The overlapping ranges and mingling at the borders of bonobo communities stand in stark contrast to how chimp groups interact. When the mist lifts from the evolutionary pressures that shaped bonobo society, perhaps we will understand how they have managed to escape what many people consider the worst scourge of humanity: our xenophobia and our [...]

An anthropologist once told me about two Eipo-Papuan village heads in New Guinea who were taking their first trip on a little airplane. They were not afraid to board the plane, but made a puzzling request: they wanted the side door to remain open. They were warned that it was cold up in the sky [...]

There was a time when anthropologists saw egalitarianism as a passive, peace-loving arrangement in which people were at their best, loving and valuing each other.  It was a utopian state where lion and lamb were said to sleep side by side. I’m not saying that such states are out of the question – in fact, [...]