One of the recurrently intense debates in contemporary society has to do with the origin of male and female behavioral differences in human children1. It is hard to understand to what degree are gendered behavioral differences innate and biological, and to what extent is the surrounding environment influencing such behaviors. Can we learn anything from our closest living relatives who grow up without being encouraged by the society to behave in a certain way? Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) adults differ in sociability, reflecting the ability to function in a complex social setting that ultimately determines their reproductive success2. How soon do these sociality differences begin to arise? To determine whether these sociality differences are innate or learnt we need to dig into infant social behavior, the age window when they are still independent of social …show more content…
influences. Data on social interactions characterizing a chimpanzee’s early development are unfortunately limited. A recent study on chimpanzees, published in the journal Animal behavior by Lonsdorf et al. under the title ‘Boys will be boys’, comes down on the side of biology. They show that gendered differences in wild chimpanzee sociality behavior emerge in infancy3. These findings advance our understanding on how behavioral sex-specific differences are essentially innate and are rooted in our evolutionary and biological history. Chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park live in large communities that range from 20 to 180 individuals4.
Their fission-fusion social organization includes small, temporary subgroups that travel and forage independently within their community’s home range5 (Fig.1). In East African chimpanzees, adult females are less gregarious than adult males and represent the dispersing sex2. As mothers, they often spend much of their time accompanied only by their dependent offspring6. Meanwhile, adult males are highly social and philopatric; they live in larger groups and form enduring social bonds with individuals of the same sex7. Chimpanzees have a male-dominated society in which rank is a constant battle; therefore males can strongly profit from coalitions. Cooperating in home range defense activities, hunting, and obtaining access to sexually receptive females have an advantage in terms of maximizing their fitness, including increasing their reproductive success and maintaining their social status2. By contrast, females were found to avoid other females to decrease competition for food and
space2. Behavioral differences characterizing the early social experience are critical to developing appropriate adult behaviors8; for instance, infant males have a deep interest in developing strong bonds with adult males in order to maximize their fitness later on in adulthood. Infant chimpanzees are nurtured by their mothers, with whom they experience intense and lengthy relationships9. Youngsters have also close associations with related females and older siblings, who are often involved in caretaking behaviors9. Previous research attempted to prove gendered differences in social behavior in young chimpanzees. However, when studying infant sociality behavior, it is difficult to disentangle effects of mother’s and other immediate family members’ sociability. This is where Lonsdorf et al.’s study comes in; indeed, the researchers controlled for these effects during the assessment of infant social behavior. The study focused on two-and-a-half to three years old chimpanzees; the age window coincides when infants start to play out of their mother’s reach and begin to experience more interactions with unrelated chimpanzees4. Lonsdorf and her colleagues looked at observational data recorded over 34 years of research and focused on 20 infants, 8 females and 12 males (from 10 different mothers). For each chimpanzee, observers had spent a minimum of 10 hours recording once every five minutes on every detail of social interactions, mainly physical contact, grooming, and play. Researchers were particularly interested in infant interactions outside the immediate family; therefore, they used a linear regression model that included a random effect for mother. They were able to find patterns among sexes: it turned out that young males are more sociable than young females, even when the males’ mothers weren’t extremely sociable. It seems like they were not trying to follow their mothers around and imitate their behavior; rather it appears to be the other way around. Also, male infants engaged in interactions with more adult males than female infants did, while young females had fewer social interactions and particularly avoided adult males. This provides compelling evidence that young chimpanzees show patterns of social behavior that will match sex-specific social roles later in adulthood. More importantly, since mothers seem to show little difference in how they rear males or females, this study demonstrates that these gendered behavioral differences are innate. The study had some puzzling features, however. First of all, saying that male infants are more sociable than female infants doesn’t cover the whole picture. Specifically, in what kind of behavior one sex is more sociable than the other? Researchers considered observational data regarding different types of behavior (grooming, playing, physical contact), but there are no explanations of these types of behavioral differences that resulted from the analysis. It would be interesting to see whether one sex interacted with more social partners than the other sex when involved in one type of behavior; like that, we can determine if that particular behavior reflects their sex-specific roles that infants will embrace later on in adulthood. Furthermore, the mother’s role in influencing infant social behavior is ambiguous; researchers found that infant sex alone was not a predictor of maternal sociality. Surprisingly, when they looked at three individual mothers, mothers of male offspring interacted with more individuals than did mothers of female infants. In general, they controlled for mothers sociability, but there are some inconsistencies. The researchers involved in this study not only conclude that male and female social tendencies appear quite early in chimpanzees but also argue that the differences in sociality seen in human children may then also have a biological basis. Obviously we may have a better understanding of evolution of human behavior but at the same time we can’t say for certain that is a direct result of shared ancestry. Researchers need to bear in mind the huge degree of flexibility in primate behavior 10. Overall, Lonsdorf et al. were careful to control for numerous variables that may have influenced the outcome of the assessments. Taken as a whole, the results provide convincing evidence that gendered differences in wild chimpanzee social behavior emerge in infancy, and therefore are innate. Further studies should be addressed regarding human children psychology; researchers should draw conclusions about the ecological and genetic factors that may have given rise to similarities between our close ancestors and us.
