop to the age of 4 year old humans, and where some humans don’t have an emotional and/or cognitive intelligence better than a four year old human or chimpanzee adult, and thus will act just as unhinged and/or savage as a jungle savage, with most of this toxic behavior being produced in part by the hypothalamus, and where the most toxic or savage behaviors in human history have often shaped the direction and nature of human history.

Accordingly, understanding the common savage nature of other primates provides a better understanding of the toxic and criminal nature of the human hypothalamus.

“The chimpanzee (/tʃɪmpænˈzi/; Pan troglodytes), or simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is thus humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm (4 ft 11 in).” [That said, there have been reports of chimpanzees attacking humans in Sierre Leone that have stood over 6 ft tall, for example on Samsung TV’s “I Survived…” TV series, Episode 31].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee

“The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence. Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water. The species has also been found creating sharpened sticks to spear small mammals. Its gestation period is eight months. The infant is weaned at about three years old but usually maintains a close relationship with its mother for several years more.”

“Despite a large number of Homo fossil finds, Pan fossils were not described until 2005. Existing chimpanzee populations in West and Central Africa do not overlap with the major human fossil sites in East Africa, but chimpanzee fossils have now been reported from Kenya. This indicates that both humans and members of the Pan clade were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene.[16]

According to studies published in 2017 by researchers at George Washington University, bonobos, along with chimpanzees, split from the human line about 8 million years ago; then bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago.[17][18] Another 2017 genetic study suggests ancient gene flow (introgression) between 200,000 and 550,000 years ago from the bonobo into the ancestors of central and eastern chimpanzees.[19]

The chimpanzee is an omnivorous frugivore. It prefers fruit above all other food items but also eats leaves, leaf buds, seeds, blossoms, stems, pith, bark, and resin.[58][59] A study in Budongo Forest, Uganda found that 64.5% of their feeding time concentrated on fruits (84.6% of which being ripe), particularly those from two species of Ficus, Maesopsis eminii, and Celtis gomphophylla. In addition, 19% of feeding time was spent on arboreal leaves, mostly Broussonetia papyrifera and Celtis mildbraedii.[60] While the chimpanzee is mostly herbivorous, it does eat honey, soil, insects, birds and their eggs, and small to medium-sized mammals, including other primates.[58][61] Insect species consumed include the weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda, Macrotermes termites, and honey bees.[62][63] The red colobus ranks at the top of preferred mammal prey. Other mammalian prey include red-tailed monkeys, infant and juvenile yellow baboons, bush babies, blue duikers, bushbucks, and common warthogs.[64]

Despite the fact that chimpanzees are known to hunt and to collect both insects and other invertebrates, such food actually makes up a very small portion of their diet, from as little as 2% yearly to as much as 65 grams of animal flesh per day for each adult chimpanzee in peak hunting seasons. This also varies from troop to troop and year to year. However, in all cases, the majority of their diet consists of fruits, leaves, roots, and other plant matter.[59][65] Female chimpanzees appear to consume much less animal flesh than males, according to several studies.[66] Jane Goodall documented many occasions within Gombe Stream National Park of chimpanzees and western red colobus monkeys ignoring each other despite close proximity.[57][67]

Chimpanzees do not appear to directly compete with gorillas in areas where they overlap. When fruit is abundant, gorilla and chimpanzee diets converge, but when fruit is scarce gorillas resort to vegetation.[68] The two apes may also feed on different species, whether fruit or insects.[62][63][69] Interactions between them can range from friendly and even stable social bonding,[70] to avoidance,[68][71] to aggression and even predation of infants on the part of chimpanzees.[72]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee

“Chimpanzees live in communities that typically range from around 15 to more than 150 members but spend most of their time traveling in small, temporary groups consisting of a few individuals. These groups may consist of any combination of age and sexes. Both males and females sometimes travel alone.[57] This fission-fusion society may include groups of four types: all-male, adult females and offspring, adults of both sexes, or one female and her offspring. These smaller groups emerge in a variety of types, for a variety of purposes. For example, an all-male troop may be organised to hunt for meat, while a group consisting of lactating females serves to act as a "nursery group" for the young.[84]

At the core of social structures are males, which patrol the territory, protect group members, and search for food. Males remain in their natal communities, while females generally emigrate at adolescence. Males in a community are more likely to be related to one another than females are to each other. Among males, there is generally a dominance hierarchy, and males are dominant over females.[85] However, this unusual fission-fusion social structure, "in which portions of the parent group may on a regular basis separate from and then rejoin the rest,"[86] is highly variable in terms of which particular individual chimpanzees congregate at a given time. This is caused mainly by the large measure of individual autonomy that individuals have within their fission-fusion social groups.[40] As a result, individual chimpanzees often forage for food alone, or in smaller groups, as opposed to the much larger "parent" group, which encompasses all the chimpanzees which regularly come into contact with each other and congregate into parties in a particular area.[84]

