by Ray Newman, radio and television commentator, attorney, educator, author

Sunday, August 4, 2013

CHIMP CHATTER

I have often wondered why humans talk so much, even when they haven't got much to say. You know, talk, talk, talk. Endless ramblings about the most mundane of matters. And its even worse. Most humans, it seems, feel there must be something psychologically or socially wrong with them if they sit quietly in a group without saying much.

I was reading the other day about my great, great, great, great grandparents and it said that chimpanzees...you knew they were chimps...like to sit around in groups of 30 or so, and when they do, they make constant guttural, clacking-type noises. They do that, apparently, not to communicate anything but merely to let the others know they are there. To give them a presence, so to speak. Out of that, would come a male and female to dominate the group.

Sound familiar? It's in our genes.

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