THE NAKED APE

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loser will admit defeat by offering a vulnerable area to the attacker. A chimpanzee, for example, will hold out its hand as a gesture of submission, rendering it extremely vulnerable for serious biting. Because an aggressive chimpanzee would never do such a thing, this begging gesture serves to appease the dominant individual. The second category of appeasement signals operate as remotivating devices. The subordinate animal sends out signals that stimulate a non-aggressive response and, as this wells up inside the attacker, his urge to fight is suppressed and subdued by it. This is done in one of three main ways. A particularly widespread remotivator is the adoption of juvenile food-begging F ostures. The weaker individual crouches and &gs rom the dominant one in the infantile posture characteristic of the particular species-a device especially favoured by females when they are being attacked by males. It is often so effective that the male responds by regurgitating some food to the female, who then completes the food-begging ritual by swallowing it. Now in a thoroughly paternal, protective mood, the male loses his aggression and the pair calm down together. This is the basis of courtship feeding in many species, especially with birds, where the early stages of pair-formation involve a great deal of aggression on the part of the male. Another re-motivating activity is the adoption of a female sexual posture by the weaker animal. Regardless of its sex, or its sexual condition, it may suddenly assume the female rumppresentation posture. When it displays towards the attacker in this way, it stimulates a sexual response which damps down the mood of aggression. In such situations, a dominant male or female will mount and pseudo-copulate with either a submissive,male or a submissive female. A third form of re-motivation involves the arousal of the mood to groom or be groomed. A great deal of social or mutual grooming goes on in the animal world and it is strongly associated with the calmer, more peaceful moments of community life. The weaker animal may either invite the winner to groom it, or may make signals requesting permission to perform 138
the grooming itself. Monkeys make great use of this device and have a special facial gesture to go with it, consisting of rapidly smacking the lips together-a modified, ritualised version of part of the normal grooming ceremony. When one monkey grooms another it repeatedly pops fragments of skin and other detritus into its mouth, smacking its lips as it does so. By exaggerating the smacking movements and speeding them up, it signals its readiness to perform this duty and frequently manages in this way to suppress the aggression of the attacker and persuade it to relax and allow itself to be groomed. After a while the dominant individual is so lulled by this procedure that the weakling can slip away unharmed. These, then are the ceremonies and devices by which animals order their aggressive involvements. The phrase `nature red in tooth and claw' was originally intended to refer to the brutal prey-killing activities of the carnivores, but it has been applied incorrectly in general terms to the whole subject of animal fighting. Nothing could be further from the truth. If a species is to survive, it simply cannot afford to go around slaughtering its own kind. Intra-specific aggression has to be inhibited and controlled, and the more powerful and savage the prey-killing weapons of a particular species are, the stronger must be the inhibitions about using them to settle disputes with rivals. This is the 'law of the jungle' where territorial and hierarchy disagreements are concerned. Those species that failed to obey this law have long since become extinct. How do we, as a species, measure up to this situation? What is our own special repertoire of threatening and appeasing signals? What are our fighting methods, and how do we control them? Aggressive arousal produces in us all the same physiological upheavals and muscular tensions and agitations that were described in the general animal context. Like other species, we also show a variety of displacement activities. In some respects we are not as well equipped as.other species to develop these basic responses into powerful signals. We cannot intimidate our opponents, for example, by erecting our body 139
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THE NAKED APE by Desmond Morris A B
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is intend
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INTRODUCTION THERE are one hundred
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some respect. If they were healthy,
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CHAPTER ONE ORIGINS THERE is a labe
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we put it, it looks out of place. E
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The primate group, to which our nak
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Faced with a new environment, our a
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complex manoeuvres could be develop
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The brightest stars in the carnivor
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a pack of African hunting dogs it i
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the night, but the contrast is neve
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in the dirt of the den or lair. Aft
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was a process of differential infan
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eating it, each have their own part
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Male and female hunting apes had to
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feature was its naked skin, which l
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home bases, its dens became heavily
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vital missing links in our ancient
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first appears. A great deal will de
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CHAPTER TWO SEX SEXUALLY the naked
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phase, privacy is sought and the su
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summatory act of sperm ejaculation
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the arteries pumping blood into the
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activity. Once the climax has been
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old females will have experienced o
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stay put and mind the babies while
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-the female remains responsive to t
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mucous surfaces permanently exposed
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areas in other animals where there
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Any body relationship, they feel, s
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At some point, back in our ancestry
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sexual contacts. In this particular
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This may also explain why the male
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lengths to render her as sexually r
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ised his sex life. The contemporary
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apology being proportional to the d
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enlarges it, imitating in this way
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ituation where the female is produc
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and avoids being attacked. A subord
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object lacking these signals. Secon
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Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER THREE REARING THE burden of
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Page 101 and 102: oth frighteningly odd and at the sa
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Page 105 and 106: We develop the vital bond of attach
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Page 109 and 110: CHAPTER FOUR EXPLORATION ALL mammal
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Page 119 and 120: and clothing, in furniture and cars
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Page 123 and 124: epeatedly bite themselves, or pull
Page 125 and 126: on the other hand, of vital signifi
Page 127 and 128: in respiratory activity. Breathing
Page 129 and 130: under the extreme conditions of agg
Page 131 and 132: formalised into rhythmic twistings
Page 133: sdditional energy on it, and it is
Page 137 and 138: signal. (With the arm bent and held
Page 139 and 140: intensities of it are expressed in
Page 141 and 142: mechanisms. Many moths have a pair
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Page 153 and 154: frequent accompaniment of wailing o
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Page 161 and 162: grounds. It is a predominantly masc
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Page 167 and 168: If they appeal to our old primate w
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Page 171 and 172: giving an impression of great conce
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Page 175 and 176: is it aesthetically pleasing. Its f
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CHAPTER EIGHT ANIMALS UP to this po
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prey-predator relationship, since i
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substitute space-traveller. No othe
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interferes with the efficient runni
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point of view, are fully justified
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small objects (chimpanzee, monkey,
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The unexpected discovery here is th
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on its back. It must be stressed he
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This cannot be explained solely on
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spiders being nasty, hairy things.
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symbolically, scientifically or aes
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tendencies; that if we have to beco
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Heart-beat response: Salk, 1966. Gr
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AMBROSE, J. A., `The s
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MILES, W. R., 'Chimpanzee behaviour
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Mimikry der Primaten'. Die Naturwis
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THE NAKED APE

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