Male chimpanzees exist in a linear dominance hierarchy. Top-ranking males tend to be aggressive even during dominance stability.[87] This is probably due to the chimpanzee's fission-fusion society, with male chimpanzees leaving groups and returning after extended periods of time. With this, a dominant male is unsure if any "political maneuvering" has occurred in his absence and must re-establish his dominance. Thus, a large amount of aggression occurs within five to fifteen minutes after a reunion. During these encounters, displays of aggression are generally preferred over physical attacks.[87][88]

Males maintain and improve their social ranks by forming coalitions, which have been characterised as "exploitative" and based on an individual's influence in agonistic interactions.[89] Being in a coalition allows males to dominate a third individual when they could not by themselves, as politically apt chimpanzees can exert power over aggressive interactions regardless of their rank. Coalitions can also give an individual male the confidence to challenge a dominant or larger male. The more allies a male has, the better his chance of becoming dominant. However, most changes in hierarchical rank are caused by dyadic interactions.[87][90] Chimpanzee alliances can be very fickle, and one member may suddenly turn on another if it is to his advantage.[91]

Low-ranking males frequently switch sides in disputes between more dominant individuals. Low-ranking males benefit from an unstable hierarchy and often find increased sexual opportunities if a dispute or conflict occurs.[89][91] In addition, conflicts between dominant males cause them to focus on each other rather than the lower-ranking males. Social hierarchies among adult females tend to be weaker. Nevertheless, the status of an adult female may be important for her offspring.[92] Females in Taï have also been recorded to form alliances.[93] While chimpanzee social structure is often referred to as patriarchal, it is not entirely unheard of for females to forge coalitions against males.[94] There is also at least one recorded case of females securing a dominant position over males in their respective troop, albeit in a captive environment.[95] Social grooming appears to be important in the formation and maintenance of coalitions. It is more common among adult males than either between adult females or between males and females.[90]

Chimpanzees have been described as highly territorial and will frequently kill other chimpanzees,[96] although Margaret Power wrote in her 1991 book The Egalitarians that the field studies from which the aggressive data came, Gombe and Mahale, used artificial feeding systems that increased aggression in the chimpanzee populations studied. Thus, the behaviour may not reflect innate characteristics of the species as a whole.[97] In the years following her artificial feeding conditions at Gombe, Jane Goodall described groups of male chimpanzees patrolling the borders of their territory, brutally attacking chimpanzees that had split off from the Gombe group. A study published in 2010 found that the chimpanzees wage wars over territory, not mates.[98] Patrols from smaller groups are more likely to avoid contact with their neighbours. Patrols from large groups even take over a smaller group's territory, gaining access to more resources, food, and females.[91][99] While it was traditionally accepted that only female chimpanzees immigrate and males remain in their natal troop for life, there are confirmed cases of adult males safely integrating themselves into new communities among West African chimpanzees, suggesting they are less territorial than other subspecies.[100]

Chimpanzees mate throughout the year, although the number of females in oestrus varies seasonally in a group.[101] Female chimpanzees are more likely to come into oestrus when food is readily available. Oestrous females exhibit sexual swellings. Chimpanzees are promiscuous: during oestrus, females mate with several males in their community, while males have large testicles for sperm competition. Other forms of mating also exist. A community's dominant males sometimes restrict reproductive access to females. A male and female can form a consortship and mate outside their community. In addition, females sometimes leave their community and mate with males from neighboring communities.[102][103]

These alternative mating strategies give females more mating opportunities without losing the support of the males in their community.[103] Infanticide has been recorded in chimpanzee communities in some areas, and the victims are often consumed. Male chimpanzees practice infanticide on unrelated young to shorten the interbirth intervals in the females.[104][105] Females sometimes practice infanticide. This may be related to the dominance hierarchy in females or may simply be pathological.[92]

Copulation is brief, lasting approximately seven seconds.[106] The gestation period is eight months.[40] Care for the young is provided mostly by their mothers. The survival and emotional health of the young is dependent on maternal care. Mothers provide their young with food, warmth, and protection, and teach them certain skills. In addition, a chimpanzee's future rank may be dependent on its mother's status.[107][108] Male chimpanzees continue to associate with the females they impregnated and interact with and support their offspring.[109] Newborn chimpanzees are helpless. For example, their grasping reflex is not strong enough to support them for more than a few seconds. For their first 30 days, infants cling to their mother's bellies. Infants are unable to support their own weight for their first two months and need their mothers' support.[110]

