Abstract
Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. Dance also has been reported in a small number of non-human primate species, in particular apes. However, its function has not been systematically evaluated. We observed 357 intentional, rhythmic, and nonverbal dance displays performed by four adult female cao vit gibbons (Nomascus nasutus) residing in four polygynous groups during 3000 h of observation in Bangliang, Guangxi, China. Females used dance to solicit copulations, as well as to promote a social bond with the group’s lone adult male. In addition, this display appears to represent a form of non-aggressive competition among adult females living in the same group. We found that a female who had a weaker social relationship with the breeding male increased her social and sexual access to the male by an increase in dancing frequency. Given that gibbons dance in various behavioral contexts, and appears to serve several important social and sexual functions, a greater understanding of this form of gestural communication offers an instructive model for examining the origin and evolution of dance in humans and other apes.
Highlights
Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy
Many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy have been attributed to dance across human societies[1,2,3], the evolutionary origins of dance remain largely unknown
A rhythmic dance display given by an adult female cao vit gibbon in G1 was first observed on June 6, 2008
Summary
Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. We observed 357 intentional, rhythmic, and nonverbal dance displays performed by four adult female cao vit gibbons (Nomascus nasutus) residing in four polygynous groups during 3000 h of observation in Bangliang, Guangxi, China. Hanna[1] identified four specific components of dance across human cultures and Francis[3] concluded, after careful analysis, that patterned movements and displays by chimpanzee’s and gorilla’s met three of the four criteria These displays were purposeful, intentionally rhythmic, and in most instances, nonverbal. We present data on 357 rhythmic dance displays performed by four wild female cao vit gibbons (N. nasutus) residing in four polygynous breeding groups in the Bangliang Nature Reserve, Guangxi, China. Similar to its close relatives, the western black-crested gibbon (N. concolor) and the Hainan gibbon (N. hainanus), but unlike other gibbon taxa which are usually characterized by a strong male-female pair bond and social monogamy (e.g. Hylobates, Symphalangus, Hoolock), cao vit gibbons exhibit a polygynous mating system in which groups contain a single adult male and two concurrently breeding females[16,17]
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