Bondedness and sociality

Approaches to sociality have, in the past, focused either on group typologies or on the functional aspects of relationships (mate choice, parental investment decisions). In contrast, the nature of the social relationships that scale from the individual-level behavioural decisions to the emergent pro...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dunbar, R, Shultz, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2010
_version_ 1797075167960104960
author Dunbar, R
Shultz, S
author_facet Dunbar, R
Shultz, S
author_sort Dunbar, R
collection OXFORD
description Approaches to sociality have, in the past, focused either on group typologies or on the functional aspects of relationships (mate choice, parental investment decisions). In contrast, the nature of the social relationships that scale from the individual-level behavioural decisions to the emergent properties represented by group typology has received almost no attention at all. We argue that that there is now a need to refocus attention on the bonding processes that give rise to social groups. However, we lack any kind of language with which to describe or classify these operationally, in part perhaps because social bonding is emotional (and, hence, 'felt'). One task for the future is, therefore, to identify suitable indices that can be used to compare the degree of bondedness between individual animals both between species and, within species, between individual dyads in such a way as to be able to test functional questions. © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T23:46:32Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:711d4c59-e138-4e47-8d0d-489079620ead
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T23:46:32Z
publishDate 2010
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:711d4c59-e138-4e47-8d0d-489079620ead2022-03-26T19:41:27ZBondedness and socialityJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:711d4c59-e138-4e47-8d0d-489079620eadEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2010Dunbar, RShultz, SApproaches to sociality have, in the past, focused either on group typologies or on the functional aspects of relationships (mate choice, parental investment decisions). In contrast, the nature of the social relationships that scale from the individual-level behavioural decisions to the emergent properties represented by group typology has received almost no attention at all. We argue that that there is now a need to refocus attention on the bonding processes that give rise to social groups. However, we lack any kind of language with which to describe or classify these operationally, in part perhaps because social bonding is emotional (and, hence, 'felt'). One task for the future is, therefore, to identify suitable indices that can be used to compare the degree of bondedness between individual animals both between species and, within species, between individual dyads in such a way as to be able to test functional questions. © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
spellingShingle Dunbar, R
Shultz, S
Bondedness and sociality
title Bondedness and sociality
title_full Bondedness and sociality
title_fullStr Bondedness and sociality
title_full_unstemmed Bondedness and sociality
title_short Bondedness and sociality
title_sort bondedness and sociality
work_keys_str_mv AT dunbarr bondednessandsociality
AT shultzs bondednessandsociality