Human grooming in comparative perspective: People in six small‐scale societies groom less but socialize just as much as expected for a typical primate

American Journal of Physical Anthropology • Vol/Iss. 162(4) • Wiley • • Published In • Pages: 810-816 •
By Jaeggi, Adrian V., Kramer, Karen L., Hames, Raymond, Kiely, Evan J., Gomes, Cristina, Kaplan, Hillard, Gurven, Michael

Abstract

Grooming of conspecifics is thought to play an important social role among nonhuman primates, but the function and relative importance of such grooming among humans is unknown. Here the authors compare time spent grooming and conversing among six small-scale societies with grooming data from 69 nonhuman primate species. They test the hypothesis that conversation evolved among humans as an alternative way to obtain the social benefits (such as building and maintaining social alliances) of grooming in large groups.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: erik.ringen