When they reach five to six months, infants ride on their mothers' backs. They remain in continual contact for the rest of their first year. When they reach two years of age, they are able to move and sit independently and start moving beyond the arms' reach of their mothers. By four to six years, chimpanzees are weaned and infancy ends. The juvenile period for chimpanzees lasts from their sixth to ninth years. Juveniles remain close to their mothers, but interact an increasing amount with other members of their community. Adolescent females move between groups and are supported by their mothers in agonistic encounters. Adolescent males spend time with adult males in social activities like hunting and boundary patrolling.[110] A captive study suggests males can safely immigrate to a new group if accompanied by immigrant females who have an existing relationship with this male. This gives the resident males reproductive advantages with these females, as they are more inclined to remain in the group if their male friend is also accepted.[111]

Chimpanzees use facial expressions, postures, and sounds to communicate with each other. Chimpanzees have expressive faces that are important in close-up communications. When frightened, a "full closed grin" causes nearby individuals to be fearful, as well. Playful chimpanzees display an open-mouthed grin. Chimpanzees may also express themselves with the "pout", which is made in distress, the "sneer", which is made when threatening or fearful, and "compressed-lips face", which is a type of display. When submitting to a dominant individual, a chimpanzee crunches, bobs, and extends a hand. When in an aggressive mode, a chimpanzee swaggers bipedally, hunched over and arms waving, in an attempt to exaggerate its size.[113] While travelling, chimpanzees keep in contact by beating their hands and feet against the trunks of large trees, an act that is known as "drumming". They also do this when encountering individuals from other communities.[114]

Vocalisations are also important in chimpanzee communication. The most common call in adults is the "pant-hoot", which may signal social rank and bond along with keeping groups together. Pant-hoots are made of four parts, starting with soft "hoos", the introduction; that gets louder and louder, the build-up; and climax into screams and sometimes barks; these die down back to soft "hoos" during the letdown phase as the call ends.[112][114] Grunting is made in situations like feeding and greeting.[114] Submissive individuals make "pant-grunts" towards their superiors.[92][115] Whimpering is made by young chimpanzees as a form of begging or when lost from the group.[114] Chimpanzees use distance calls to draw attention to danger, food sources, or other community members.[116] "Barks" may be made as "short barks" when hunting and "tonal barks" when sighting large snakes.[114]

When hunting small monkeys such as the red colobus, chimpanzees hunt where the forest canopy is interrupted or irregular. This allows them to easily corner the monkeys when chasing them in the appropriate direction. Chimpanzees may also hunt as a coordinated team, so that they can corner their prey even in a continuous canopy. During an arboreal hunt, each chimpanzee in the hunting groups has a role. "Drivers" serve to keep the prey running in a certain direction and follow them without attempting to make a catch. "Blockers" are stationed at the bottom of the trees and climb up to block prey that takes off in a different direction. "Chasers" move quickly and try to make a catch. Finally, "ambushers" hide and rush out when a monkey nears.[117] While both adults and infants are taken, adult male colobus monkeys will attack the hunting chimps.[118] Male chimpanzees hunt more than females. When caught and killed, the meal is distributed to all hunting party members and even bystanders.[117]

Chimpanzees display numerous signs of intelligence, from the ability to remember symbols[119] to cooperation,[120] tool use,[121] and perhaps language.[122] They are among species that have passed the mirror test, suggesting self-awareness.[123] In one study, two young chimpanzees showed retention of mirror self-recognition after one year without access to mirrors.[124] Chimpanzees have been observed to use insects to treat their own wounds and those of others. They catch them and apply them directly to the injury.[125] Chimpanzees also display signs of culture among groups, with the learning and transmission of variations in grooming, tool use and foraging techniques leading to localized traditions.[126]

A 30-year study at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute has shown that chimpanzees are able to learn to recognise the numbers 1 to 9 and their values. The chimpanzees further show an aptitude for eidetic memory, demonstrated in experiments in which the jumbled digits are flashed onto a computer screen for less than a quarter of a second. One chimpanzee, Ayumu, was able to correctly and quickly point to the positions where they appeared in ascending order. Ayumu performed better than human adults who were given the same test.[119]

In controlled experiments on cooperation, chimpanzees show a basic understanding of cooperation, and recruit the best collaborators.[120] In a group setting with a device that delivered food rewards only to cooperating chimpanzees, cooperation first increased, then, due to competitive behaviour, decreased, before finally increasing to the highest level through punishment and other arbitrage behaviours.[127]

Great apes show laughter-like vocalisations in response to physical contact, such as wrestling, play chasing, or tickling. This is documented in wild and captive chimpanzees. Chimpanzee laughter is not readily recognisable to humans as such, because it is generated by alternating inhalations and exhalations that sound more like breathing and panting. Instances in which nonhuman primates have expressed joy have been reported. Humans and chimpanzees share similar ticklish areas of the body, such as the armpits and belly. The enjoyment of tickling in chimpanzees does not diminish with age.[128]

