"spearwielding" story says more about humans than chimps

Details still dribbling in, but one certainty: the press jumped on this story of female chimps making spears and teaching the younger generation how to kill cute little "bush babies" to eat. "Clues to human evolution" the stories proclaimed, in apparent affirmation of a human tendency to butchery that dominates the headlines. "Women make first weapons" is another active framing story that tends to further absolve human men from responsibility in this bloody matter. Only one out of 22 chimps observed in the study seems to have managed to kill anything in this sketchy study, but the conclusion remains clear: humans have a desperate need to blame their drive to butchery on somebody or something else, and to show that we were just naturally pre-disposed to evolve this way. Might as well say, "The Devil made me do i."

.…in what is thought to be another first for chimps, the Fongoli population have taken up aspects of cave living. They use the the shady interiors for socialising, taking siestas and picnicking, the researchers say. Pruetz jokes that she would not be surprised if the chimps began making cave drawings.

…read it all:
Spear-wielding chimps snack on skewered bushbabies
NewScientist.com news service, 22 February 2007
by Rowan Hooper