Primate Social Systems (Studies in Behavioural Adaptation Series) - Hardcover

Dunbar, Robin Ian MacDonald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0709908873 ISBN 13: 9780709908876

Publisher: Springer, 1988

Synopsis

This book grew from small beginnings as I began to find unexpected patterns emerging from the data in the literature. The more I thought about the way in which primate social systems worked, the more interesting things turned out to be. I am conscious that, at times, this has introduced a certain amount of complexity into the text. I make no apologies for that: what we are dealing with is a complex subject, the product of evolutionary forces interacting with very sophisticated minds. None the less, I have done my best to explain every­ thing as clearly as I can in order to make the book accessible to as wide an audience as possible. I have laid a heavy emphasis in this book on the use of simple graphical and mathematical models. Their sophistication, however, is not great and does not assume more than a knowledge of elementary probability theory. Since their role will inevitably be misunderstood, I take this opportunity to stress that their function is essentially heuristic rather than explanatory: they are designed to focus our attention on the key issues so as to point out the directions for further research. A model is only as good as the questions it prompts us to ask. For those whose natural inclination is to dismiss modelling out of hand, I can only point to the precision that their use can offer us in terms of hypothesis-testing.

About this title

Synopsis:

Despite their common interest in social behaviour and its evolution, traditional socioecology and the newer sociobiology have never been satisfactorily integrated. This is mainly a consequence of different emphases, the first focusing on the social system and its ecological determinants, the second on the individual and the genetical implications of behaviour. By attempting to integrate these two well developed bodies of theory, this book opens up new perspectives on social behaviour. This perspective is relevant not only to the study of primates, but to all taxonomic groups. The author's standpoint reflects the rapidly growing view among primatologists in particular (and social biologists in general) that social behaviour needs to be approached in an integrated multidisciplinary way. The book focuses mainly on well-studied species of higher primates. This book should be of interest to second and third year undergraduate students of sociobiology and psychology; also of interest to research workers in ethology, sociobiology, psychology and anthropology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0709908873
• ISBN 13: 9780709908876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 374