Chimpanzees have displayed different behaviours in response to a dying or dead group member. When witnessing a sudden death, the other group members act in frenzy, with vocalisations, aggressive displays, and touching of the corpse. In one case chimpanzees cared for a dying elder, then attended and cleaned the corpse. Afterward, they avoided the spot where the elder died and behaved in a more subdued manner.[129] Mothers have been reported to carry around and groom their dead infants for several days.[130]

Experimenters now and then witness behaviour that cannot be readily reconciled with chimpanzee intelligence or theory of mind. Wolfgang Köhler, for instance, reported insightful behaviour in chimpanzees, but he likewise often observed that they experienced "special difficulty" in solving simple problems.[131] Researchers also reported that, when faced with a choice between two persons, chimpanzees were just as likely to beg food from a person who could see the begging gesture as from a person who could not, thereby raising the possibility that chimpanzees lack theory of mind.[132]

Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools. They modify sticks, rocks, grass, and leaves and use them when foraging for termites and ants,[133] nuts,[133][134][135][136] honey,[137] algae[138] or water. Despite the lack of complexity, forethought and skill are apparent in making these tools.[121] Chimpanzees have used stone tools since at least 4,300 years ago.[139]

A chimpanzee from the Kasakela chimpanzee community was the first nonhuman animal reported making a tool, by modifying a twig to use as an instrument for extracting termites from their mound.[140][141] At Taï, chimpanzees simply use their hands to extract termites.[121] When foraging for honey, chimpanzees use modified short sticks to scoop the honey out of the hive if the bees are stingless. For hives of the dangerous African honeybees, chimpanzees use longer and thinner sticks to extract the honey.[142]

Chimpanzees also fish for ants using the same tactic.[143] Ant dipping is difficult and some chimpanzees never master it. West African chimpanzees crack open hard nuts with stones or branches.[121][143] Some forethought in this activity is apparent, as these tools are not found together or where the nuts are collected. Nut cracking is also difficult and must be learned.[143] Chimpanzees also use leaves as sponges or spoons to drink water.[144]

West African chimpanzees in Senegal were found to sharpen sticks with their teeth, which were then used to spear Senegal bushbabies out of small holes in trees.[145] An eastern chimpanzee has been observed using a modified branch as a tool to capture a squirrel.[146]

Whilst experimental studies on captive chimpanzees have found that many of their species-typical tool-use behaviours can be individually learnt by each chimpanzees,[147] a 2021 study on their abilities to make and use stone flakes, in a similar way as hypothesised for early hominins, did not find this behaviour across two populations of chimpanzees—suggesting that this behaviour is outside the chimpanzee species-typical range.[148]”

Accordingly, there is not a significant difference between common chimpanzee behavior and the behavior of toxic human beings, and again where much of this is driven by the craving or scarcity perceiving center and mood governing center of the hypothalamus, which is about 100-1000 times older than the very oldest or first humans. 

Similarly, examining the behavior of savages known as Bonobos, who are also very closely related to chimpanzees and to humans, helps better understand human criminal behavior resulting in much of human history, which largely driven by the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalami of primates and other vertebrates responsible for satisfying wants, needs, desires, and cravings, coupled to the posterior hypothalamic area, responsible for the sympathetic fight or flight response, responsible for human wars and crime, to satisfy the wants, needs, desires, and cravings of largely toxic male rulers behaving like common jungle savages.

“According to studies published in 2017 by researchers at The George Washington University, the ancestors of the genus Pan split from the human line about 8 million years ago; moreover, bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago.[8][9]

Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans.[4] As the two species are not proficient swimmers, the natural formation of the Congo River (around 1.5–2 million years ago) possibly led to the isolation and speciation of the bonobo. Bonobos live south of the river, and thereby were separated from the ancestors of the common chimpanzee, which live north of the river.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo

“According to studies published in 2017 by researchers at The George Washington University, bonobos, along with common chimpanzees, split from the human line about 8 million years ago; moreover, bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago.[8][9]

Nonetheless, the exact timing of the Pan–Homo last common ancestor is contentious, but DNA comparison suggests continual interbreeding between ancestral Pan and Homo groups, post-divergence, until about 4 million years ago.[20] DNA evidence suggests the bonobo and common chimpanzee species diverged approximately 890,000–860,000 years ago due to separation of these two populations possibly due to acidification and the spread of savannas at this time. Currently, these two species are separated by the Congo River, which had existed well before the divergence date, though ancestral Pan may have dispersed across the river using corridors which no longer exist.[21] The first Pan fossils were reported in 2005 from the Middle Pleistocene (after the bonobo–chimpanzee split) of Kenya, alongside early Homo fossils.[22]

According to A. Zihlman, bonobo body proportions closely resemble those of Australopithecus,[23] leading evolutionary biologist Jeremy Griffith to suggest that bonobos may be a living example of our distant human ancestors.[24] According to Australian anthropologists Gary Clark and Maciej Henneberg, human ancestors went through a bonobo-like phase featuring reduced aggression and associated anatomical changes, exemplified in Ardipithecus ramidus.[25]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo

