"We consider (the great apes) driven above all by instinct and biology, but we also see a culture in them," explains the 73-year-old Dutchman in an interview with AFP.

In this context, "the concept of gender is useful, because it emphasizes this interaction between biology and culture", without neglecting the strength of biology.

This ethologist (scientist specializing in animal behavior) is particularly known for his work demonstrating that non-human primates - whose DNA is more than 96% common to that of humans - are also endowed with known human abilities, such as empathy and cooperation.

In "Different, gender seen by a primatologist", released in France this week, the researcher sweeps over several themes at the heart of the debates that agitate our societies: the relationship between the sexes, the social hierarchy, violence, the innate or the 'acquired.

Biology explains for example that "in all primates, young males play with young males, and young females with young females".

And in these games, physical strength plays a key role in the former, largely absent in the latter, he says.

This can be observed in playgrounds such as the Yerkes National Center for Primate Research, which Franz de Waal directs near Atlanta.

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Other conclusions born from decades of observation of primates: males are "more concerned about their social rank" and females "more focused on young and vulnerable beings" from an early age.

But the females are as fickle as the males, they also engage in intense social competition and assume, with age, a position of authority within the group.

Far from clichés on a so-called "feminine" + nature +, recalls the researcher.

Pleasure, not reproduction

Frans de Waal scratches certain academics "who use biology when it suits them".

When, for example, they see in the behavior of men or women in society "a gendered role, only linked to culture, while biology also plays a role".

Above all, he regrets this very human propensity to "set standards".

"Among non-human primates, many individuals who do not conform to the dominant model are very well tolerated" by their congeners.

The researcher, who teaches at the prestigious Emory University (Atlanta), also defeats several myths, including that of female passivity in mating games.

And to those who consider homosexuality as "against nature", he recalls the practices of Japanese macaques who, in the absence of females, opt for relations between males.

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When it comes to sexuality, humans and great apes are above all driven by desire and pleasure, no offense to the directors of animal films who are quick to portray competition between males as motivated by the quest for reproduction, explains the researcher.

Primates cannot "conceive" reproduction.

Animals "are interested in sex, not in reproduction, even if it is the result".

Humans, who took some time to understand the thing, are not so different, they who invented contraception for this, he notes.

The book is full of stories, based on observations, to describe everything that unites nonhuman primates and humans, or differentiates them, such as the advent of the nuclear family in humans or the development of language.

It concludes with a plea not to choose between nature and culture, but to embrace both in order to better accept our differences.

("Different. Gender as seen by a primatologist". Frans de Waal. Editions Les liens qui liberante, 477 p.)

© 2022 AFP