‘The chimpanzee resolves sexual issues with power; the bonobo resolves power issues with sex . . .’ Bonobos use sex as a currency of social interaction, somewhat as we use money. They use copulation, or copulatory gestures, to appease, to assert dominance, to cement bonds with other troop members of any age or sex, including small infants. Paedophilia is not a hang-up with bonobos; all kinds of philia seem fine to them. De Waal describes how, in a group of captive bonobos that he watched, the males would develop erections as soon as a keeper approached at feeding time. He speculates that this
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