Title: Chimpanzee politics : power and sex among apes /
Authors: Waal, F. B. M. de 1948-
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press,
Year: 1998
Subjects: Chimpanzees Behavior; Social behavior in animals; Sexual behavior in animals; Pan troglodytes; Behavior
Abstract: This extraordinary account of schmoozing, scheming, and consensus building among the chimpanzees of a large zoo colony in Arnhem, The Netherlands, attracted attention. Throughout this revised edition - which features a new gallery of color photographs along with a new introduction and epilogue - de Waal expands and updates his story of the Arnhem colony and its continuing political upheavals. We learn the fate of many memorable characters and meet the colony's current leaders and their allies. The new edition remains a detailed and thoroughly engrossing account - of sexual rivalries and coalitions, of actions governed by intelligence rather than instinct - and it reaffirms the complex bond between humans and their closest living relatives. As we watch the chimpanzees of Arnhem behave in ways we recognize from Machiavelli (and from the nightly news), de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity.
Contents: Personalities -- Two power takeovers -- Restless stability -- Sexual privileges -- Social mechanisms.