Bonobos share as much DNA with humans as chimpanzees do, and behave nothing like them. Where a chimpanzee troop settles a dispute with violence, a bonobo troop settles it sexually: between males and females, between females and females, between adults and adolescents, in almost every combination, and usually for a few seconds at a time.
Most of it has nothing to do with reproduction. It happens when a food source is discovered, when two groups meet, when an individual is anxious. Female bonobos form coalitions through this contact, and those coalitions are why bonobo society is female-led — the only great ape society that is.
