*Sightings* 5/13/10

— Christian Sheppard

Two new ethological studies tell us how chimpanzees grieve, raising doubts
about the uniqueness of human mourning as well as, perhaps, the superfluity
of religious practice. Laboratory scientists in Scotland have made
unprecedented close observations of captive chimpanzees reacting to a
long-time group member ¢â‚¬â„¢s death and conclude that  ¢â‚¬Å“without death-related
symbols or rituals, chimpanzees show several behaviors that recall human
responses to the death of a close relative. ¢â‚¬  Behaviors displayed by these
chimps before, during, and after the death of one elderly female include
 ¢â‚¬Å“respect, care, anticipatory grief, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“test for pulse or breath, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“attempted
resuscitation, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“denial, feelings of anger toward the deceased, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“night-time
vigil, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“consolation, social support, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“disturbed sleep, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“cleaning the
body, ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“grief, mourning, ¢â‚¬  and, finally,  ¢â‚¬Å“leaving objects or places
associated with the deceased untouched. ¢â‚¬  After meticulously detailing the
deathbed scene of this beloved chimp grandmother, these scientists are
provoked to ask,  ¢â‚¬Å“Are humans uniquely aware of mortality? ¢â‚¬  It has long been
known that chimpanzees, like humans, possess self-awareness, but that
chimpanzees are also aware of their mortality is news that profoundly alters
our own self-awareness. Our grief could be a sign, not of our humanity, but
that we are apes.

Meanwhile, out of Africa comes other news to further refine awareness of our
essential ape-ness. Field ethologists in Bossou, Guinea have studied one
wild chimpanzee group ¢â‚¬â„¢s macabre cultural tradition of  ¢â‚¬Å“corpse-carrying ¢â‚¬ :  ¢â‚¬Å“The
carrying of infants’ corpses has been reported from a number of primate
species, both in captivity and the wild  ¢â‚¬” albeit usually lasting a few days
only  ¢â‚¬” suggesting a phylogenetic continuity for a behavior that is poignant
testament to the close mother-infant bond which extends across different
primate taxa. ¢â‚¬  Corpse-carrying, like other signs of grief, may point to an
awareness of mortality, but in Bossou grieving mothers have been observed
carrying and caring for their children ¢â‚¬â„¢s bodies over two months after death.
 ¢â‚¬Å“Corpse-carrying may have become something of a Bossou “tradition”, admits
Bossou ¢â‚¬â„¢s lead-scientist Dora Biro, suggesting that one chimp mother may have
learned to carry her dead infant from another mother, who had been observed
performing the behavior twice before. It seems that chimpanzees not only
grieve like us, but like us, they also invent traditions to deal with their
grief. Further ethological work in the lab and field may someday reveal
what such culturally transmitted traditions mean for chimpanzees, but for
humans, it is apparent that we are not the only beings who mourn.

Moreover, we ought to ponder the significance of the fact that chimpanzees,
aware of their mortality, grieve and mourn without religious symbol or
ritual. While some might be tempted to interpret our fellow apes’ mourning
behaviors as a sign of some kind of nascent religiosity (although thereby
complicating the claim that religion is uniquely human), these studies can
be understood as undermining altogether the role of religion in our response
to death. Perhaps now better aware of our essential ape-ness in regards to
death, grief, and mourning, traditional religious responses can be discarded
as inessential. Let the uncanny image of a chimpanzee mother tenderly
toting her weather-mummified infant through primordial jungle (
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/images/chimpanzee.jpg)
be our post-Darwinian piet ƒ  , a post-religious icon to unfix our gaze from
such traditional religious images as Mary mourning over her crucified
son. Where,
for example, Michelangelo ¢â‚¬â„¢s famous statue in Rome emphasizes the pitiful
death of Jesus all the more to anticipate His resurrection and to promise
believers their own eventual eternal triumph over death, our ape piet ƒ  
offers no transcendental context, no after-life, no resurrection, no  ¢â‚¬Å“good
news ¢â‚¬  (for that matter, no reincarnation and no nirvana), no means of escape
from our primal tearful awareness of our mortality. So observing our
chimpanzee kin raises our awareness of life ¢â‚¬â„¢s amazing, wonderful variety, as
well as life ¢â‚¬â„¢s fearful finitude.

*References*:

For access to videos of chimpanzee mourning behavior see the BBC (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8645283.stm as well as *New
Scientist* (
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18818-how-chimps-mourn-their-dead.html
).

The Scottish study: James R. Anderson, Alasdair Gillies and Louise C. Lock,
 ¢â‚¬Å“*Pan* Thanatology, ¢â‚¬  *Current Biology* Vol 20 No 8 (
http://download.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/PIIS0960982210001454.pdf?intermediate=true
).

The African study: Dora Biro, Tatyana Humle, Kathelijne Koops, Claudia
Sousa, Misato Hayashi and Tetsuro Matsuzawa, ¢â‚¬ Chimpanzee mothers at Bossou,
Guinea carry the mummified remains of their dead infants, ¢â‚¬  *Current Biology*,
Vol 20 No 8 (
http://download.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/PIIS0960982210002186.pdf?intermediate=true).

Christian Sheppard is co-editor of Mystics: Presence and Aporia (University
of Chicago Press, 2003) and is currently completing a memoir on mourning the
death of his father after the death of God.

*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Centerat the University of
Chicago Divinity School.

Attribution

Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, *Sightings*, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.