‘We need to move away from this idea of dominance as being something special,’ de Waal told me. ‘We need to make distinctions. You have physical dominance, which clearly in many species is male. Then you have rank, which is communicated more between males and between females than between the sexes.’ Rank is measured by who submits to whom, which chimps do by bowing and pant-grunting. These outward signs of status reflect what de Waal calls the ‘formal hierarchy’ and act like military stripes on a uniform. ‘Finally, you have power,’ de Waal told me, ‘meaning how much influence you have on the
...more
