by DR. SUSAN BLOCK
The “Make Love Not War” bonobos have a new friend. She’s an ape like them—a brilliant, beautiful, empathetic, courageous creature on the human branch of the primate family tree. Her name is Vanessa Woods, and she has written a wonderful, ground-breaking new book called Bonobo Handshake, a must-read for anyone interested in primatology, anthropology, sex, love, war, peace or that greatest of mysteries we commonly call human nature.
Now, if you don’t know a bonobo from a banana, let me introduce you to our kissin’ cousins who swing from the trees (as well as with each other). Bonobos are a rare species of chimpanzee sometimes called “pigmy chimps,” (Latin: pan paniscus) and, like common chimps (pan troglodyte), they’re over 98% genetically similar to humans. Though they tend to be a lot hairier than us—and they don’t build houses or churches or corporate skyscrapers or Pentagons, like we do—they do look and act remarkably like us in many, often surprising ways.
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