“Relationships of bonobos to humans and other apes can be determined by comparing their genes or whole genomes. While the first bonobo genome was published in 2012,[28] a high-quality reference genome became available only in 2021.[29] The overall nucleotide divergence between chimpanzee and bonobo based on the latter is 0.421 ± 0.086% for autosomes and 0.311 ± 0.060% for the X chromosome.[29] The reference genome predicts 22,366 full-length protein-coding genes and 9,066 noncoding genes, although cDNA sequencing confirmed only 20,478 protein-coding and 36,880 noncoding bonobo genes,[29] similar to the number of genes annotated in the human genome. Overall, 206 and 1,576 protein-coding genes are part of gene families that contracted or expanded in the bonobo genome compared to the human genome, respectively, that is, these genes were lost or gained in the bonobo genome compared to humans.[29]

The bonobo is commonly considered to be more gracile than the common chimpanzee. Although large male chimpanzees can exceed any bonobo in bulk and weight, the two species broadly overlap in body size. Adult female bonobos are somewhat smaller than adult males. Body mass ranges from 34 to 60 kg (75 to 132 lb) with an average weight of 45 kilograms (99 lb) in males against an average of 33 kg (73 lb) in females.[30] The total length of bonobos (from the nose to the rump while on all fours) is 70 to 83 cm (28 to 33 in).[31][32][33][34] Male bonobos average 119 cm (3.90 ft) when standing upright, compared to 111 centimetres (3.64 ft) in females.[35] The bonobo's head is relatively smaller than that of the common chimpanzee with less prominent brow ridges above the eyes. It has a black face with pink lips, small ears, wide nostrils, and long hair on its head that forms a parting. Females have slightly more prominent breasts, in contrast to the flat breasts of other female apes, although not so prominent as those of humans. The bonobo also has a slim upper body, narrow shoulders, thin neck, and long legs when compared to the common chimpanzee. Bonobos are both terrestrial and arboreal. Most ground locomotion is characterized by quadrupedal knuckle-walking. Bipedal walking has been recorded as less than 1% of terrestrial locomotion in the wild, a figure that decreased with habituation,[36] while in captivity there is a wide variation. Bipedal walking in captivity, as a percentage of bipedal plus quadrupedal locomotion bouts, has been observed from 3.9% for spontaneous bouts to nearly 19% when abundant food is provided.[37] These physical characteristics and its posture give the bonobo an appearance more closely resembling that of humans than the common chimpanzee does. The bonobo also has highly individuated facial features,[38] as humans do, so that one individual may look significantly different from another, a characteristic adapted for visual facial recognition in social interaction. 

Primatologist Frans de Waal states bonobos are capable of altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience, and sensitivity,[41] and described "bonobo society" as a "gynecocracy".[42][a] Primatologists who have studied bonobos in the wild have documented a wide range of behaviors, including aggressive behavior and more cyclic sexual behavior similar to chimpanzees, even though bonobos show more sexual behavior in a greater variety of relationships. An analysis of female bonding among wild bonobos by Takeshi Furuichi stresses female sexuality and shows how female bonobos spend much more time in estrus than female chimpanzees.[43]

Some primatologists have argued that de Waal's data reflect only the behavior of captive bonobos, suggesting that wild bonobos show levels of aggression closer to what is found among chimpanzees. De Waal has responded that the contrast in temperament between bonobos and chimpanzees observed in captivity is meaningful, because it controls for the influence of environment. The two species behave quite differently even if kept under identical conditions.[44] A 2014 study also found bonobos to be less aggressive than chimpanzees, particularly eastern chimpanzees. The authors argued that the relative peacefulness of western chimpanzees and bonobos was primarily due to ecological factors.[45] Bonobos warn each other of danger less efficiently than chimpanzees in the same situation.[46]

Bonobos are unusual among apes for their matriarchal social structure (extensive overlap between the male and female hierarchies leads some to refer to them as gender-balanced in their power structure). Bonobos do not have a defined territory and communities will travel over a wide range. Due to the nomadic nature of the females and evenly distributed food in their environment, males do not gain any obvious advantages by forming alliances with other males, or by defending a home range, as chimpanzees do. Female bonobos possess sharper canines than female chimpanzees, further fueling their status in the group.[47] Although a male bonobo is dominant to a female in a dyadic interaction,[48] depending on the community, socially-bonded females may be co-dominant with males[49] or dominant over them, even to the extent that females can coerce reluctant males into mating with them.[50][51]

