Social Behavior

272 Pages·1978·4.21 MB·English

by  Benson E. Ginsburg (auth.)

PERSPECTIVES
IN ETHOLOGY
Volume 3
Social Behavior
CONTRIBUTORS
P.P.G. Bateson
Sub-Department ofA nimal Behaviour
Univerrity of Cambridge, Madingley, Cambridge, UK.
Norman Budnitz
Department of Zoology
Duke Univerrity, Durham, North Carolina
Sidney A. Gauthreaux, Jr.
Department of Zoology
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
Benson E. Ginsburg
Department of Behavioral Sciences
Univerrity of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
Myron A. Hofer
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, Bronx, New York
Jerome Kagan
Harvard Univerrity, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Daniel I. Rubenstein
Department of Zoology
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
L.B. Slobodkin
Ecology and Evolution Program
State Univerrity of New York, Stony Brook, New York and
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Ted D. Wade
Department ofP sychiatry
Univerrity of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, Colorado
Ro bert A. Wallace
Department of Zoology
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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PERSPECTIVES
IN ETHOLOGY
Volume 3
Social Behavior
Edited by
P. P. G. Bateson
Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England
and
Peter H. Klopfer
Department of Zoology
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon, 1938-
Perspectives in ethology,
Includes bibliographies.
1. Animals, Habits and behavior of. I. Klopfer, Peter H., joint author. II. Title.
QL751.R188 591.5 73-79427
ISBN 978-1-4684-2903-9 ISBN 978-1-4684-2901-5 (eBook)
00110.1007/978-1-4684-2901-5
© 1978 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1978
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
PREFACE
Sociobiology is the play of the season. Its success is mellsured by its
immense popularity and perhaps by the controversy it has generated as well.
Unfortunately, neither its popularity nor the resulting controversy seems
likely to assure progress toward understanding sociobiological issues. The
play has too many actors and, it seems, the casting has been poor; the
players are unable to maintain their roles.
At center stage, of course, is E. O. Wilson and his monumental opus
Sociobiology.1 In the wings, and making periodic entrances, are an assort
ment of brilliant, committed, and aggressive adversaries. On cue, one of
them steps out and decries the self-fulfilling nature of sociobiological
prophesies. The arguments of the adversaries are varied. They warn that if
all nonhuman primate societies tolerate aggression and man is also a pri
mate, then aggression may come to be considered "normal" and therefore
acceptable. Their dire warnings may also have real impact on policy, alter
ing, for example, a research program intended to examine longitudinally the
relation between a supernumerary chromosome and certain behavioral
disorders. The rationale is that since the afflicted infants would have to be
identified and the study obviously does assume that psychopathology is
linked to the chromosome aberration, the attitudes of the child's parents
could well contribute to abnormal behavior that might otherwise not
appear.
Another group of actors in this drama introduces a second theme: man
tends to misuse his tools, and thus, in the vulnerable sphere of human social
relations, the tools made available must be carefully chosen. Can we ignore
the manner in which the biological concept of territoriality was used by
Ardrey to support the political concept of private property rights? Or
2
Wilson, E. O. (\ 975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Harvard University Press,
1
Cambridge, Mass.
Ardrey, R. (\966). The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins oj
2
Property and Nations, Atheneum, New York.
vi Preface
Lorenz's (now fortunately neglected) treatise3 urging bans on unions
between persons of different "race," on the ground that such "hybridiza
tion" destroys the releasing mechanisms for the recognition of esthetic and
moral ideals?
As the drama continues, yet other, socially beneficial themes could
equally well emerge. And is not a clearer understanding of the nature of the
human drama in itself to be desired? But how do we reconcile the dis
putants?
As a beginning, we should recognize that the appearance of what we
term a cause may vary according to the vantage from which it is viewed!
The "cause" of a particular event differs for a historian, a biologist, and a
politician, even as it may differ for biologists who operate at the molecular
and the motor levels. The explicit description of these disciplinary dif
ferences, even when the focus is upon a single event, should allow for an
effective isolation of political, psychological, and biological systems. Thus,
facile homologizing would be prevented, and the existence of avian terri
toriality would not be advanced as a "cause" of capitalist political systems.
The level at which disciplines interact must be superordinate to the dis
ciplines themselves; that is, the principles governing phenomena dealt with
by more than one discipline (such as territoriality) must be couched in a
metalanguage or must use propositions not derived solely from the explana
tory schemata of one of the disciplines.
Volume 3 of the Perspectives in Ethology series, we must hastily add,
provides no synthesis of the sort envisaged. It does, however, provide grist
for the mill from whose flour a blend can be made. We offer the grain in the
belief that social harm need not follow from inquiry into the biological basis
of sociality. Indeed, in the diversity of their approaches, the developmental
studies of Bateson, Ginsburg, Hofer, and Kagan in and of themselves
provide a caveat to the construction of homologies of man with other ani
mals. Many of the other authors, describing animals other than man,
provide equally trenchant reasons for not generalizing about one species
from studies of another-even though, taken individually, none of these
authors necessarily has grounds to argue this view. Finally, Slobodkin
provides an important reminder that there is more than one historical
