Department of Anthropology, University of California-Davis, 95616, Davis, CA.
Hum Nat. 1996 Mar;7(1):61-96. doi: 10.1007/BF02733490.
The popular belief that women are not naturally able to bond with each other is often supported by theoretical and empirical evidence that unrelated females do not bond in nonhuman primate species. Bonobos (rare and endangered African apes, also known as pygmy chimpanzees) are (with their congener, chimpanzees) the closest living relatives of humans and appear to be an exception to this characterization. Data collected on individuals representing half of the world's captive population reveal that bonobo females are remarkably skillful in establishing and maintaining strong affiliative bonds with each other despite being unrelated. Moreover, they control access to highly desirable food, share it with each other more often than with males, engage in same-sex sexual interactions in order to reduce tension, and form alliances in which they cooperatively attack males and inflict injuries. Their power does not stem from a size equality with or advantage over males (in fact, females average 82.5% of male size), but rather from cooperation and coalition formation. The immediate advantage to female alliances is increased control over food, the main resource on which their reproductive success depends, as well as a reduction in other costs typically associated with a female-biased dispersal system, such as male agonism in the contexts of feeding competition and sexual coercion. The ultimate advantage of friendly relationships among females is an earlier age at first reproduction, which results in a large increase in lifetime reproductive success. Analysis of this bonding phenomenon sheds light on when, where, and how we should expect unrelated human females to bond with one another by demonstrating that bonding is not dependent on access to one's relatives but rather on an environmental situation in which female aggregation is possible, coupled with an incentive for cooperation.
人们普遍认为女性天生就无法与彼此建立联系，这一观点常常得到理论和实证证据的支持，即非人类灵长类物种中，没有亲缘关系的雌性并不会建立联系。倭黑猩猩（珍稀濒危的非洲猿类，也被称为“侏儒黑猩猩”）与黑猩猩（同属人科）是与人类最亲近的现存亲属，它们似乎是这种特征的一个例外。对代表世界上一半圈养种群的个体进行的数据收集表明，尽管没有亲缘关系，倭黑猩猩雌性在彼此之间建立和维持强烈的亲密关系方面表现出非凡的技巧。此外，尽管没有亲缘关系，雌性能够控制对高度渴望的食物的获取，并且更经常地与彼此分享食物，而不是与雄性分享；它们进行同性性互动以缓解紧张情绪，并形成联盟，共同攻击雄性并造成伤害。它们的权力并非源自与雄性平等或优于雄性（事实上，雌性平均只有雄性体型的 82.5%），而是源自合作和结盟。雌性联盟的直接优势是增加了对食物的控制，食物是她们生殖成功所依赖的主要资源，同时减少了与女性偏爱的扩散系统相关的其他成本，例如在觅食竞争和性胁迫的背景下雄性的争斗。雌性之间友好关系的最终优势是生殖年龄更早，这导致生殖成功的终生大幅增加。通过证明结盟不依赖于接近亲属，而是依赖于女性聚集成为可能的环境情况，加上合作的动机，对这种结合现象的分析揭示了我们应该在何时、何地以及如何期望没有亲缘关系的女性彼此建立联系。