At the top of the hierarchy is a coalition of high-ranking females and males typically headed by an old, experienced matriarch[52] who acts as the decision-maker and leader of the group. Female bonobos typically earn their rank through experience, age, and ability to forge alliances with other females in their group, rather than physical intimidation, and top-ranking females will protect immigrant females from male harassment.[53] While bonobos are often called matriarchal, and while every community is dominated by a female, some males will still obtain a high rank and act as coalitionary partners to the alpha female,[54] often taking initiative in coordinating the groups movements. These males may outrank not only the other males in the group, but also many females.[55] Certain males alert the group to any possible threats, protecting the group from predators such as pythons and leopards.[56][57]

Aggressive encounters between males and females are rare, and males are tolerant of infants and juveniles. A male derives his status from the status of his mother.[58] The mother–son bond often stays strong and continues throughout life. While social hierarchies do exist, and although the son of a high ranking female may outrank a lower female, rank plays a less prominent role than in other primate societies.[59] Relationships between different communities are often positive and affiliative, and bonobos are not a territorial species.[60] Bonobos will also share food with others, even unrelated strangers.[61] Bonobos exhibit paedomorphism (retaining infantile physical characteristics and behaviours),[62] which greatly inhibits aggression and enables unfamiliar bonobos to freely mingle and cooperate with each other.[63]

Males engage in lengthy friendships with females and, in turn, female bonobos prefer to associate with and mate with males who are respectful and easygoing around them. Because female bonobos can use alliances to rebuff coercive and domineering males and select males at their own leisure, they show preference for males who are not aggressive towards them.[64] Aging bonobos lose their playful streak and become noticeably more irritable in old age. Both sexes have a similar level of aggressiveness.[65]

Bonobos live in a male philopatric society where the females immigrate to new communities while males remain in their natal troop. However, it is not entirely unheard of for males to occasionally transfer into new groups.[66] Additionally, females with powerful mothers may remain in their natal clan.[67]

Alliances between males are poorly developed in most bonobo communities, while females will form alliances with each other and alliances between males and females occur, including multisex hunting parties.[68] There is a confirmed case of a grown male bonobo adopting his orphaned infant brother.[69]

A mother bonobo will also support her grown son in conflicts with other males and help him secure better ties with other females, enhancing her chance of gaining grandchildren from him.[70] She will even take measures such as physical intervention to prevent other males from breeding with certain females she wants her son to mate with.[71] Although mothers play a role in aiding their sons, and the hierarchy among males is largely reflected by their mother's social status, some motherless males will still successfully dominate some males who do have mothers.[72]

Female bonobos have also been observed fostering infants from outside their established community.[73][74]

Bonobos are not known to kill each other, and are generally less violent than chimpanzees, yet aggression still manifests itself in this species. Although female bonobos dominate males and selectively mate with males who do not exhibit aggression toward them, competition between the males themselves is intense and high-ranking males secure more matings than low-ranking ones.[75] Indeed, the size difference between males and females is more pronounced in bonobos than it is in chimpanzees, as male bonobos do not form alliances and therefore have little incentive to hold back when fighting for access to females.[76] Male bonobos are known to attack each other and inflict serious injuries such as missing digits, damaged eyes and torn ears. Some of these injuries may also occur when a male threatens the high ranking females and is injured by them, as the larger male is swarmed and outnumbered by a female mob.[77]

Due to the promiscuous mating behavior of female bonobos, a male cannot be sure which offspring are his. As a result, the entirety of parental care in bonobos is assumed by the mothers.[78] However, bonobos are not as promiscuous as chimpanzees and slightly polygamous tendencies occur, with high-ranking males enjoying greater reproductive success than low-ranking males. Unlike chimpanzees, where any male can coerce a female into mating with him, female bonobos enjoy greater sexual preferences and can rebuff undesirable males, an advantage of female-female bonding, and actively seek out higher-ranking males.[79]

Bonobo party size tends to vary because the groups exhibit a fission–fusion pattern. A community of approximately 100 will split into small groups during the day while looking for food, and then will come back together to sleep. They sleep in nests that they construct in trees.

Female bonobos more often than not secure feeding privileges and feed before males do, although they are rarely successful in one-on-one confrontations with males, a female bonobo with several allies supporting her has extremely high success in monopolizing food sources.[80] Different communities favour different prey. In some communities females exclusively hunt and have a preference for rodents, in others both sexes hunt, and will target monkeys.[81]

In captive settings, females exhibit extreme food-based aggression towards males, and forge coalitions against them to monopolize specific food items, often going as far as to mutilate any males who fail to heed their warning.[82]

In wild settings, however, female bonobos will quietly ask males for food if they had gotten it first, instead of forcibly confiscating it, suggesting sex-based hierarchy roles are less rigid than in captive colonies.[83]

Female bonobos are known to lead hunts on duikers and successfully defend their bounty from marauding males in the wild. They are more tolerant of younger males pestering them yet exhibit heightened aggression towards older males.[84]

