I hate this.

[sooZen]

Opps, one thing I must correct as I have a few minutes...

Jack, our household is actually more like gorillas than chimps or bonobos. There is a magnificent silver-back male that rules with wisdom and he likes to be in charge. I on the otherhand, like to make him happy, and as a result, he protects me and is on my side no matter what the circumstances.

I really don't want bonobo-hood. I don't want to rule the roost with such a mighty rooster strutting about. It is not my nature or his to make this a matriarch ruled place. He wants me to be me and all that entails. It has worked for 38, almost 39 years. Let him face the wasps on the deck with his trusty WD40 while I watch from the door.

[stilltrucking]

One chief project will be identifying ape genes to match with the neurologic and behavior findings. Human DNA is 98.4 percent identical to the DNA of chimps and bonobos, a lesser-known chimp-like ape
http://www.geocities.com/willc7/HumanMind.html

If I have a totem animal it is not the gorilla but the elephant.
Solitary males.

I am going to back out of here now.

[Nazz]

Good point about awareness. Drop the anger. "It is what it is." I can't fight that stream.

[Barry]

And as for what sooZen was saying, Nazz...I bet when you're out there in the desert, looking up at the starscape or out at the landscape, you're not thinking about who's carrying a gun, are you? And why would you be, with all that wonder to bear?
I stop in my day sometimes, Nazz, and think of you, out in the desert, where I might like to be, out on the roads, traveling, living free, alone, unhindered, and it does my soul good to know you are there. And then I look at moss on a rock, bark on a tree, the rainbow from petrochemicals on a rain-slickened street, and get a glimpse of the same wonder. And I feel connected.
Thanks.

Peace,
Barry

[sooZen]

Truck, the Bonobos were probably separated from the Chimpanzees during a flood far back in time and since they tend to live on small forest islands have developed and evolved separately and are actually given a separate genus than the chimps but both are Pan species and you are right, most closely related to the human ape than any other.

My take, the chimps tend to be more like us in their troop or group or tribe mentality. There are of course exceptions but not many Amazon women around any more, not in a tribal sense. We humans are just as aggressive as the chimps and less likely to make love and not war like the bonobos. Exceptions always...but I think history will bear me out.

And actually our DNA may be as high as 99% related to the Pans, according to some genetic studies.

Truth is, benobos are not as pacific as we may like to believe and the whole matriarchal society is dependent on sons of the mothers who give those mothers power within the troop. Without her sons, a mother benobo is low on the totem pole and may be subject to abuse.

[stilltrucking]

I am too pooped to Google but I think I remember reading that the difference between any species of mammals as far as DNA goes is not that much. I think we all have something like 98 percent similarity in our DNA. There is not that much difference between rats and humans for example

A slight variation makes a heck of a difference.

I only mentioned the bonobos because you mentioned the chimps. There was a joke in the psychology department of the cow college I went to that if you can not find enough white rats for an experiment you can substitute college sophomores.