A new study led by Harvard University in conjunction with the German Primate Center has found that bonobos have the same capacity for social cooperation as humans. The article, published in the journal Science, found that some of the most important traits is the distribution of food between different social groups of bonobos. This characteristic, previously attributed exclusively to human beings, can provide important clues about the origins and evolution of social behaviors that we carry out today as a society.
Humans share 98.7% of our DNA with great apes such as bonobos. The fact that they cooperate between groups and share their daily diet just like us marks a new milestone in behavioral studies in primatology. “The ability to study how cooperation arises in a species so closely related to humans challenges existing theory,” says Liran Samuni, lead author of the study, from the German Primate Center in Göttingen.
Although cooking food continues to be a trait that is attributed exclusively to the human species, sharing food and consuming it in groups has been shown to be a transversal behavior in different groups of primates. Evolutionarily speaking, this characteristic was one of the key markers for the development of the first human societies. The study’s findings are “jointly teaching us about our past,” Samuni explains.
Sharing resources and eating between groups is a behavioral marker that facilitates and promotes cooperation, both between humans and between bonobos. Although sharing food is embedded in our social behavior, this study has proven that it is not necessary to have cultural markers that promote collective eating, since it is seen as a potential benefit to encourage cooperation towards the common good.
The scientists who led the study explained that this type of behavior marks a milestone in the study of primatology, since it “paves the way for prosocial cooperative behaviors, such as the formation of alliances and the distribution of food between groups, a marked contrast with what we see in chimpanzees,” according to Samuni. This also contradicts the belief that hostility and violence between groups is innate to the nature of the human species, and acts as simple as sharing a meal can teach us great lessons about tolerance and cooperation.