In a study published in November 2023, scientists reported, for the first time, evidence that groups of primates, particularly bonobos, are capable of cooperating with each other.[85][86] Researchers observed unprecedented cooperation between two distinct bonobo groups in the Congo's Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, Ekalakala and Kokoalongo, challenging traditional notions of ape societies. Over two years of observation, researchers witnessed 95 encounters between the groups. Contrary to expectations, these interactions resembled those within a single group. During these encounters, the bonobos engaged in behaviors such as grooming, food sharing, and collective defense against threats like snakes. Notably, the two groups, while displaying cooperative tendencies, maintained distinct identities, and there was no evidence of interbreeding or a blending of cultures. The cooperation observed was not arbitrary but evolved through individual bonds formed by exchanging favors and gifts. Some bonobos even formed alliances to target a third individual, demonstrating a nuanced social dynamic within the groups.[85][86]

Sexual activity generally plays a major role in bonobo society, being used as what some scientists perceive as a greeting, a means of forming social bonds, a means of conflict resolution, and postconflict reconciliation.[87][4] Bonobos are the only non-human animal to have been observed engaging in tongue kissing.[88] Bonobos and humans are the only primates to typically engage in face-to-face genital sex, although a pair of western gorillas has also been photographed in this position.[89]

Bonobos do not form permanent monogamous sexual relationships with individual partners. They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by sex or age, with the possible exception of abstaining from sexual activity between mothers and their adult sons. When bonobos come upon a new food source or feeding ground, the increased excitement will usually lead to communal sexual activity, presumably decreasing tension and encouraging peaceful feeding.[90]

More often than the males, female bonobos engage in mutual genital-rubbing behavior, possibly to bond socially with each other, thus forming a female nucleus of bonobo society. The bonding among females enables them to dominate most of the males.[90] Adolescent females often leave their native community to join another community. This migration mixes the bonobo gene pools, providing genetic diversity. Sexual bonding with other females establishes these new females as members of the group.

Bonobo clitorises are larger and more externalized than in most mammals;[91] while the weight of a young adolescent female bonobo "is maybe half" that of a human teenager, she has a clitoris that is "three times bigger than the human equivalent, and visible enough to waggle unmistakably as she walks".[92] In scientific literature, the female–female behavior of bonobos pressing vulvas together is often referred to as genito-genital (GG) rubbing.[90][93] This sexual activity happens within the immediate female bonobo community and sometimes outside of it. Ethologist Jonathan Balcombe stated that female bonobos rub their clitorises together rapidly for ten to twenty seconds, and this behavior, "which may be repeated in rapid succession, is usually accompanied by grinding, shrieking, and clitoral engorgement"; he added that it is estimated that they engage in this practice "about once every two hours" on average.[91] As bonobos occasionally copulate face-to-face, "evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk has suggested that the position of the clitoris in bonobos and some other primates has evolved to maximize stimulation during sexual intercourse".[91] The position of the clitoris may alternatively permit GG-rubbings, which has been hypothesized to function as a means for female bonobos to evaluate their intrasocial relationships.[94]

Bonobo males engage in various forms of male–male genital behavior.[90][95] The most common form of male–male mounting is similar to that of a heterosexual mounting: one of the males sits "passively on his back [with] the other male thrusting on him", with the penises rubbing together due to both males' erections.[41] In another, rarer form of genital rubbing, two bonobo males hang from a tree limb face-to-face while penis fencing.[90][96] This also may occur when two males rub their penises together while in face-to-face position. Another form of genital interaction (rump rubbing) often occurs to express reconciliation between two males after a conflict, when they stand back-to-back and rub their scrotal sacs together, but such behavior also occurs outside agonistic contexts: Kitamura (1989) observed rump–rump contacts between adult males following sexual solicitation behaviors similar to those between female bonobos prior to GG-rubbing.[97] Takayoshi Kano observed similar practices among bonobos in the natural habitat. Tongue kissing, oral sex, and genital massaging have also been recorded among male bonobos.[98][41]

Wild females give birth for the first time at 13 or 14 years of age.[99] Bonobo reproductive rates are no higher than those of the common chimpanzee.[90] However, female bonobo oestrus periods are longer.[100] During oestrus, females undergo a swelling of the perineal tissue lasting 10 to 20 days. The gestation period is on average 240 days. Postpartum amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) lasts less than one year and a female may resume external signs of oestrus within a year of giving birth, though the female is probably not fertile at this point. Female bonobos carry and nurse their young for four years and give birth on average every 4.6 years.[101] Compared to common chimpanzees, bonobo females resume the genital swelling cycle much sooner after giving birth, enabling them to rejoin the sexual activities of their society. Also, bonobo females which are sterile or too young to reproduce still engage in sexual activity. Mothers will help their sons get more matings from females in oestrus.[59]