As stated in the article, “each ape’s social success depends on what other group members are up to, natural selection has favored the capacity for social maneuvers and [superior intelligence]” (2). Natural selection also favors apes because they are not ones to dwell or hold grudges on other apes when they get into feuds. Frans de Waal, a primatologist at the Arnheim Zoo in the Netherlands, shows how natural selection has also promoted the ability to strengthen the relationships of others. In his example, he gives an account of Mama, the most influential female in the colony, who would reconcile other apes after they got into
There are contrasts in tool kits used by different groups of chimpanzees, which seem to be a result of the environment in which they live as well as information that is shared by the group. For example, in 1973 it was reported that chimpanzees in Gombe did not use hammer stones, but those of Cape Palmas did. We will explore the tool use of Chimpanzees from the wild, including Gombe, Tai National Forest, and the Congo Basin---and contrast those with Chimpanzees in captivity in locations of Zoo’s both in the United States and abroad.
As our neighboring living families, chimpanzees as well as bonobos have been extensively used as prototypes of the behavior of early hominids. However, In modern years, as statistics on the social behaviors or conduct and ecosystem of bonobos has evidently come to light, a lot of interspecific assessments have been done. Chimpanzees have been described in terms of their intercommunity struggle, meat eating, infanticide, anthropogy, male position-striving, and supremacy over females. Bonobos, for the meantime, have been depicted as the ‘‘creator of love, but not a war’’ ape, categorized by female power-sharing, a deficiency of hostility between either characters or groups, expounded sexual behavior that happens without the restraint of a thin window of fruitfulness, and the usage of sex for communicative determinations. This paper evaluates the indication for this contrast and reflects the reasons that distinct portrayals of the two great apes have advanced.
There are many different facets to the nature versus nurture argument that has been going on for decades. One of these, the influence of nature and nurture on gender roles and behaviors, is argued well by both Deborah Blum and Aaron Devor, both of whom believe that society plays a large role in determining gender. I, however, have a tendency to agree with Blum that biology and society both share responsibility for these behaviors. The real question is not whether gender expression is a result of nature or nurture, but how much of a role each of these plays.
In primates such as chimpanzees it is imperative to look at their culture to understand their intelligence. Culture in this circumstance means a specific set of behaviors obtained through learning in a population/species. Chimpanzee’s intelligence is quite unique how they interact with their environment and use it to their benefit just like humans. They have the ability to overcome the obstacles of everyday life through learning and the ability to use tools to create a better quality of life. The complexity of their intellect is different from any other animal ever seen. A significant part of chimpanzee intelligence that sets them apart from other primates and puts them closer to humans is the way they exhibit social learning within their culture and interactions within their environment.
Quiatt, D., & Reynolds, V. (1993). Primate behaviour: information, social knowledge, and the evolution of culture. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
In “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” Deborah Blum states that “gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology” (Blum 679). Maasik and Solomon argue that gender codes and behavior “are not the result of some sort of natural or biological destiny, but are instead politically motivated cultural constructions,” (620) raising the question whether gender behavior begins in culture or genetics. Although one may argue that gender roles begin in either nature or nurture, many believe that both culture and biology have an influence on the behavior.
B.M.de Waal, Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution. Havard University Press: Massachusets, 2001.
