In an attempt to think about something other than Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Finance (no joke, I woke up at 4:20 this morning, turned on the light, and attempted to take Scott's laptop (read: pillow) away from him so I could balance my Balance Sheet), I read an article in the Scientific American Special Edition on Becoming Human.
The gist of the article is that Bonobos like to have sex. (Who said Anthropologists don't have more fun?). A Bonobo, because you're wondering, is a closely related ape, more graceful than a chimpanzee. The amazing thing about their sex lives is that they are the only primate, other than humans, known to have sex for a non-reproductive reason. In fact, they have sex with each other - even with bonobos of the same sex - in order to maintain harmony in a competitive society.
Which is the same reason we use sex. Not only do we do it to produce offspring, but we do it to "cement mutually profitable relationships between men and women." Bonobos apparently do this for the same mutually profitable relationships - to ease competition for food, form female alliances (they are a more matriarchal society than, say, chimpanzees), and to patch over any "disagreements".
Much other behavior among Bonobos is reminiscent of that among humans, including mother Bonobos lifting their babies up in the air by placing the mother's feet on their babies stomachs...kind of like playing airplane. Pretty amazing stuff.
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