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Ubergiji’s Clan

June 18th, 2012

Ubergiji’s family is weird.  I like to think of them as socially progressive, but that might be a little generous.  See, in baboon society there are hierarchies and they are pretty straightforward.  For dudes, the toughest or the slyest is the top dog, and only for a while.  For females, though, it’s like the British royal family.  You inherit your rank and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.  The general rule is that daughters assume the rank just under their mother, though with the weird twist that younger daughters outrank their older sisters.  So, in a family like Ubergiji’s she should be under her mother and younger sister, Urusi (who is, let’s face it, a bit of a bitch), but above her older sister Uvila as well as her own daughters, Unarasika and USA.  This linear hierarchy also implies that there shouldn’t be a lot of fraternization with distant relatives and the Y family (Yei, Yola, and the like) should be outright ignored unless you are beating on them.  I outline this only to highlight that something is up with Ubergiji’s clan.

 

First of all, Ubergiji’s daughters constantly harass her.  They chase her, mount her, grab her tail, and they do this individually and together, sometimes forming a little tag team as they throttle and chase their mother around the forest.  This behavior is unheard of.  It’s downright rude.  And yet for some reason there is a culture of elder abuse in Ubergiji’s little branch of the U family and no one seems to be able to explain why.  If anything it should be Ubergiji teaming up with USA to lay the smackdown on Unarasika (child abuse is not so much an exception as a way of life in baboon societies), so it makes me a little sad that Ubergiji is so little respected by her offspring.  On especially bad days her son, Uele, joins in and it’s a regular “let’s beat mama down” free-for-all.  Strange.  Very strange.

 

But it doesn’t stop there.  Though Ubergiji is often beaten by her own children, she also seems to have imparted a knack for leaping across social barriers and chilling with the untouchable Y family.  The Ys are the bottom of the AC clan’s heap and Us are supposed to beat Ys (kind of like rock beats scissors).  Yet time and again I come across Ubergiji, Unarasika, or USA happily grooming one of these peasants.  It is not odd for paeans to groom their superiors; that’s just a great way to ingratiate oneself and keep social tensions low.  But active and extensive grooming of non-related, underling females tends to be the exception and not the rule.  So WTF Ubergiji?

 

The final way Ubergiji and her sassy daughters flout common baboon social law is one we’ve discussed before.  In addition to upending the social order with daughters outranking moms and fraternizing with the lower-downs, they also pay a lot of attention to us humans.  I’ve already related how all three have presented their rumps deferentially to me since I’ve been here, but now Unarasika has taken a shine to Hamimu and has started flirting with him at a level that embarrasses us all (Hamimu always giggles and looks away).

 

So what am I to think of this family?  Are they strong-willed, no-nonsense feminist activists intent on sticking it to the man?  Or are they just a little bat-shit-crazy-soon-to-be-bag-ladies after licking rancid ash out of one too many firepits?  Perhaps this picture will help you form your own opinion:

USA lovingly sucking an empty water bottle