Adult male bonobos have sex with infants,[102] although without penetration.[103] Adult females also have sex with infants, but less frequently. Infants are not passive participants. They quite often initiate contacts with both adult males and females, as well as with peers.[102] They have also been shown to be sexually active even in the absence of any stimulation or learning from adults.[104]

Infanticide, while well documented in chimpanzees, is apparently absent in bonobo society.[105] Although infanticide has not been directly observed, there have been documented cases of both female[106] and male[107] bonobos kidnapping infants, sometimes resulting in infants dying from dehydration. Although male bonobos have not yet been seen to practice infanticide, there is a documented incident in captivity involving a dominant female abducting an infant from a lower-ranking female, treating the infant roughly and denying it the chance to suckle. During the kidnapping, the infant's mother was clearly distressed and tried to retrieve her infant. Had the zookeepers not intervened, the infant almost certainly would have died from dehydration. This suggests female bonobos can have hostile rivalries with each other and a propensity to carry out infanticide.[108] The highly sexual nature of bonobo society and the fact that there is little competition over mates means that many males and females are mating with each other, in contrast to the one dominant male chimpanzee that fathers most of the offspring in a group.[109] The strategy of bonobo females mating with many males may be a counterstrategy to infanticide because it confuses paternity. If male bonobos cannot distinguish their own offspring from others, the incentive for infanticide essentially disappears.[105] This is a reproductive strategy that seems specific to bonobos; infanticide is observed in all other great apes except orangutans.[110] Bonobos engage in sexual activity numerous times a day.[111]

Observations in the wild indicate that the males among the related common chimpanzee communities are hostile to males from outside the community. Parties of males 'patrol' for the neighboring males that might be traveling alone, and attack those single males, often killing them.[113] This does not appear to be the behavior of bonobo males or females, which seem to prefer sexual contact over violent confrontation with outsiders.[4]

While bonobos are more peaceful than chimpanzees, it is not true that they are unaggressive.[114] In the wild, among males, bonobos are half as aggressive as chimpanzees, while female bonobos are more aggressive than female chimpanzees.[114] Both bonobos and chimpanzees exhibit physical aggression more than 100 times as often as humans do.[114]

Although referred to as peaceful, bonobo aggression is not restricted to each other, and humans have also been attacked by bonobos, and suffered serious, albeit non-fatal, injuries.[107]

Bonobos are far less violent than chimpanzees, though, as lethal aggression is essentially nonexistent among bonobos while being not infrequent among chimpanzees.[45] It has been hypothesized that bonobos are able to live a more peaceful lifestyle in part because of an abundance of nutritious vegetation in their natural habitat, allowing them to travel and forage in large parties.[115]

Recent studies show that there are significant brain differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. Bonobos have more grey matter volume in the right anterior insula, right dorsal amygdala, hypothalamus, and right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, all of which are regions assumed to be vital for feeling empathy, sensing distress in others and feeling anxiety.[116] They also have a thick connection between the amygdala, an important area that can spark aggression, and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, which has been shown to help control impulses in humans.[117][118] This thicker connection may make them better at regulating their emotional impulses and behavior.[119]

Bonobo society is dominated by females, and severing the lifelong alliance between mothers and their male offspring may make them vulnerable to female aggression.[4] De Waal has warned of the danger of romanticizing bonobos: "All animals are competitive by nature and cooperative only under specific circumstances" and that "when first writing about their behaviour, I spoke of 'sex for peace' precisely because bonobos had plenty of conflicts. There would obviously be no need for peacemaking if they lived in perfect harmony."[120]

Surbeck and Hohmann showed in 2008 that bonobos sometimes do hunt monkey species. Five incidents were observed in a group of bonobos in Salonga National Park, which seemed to reflect deliberate cooperative hunting. On three occasions, the hunt was successful, and infant monkeys were captured and eaten.[121]

There is one inferred intraspecies killing in the wild,[122] and a confirmed lethal attack in captivity.[123] In both cases, the attackers were female and the victims were male.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo

Accordingly, there is not a significant difference between common bonobo and chimpanzee behavior and the behavior of toxic human beings involved in crimes and war crimes, and again where much of this is driven by the craving or scarcity perceiving center and mood governing center of the hypothalamus, which is about 100-1000 times older than the very oldest or first humans, largely driven by the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalami of primates and other vertebrates responsible for satisfying wants, needs, desires, and cravings, coupled to the posterior hypothalamic area, responsible for the sympathetic fight or flight response, responsible for human wars and crime, to satisfy the wants, needs, desires, and cravings of largely toxic male rulers behaving like common jungle savages.

Mapping out the hypothalamus to understand where human scarcity cravings, satiation, love, and toxic behavior come from, to better understand the origins of human history

The following is a simplified map of the hypothalamus, moving closer and closer to understanding human behavior motivators and how the hypothalamus has largely written human history.