Historically throughout the earliest centuries, the term gender and sex has been a vital focus in distinguishing the overlap between gender differences. Matlin’s book, Psychology of women, explains that gender similarities of females are at most similar to men, however, considering that culture influences individual’s beliefs; women are expected to behave the way culture entitles us to (Matlin, 2008, p.8). In contrast, the book also reveals that women and men are different from one another in terms of social and intellectual skills according to biological inheritance (Matlin, 2008, p.9). These two perspectives expose valid reasons in terms of the roles that men and women play in society. Even though feminists and female psychologists imply that both men and women are exactly the same, there is however, a strong statistical correlation related to the comparison of men and women according to different brain wiring, strength and endurance (York, n.d., para.10).
Social groups of primates closely relate to sexual dimorphism, because how each of their communities interact with one another plays a large role in sexual selection. Sexual selection, as Darwin stated, is a key factor and cause in the morphological dimorphism between sexes of a species. Additionally, sexual selection comes from male competition, which directly correlates to primate’s social structures. For example, genus gorilla is a part of a polygynous mating system, which consists of one male and multiple female. This creates an environment where males must compete with one another to reproduce and create offspring. Due to this competition, males must prove to be strong and attract themselves to females to ensure reproductive success. These strong male traits are favored in sexual selection, because the females are highly particular about the male they mate with, so there become specific male traits that are most desirable. Therefore, in polygynous groups, sexual dimorphism is the greatest (Frayer, Wolpoff, 1985). In comparison, a monogamous primate such as genus hylobate or gibbons has a social structure that consists of a more nuclear based family. There is a lot less male competition because males do not mate with multiple females. Therefore, primates are less dimorphic in monogamous social structures (Frayer, Wolpoff,
Introduction The topic of gender differences must understandably be approached with caution in our modern world. Emotionally charged and fraught with ideas about political correctness, gender can be a difficult subject to address, particularly when discussed in correlation to behavior and social behavior. Throughout history, many people have strove to understand what makes men and women different. Until the modern era, this topic was generally left up to religious leaders and philosophers to discuss. However, with the acquisition of more specialized medical knowledge of human physiology and the advent of anthropology, we now know a great deal more about gender differences than at any other point in history.
...o carry out a perfect experiment and consequently all evidence will be flawed. It is necessary to focus upon evaluating the severity of such flaws. One could argue that the biosocial theory is more convincing as the many strengths of the socio-biological and social learning theories are combined providing a credible explanation. This also means the scientific facts in the socio-biological theory are no longer undermined but indeed strengthened by evidence to support learnt gender-appropriate behaviours. The biosocial theory allows for both schools of thought to be equally considered. Overall the Hegelian dialectic mechanism can be applied; the hypothesis, in this case the socio-biological explanation, and the antithesis, the social learning paradigm, must co-exist to produce the resulting synthesis, gender-appropriate behaviours. Thus girls are both born and made.
The chimpanzee remains a unique species native to Africa with distinct characteristics and lifestyles which remains threatened by human influence. Chimpanzees, oftentimes classified as monkeys, belong to the great ape family. Despite this classification, chimpanzees remain the closest living relatives to humans, sharing about 98% of their genetic makeup with them, according to Chimp Facts. The chimpanzee features long arms which extend past the knees, opposable thumbs, and a distinct mouth. The body of the chimp remains covered with brown or black hair except on the face, ears, palms, and soles of feet. The chimps typically rely on all four of their limbs for travel, but also possess the ability to walk on two legs for up to a kilometer. Chimpanzees primarily travel along the ground but spend their days in vegetation nests up in the trees. According to “Chimpanzees,” the species possesses extremely social qualities resulting in communities of both females and males. The term “Fusion-fission” describes the flexible community structure. “All community members know each other, but feed, travel,
I am almost always surrounded by the interactions between children and their parents. I hear it at my work, I hear it in restaurants, but most of all I hear it at my house. My mother owns a daycare and every night I hear parents being hit by a barrage of questions. When children are being picked up they always have a couple of questions for their parents. Children are always asking about the meal for the night or whether they can go over to a friend?s house or have some body over. Every night I see 12 different children with twelve different parents and it seems that each parent acts differently then the next.
The same concept was expressed by Edward O. Wilson (1992), father of sociobiology at Harvard University. According to him, females tend to be better equipped in characteristics like verbal and social skills, security needs and empathy than their counterpart. In the other, Males tend to be better in spatial ...