Bonobo Together: Nontheist Friends, Dalton Letter, Learning from Higher Primates, Funny and Edifying Bonobo Researcher

Here's a recent email I sent to a nontheist Friends' email list:



Nontheist Friends,

You might enjoy my Friends' Dalton Letter where I mention 7 species of higher primates (Homo sapiens, two species of chimps, two species of orangutans, and two species of gorillas) here - scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm.

I see the primatological research literature about the other higher primates closest to us as edifying narratives (but only as narratives vis-a-vis 'fact,' since homo sapiens probably split 5-7 million years ago from lines that became chimpanzees, I think, and primate research is still young), and possibly important ones, not often considered as part of Quaker or more general discourse. I think it's how we learn from these other species (I'm most interested in Bonobo - Pan paniscus - and data is just beginning to accumulate) which is fascinating. Bonobo, for example, appear to be peaceful, egalitarian, matriarchal, and very sexual, which seems to have been shaped by natural selection over millions of years, and thousands of generations. The first two narratives - peaceful and egalitarian ones - seem to echo Friends' testimonies. How might nontheist Friends, in particular, learn further from these species, in the way that Friends are often open to learning from people who are different from themselves by listening, which is based a culture of respect for all?

And here's a proposal about ways in which we might learn from higher
primates that can use sign language and communicate otherwise in language: webnographers.org/index.php?title=Ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy. I'm curious about your thoughts about this.

Lastly, you might enjoy this funny and edifying TED Talk by a Bonobo researcher in Georgia: youtube.com/watch?v=a8nDJaH-fVE

With friendly greetings,
Scott

scottmacleod.com



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This leads to the privileging of a whole array of different narratives, based on the natural world. These have not often been considered in many (religious) traditions, and are fascinating, relevant and very edifying. Such primate narratives could easily
encompass and supersede theistic and other religious narratives.


Scott

http://scottmacleod.com
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University


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I wonder if as-of-yet unexplored ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy as method - webnographers.org/index.php?title=Ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy & scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy - could be the basis of a comparative, developing conversation between homo sapiens and other language-using higher primates, about such questions. I wonder, too, what primate researchers Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Frans de Waal and Jane Goodall and the myriad of primatological researchers at universities around the world, for example, would say about these questions of connectedness. Among humans there is a very wide variety of nontheistic beliefs (from rigorous, analytic philosophy, Willard van Ormine Quine's "The Web of Belief," Richard Rorty's Neo-Pragmatist philosophy, Richard Dawkins' evolutionary biological atheism, to, by contrast, vis-a-vis religious beliefs, William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience," to Huston Smith's "World Religions"). I can think of few examples of what you call 'emergence' or explicit 'nontheistic friendliness' in my readings of the primatological literature, although language-learning by primates (e.g. sign language and logographs) may be just this, in its own Promethean way.

And "What canst thou say?" I think we're seeing what nontheistic friends are saying here. :)

Are we coded for certain kinds of behaviors, just as labrador retrievers seem to be coded for kindness, as a breed, for example (as are species of higher primates)? See for example - scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2008/10/world-university.html (October 7, 2008 - the picture here is great:) about labrador retrievers. In what ways can we humans learn? Can we humans learn kindness and thoughtfulness, as well as peacefulness, simplicity, integrity, & love and happiness? In what ways can primates learn? They obviously can learn language, which some thought impossible (See the TED Talk, for one; Koko is another example). Can higher primates learn other aspects of social interaction? Could common chimps learn to become Bonobo?

With friendly greetings,

Scott


(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/10/bonobo-together-nontheist-friends.html - October 28, 2009)