dimension to biological causality. Time's arrow may not be the simple
missile it appears.
In sum, the essays herein deal with important issues in sociobiology.
They are offered in the belief that sociobiological issues are not only
important to biologists but applicable to politics as well, providing food for
3 Lorenz, K. (1940). Z. angew. Psychol. Characterkunde 59:2-81.
• And note Nagel, (1961). The Structure of Science. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York.
Preface vii
thought while not fueling political polemics. We eschew discussion of these
latter in the belief that the issues dealt with here (and by most biologists
"doing" sociobiology) should not be considered directly relevant nor their
conclusions directly applicable to political issues. That transference must
await a superordinate framework.
P. P. G. Bateson
P. K. Klopfer
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
THE GENETICS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Benson E. Ginsburg
I. Introduction.......................................... I
II. The Genetic Roulette Wheel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
III. The Tender Trap of Adaptation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
IV. The Problem of Homogeneity ........................... 7
V. Nonrandom Sampling of Restricted Gene Pools. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
VI. The Evolutionary Advantages of Social Behavior ........... 9
VII. Acknowledgments..................................... 13
VIII. References ........................................... 13
Chapter 2
THE ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BEHAVIORAL
DOMINANCE
Sidney A. Gauthreaux, Jr.
I. Introduction.·......................................... 17
II. Historical Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
III. Behavioral Dominance as a Natural Regulatory System 21
IV. The Dominance-Dispersal Model ........................ 27
V. Supportive Data and Discussion ......................... 30
VI. Summary ............................................ 38
VII. Acknowledgments..................................... 39
VIII. References ........................................... 39
ix
x Contents
Chapter 3
HOW DOES BEHAVIOR DEVELOP?
P. P. G. Bateson
I. Abstract 55
II. Introduction ......................................... . 55
III. Discontinuities in Development ......................... . 58
IV. Explanations for Discontinuities ........................ . 60
A. Reduction in Variability ........................... . 60
B. Changes in Relationship ........................... . 60
C. Separate Determination of Timing .................. . 61
D. Self-Stabilization ................................. . 61
E. Lack of Equivalence in Behavior .................... . 62
F. Change in Control ................................ . 63
G. New Sources of Variation ......................... . 63
V. Conclusion .......................................... . 65
VI. Acknowledgments .................................... . 66
VII. References .......................................... . 66
Chapter 4
CONTINUITY AND STAGE IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Jerome Kagan
I. The Meanings of Continuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
II. Continuity in Stage Theory ............................. 70
III. The Historical Bases for Faith in Continuity ............... 72
A. Evolutionary Theory and Infant Determinism. . . . . . . . . . 74
IV. Evidence for Continuity in Human Development ........... 75
A. Some Recent Data ................................ 77
B. A Suggested Interpretation ......................... 77
C. Summary........................................ 82
V. Acknowledgments..................................... 83
VI. References ........................................... 84
Chapter 5
FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF LEMUR CATTA IN DIFFERENT
HABITATS
Norman Budnitz
I. Introduction.......................................... 85
II. Description of the Habitat .............................. 87
A. Location......................................... 87
Contents xi
B. Vegetation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
C. Statistical Vegetation Analysis-Ordination ........... 90
D. Plant-Species Diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
III. Lemur Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
A. Population Structure and Home Ranges .............. 95
B. Eating and Searching Behavior ...................... 97
C. Activity Rhythms ................................. 100
D. Use of Forest Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 100
E. Day Ranges ...................................... 100
F. Use of Tamarindus indica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 101
G. Feeding Behavior-Total Feeding Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 102
IV. Discussion............................................ 105
V. Acknowledgments..................................... 107
VI. References ........................................... 107
Chapter 6
STATUS AND HIERARCHY IN NONHUMAN PRIMATE
SOCIETIES
Ted D. Wade
I. Definitions ........................................... 109
II. A Straw-Man Theory .................................. 110
III. Triadic Processes-One Alternative ...................... 113
IV. Is Dominance Natural? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. 115
V. Dominance or Subordinance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 118
VI. Stress, Status, and Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 122
VII. Questions of Function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 124
VIII. Hierarchy Formation and Mathematics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 126
IX. Summary ............................................ 130
X. Acknowledgments..................................... 131
XI. References ........................................... 131
Chapter 7
HIDDEN REGULATORY PROCESSES IN EARLY SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
Myron A. Hofer
I. Abstract ............................................. 135
II. Introduction.......................................... 135
III. Olfactory Processes Regulating the Mother-Infant
Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 139