Social organization and the environment: Aspects of contemporary social ethology

Abstract

Summary 1. A major development within the ethology of the last decade focusses attention upon the relations between social behaviour, ecology and population dynamics. This field may be termed ‘social ethology’ following an early but neglected usage of the term by Waxweiler at the start of the century. 2. Contemporary social ethology comprises three interdependent perspectives, socio-ecology, socio-demography and the study of social processes within natural and experimental groups. 3. In socio-ecology recent studies reveal that close correlations exist between the forms of avian and mammalian social organizations and their respective ecological niches. In particular the adaptive significance of certain mammalian societies comprising, on the one hand, multimale reproductive units and, on the other, those made up of one-male and all-male units is discussed and explanatory hypotheses derived from primate and ungulate data briefly considered. 4. In socio-demography research suggests that socially mediated mortality is of greater significance in the density-dependent control of bird and mammal numbers than had formerly been thought. The relations between ecological factors extrinsic to and social factors intrinsic to a social organization may be modelled in the form of open adaptive cybernetic systems rather than expressed in terms of analogies to closed mechanical or physiological systems. 5. Studies of social processes in non-human primate groups suggest that some form of role analysis may prove heuristic. The relations between dominance status, affiliative and kinship relations, social subterfuge and competition-contingent cooperation are discussed in an attempt to outline the dynamics of social change within relatively stable group structures. 6. ‘Human ethology’ seems at present to lack adequate definition as an academic discipline. Social ethology may provide the essential biological basis for future research in this area.