Affiliative Relationships Between Males in Groups of Nonhuman Primates: a Summary

Abstract

Description and analysis of a complex system is most likely to begin with the most conspicuous features, gradually progressing to consider the more subtle ones. In group-living primates sex and aggression are often the most conspicuous behaviours, and these were the focus of much of the early research on primates in social groups (e.g. ZUCKERMAN, 1932). In many species adult males are more conspicuous than females, because of their greater body size, and other sexually dimorphic features, and they are also frequently dominant to them. Perhaps because of this, adult males were seen as the central figures in the group, fulfilling a control role (BERNSTEIN, 1970), maintaining cohesion and settling disputes. As field research progressed, it became clear that males are relatively transitory members of the group in many species, and that it is the females that form the stable core. Dominance relations among females were reported to be more stable than those among males, and kinship was revealed as a major factor governing both dominance and affiliative behaviour among females (KAWAMURA, 1958; SADE, 1967; MISSAKIAN, 1972, 1974; NETTO & VAN HOOFF, 1986; DATTA, 1988). Later studies found evidence in several species of lasting affiliative relationships between adult males and females (TAKAHATA, 1982; CHAPAIS, 1983;