Group Love: Primate Social Organization

There are several characteristics that define the order of Primates, but one of the most important is that all primates are very social creatures.  You will typically find primates of all species types in either pairs or groups, and even if they are alone they are typically not for very long.  Despite being social there are actually different ways primates are social, or group together, and today's blog post will address the various types of primate social groupings that exist.

Figure 1: Orangutans

There are six types of social groupings.  The first type is called the female-bonded kin group.  This grouping is characterized by groups of females who associate with each other.  The males will typically be more solitary, avoiding each other but not necessarily engaging in violence if they come in contact with each other.  The females will raise their young together and engage in (primarily sexual) contact with males.  This type of social grouping is common among orangutans (Figure 1).

Figure 2: Gibbons

The second type of social grouping is the monogamous pair groups, which is where mated pairs exist either alone or with their offspring.  This type is commonly found among gibbons (and Western human societies; Figure 2), but it is not the most typical type of social grouping among all primates, which is in part an excuse some humans use in arguing against monogamy.

Figure 3: Tamarin monkeys

The third social grouping is the polyandrous group.  Poly means many, and androus means men, meaning there are multiple male partners for one female.  While less prevalent among human groups it is found among Tamarin monkeys and several other small New World primates (Figure 3).

Figure 4: Howler monkey

The fourth type of social grouping is actually more commonplace among various groups of primates.  The one male group is a bit of a misnomer, but it refers to a larger number of females with fewer males, which is the opposite of the polyandrous group.  You can think of it as males with multiple female partners.  This is actually quite common among several human cultural groups across the globe, as well as can be found among Howler monkeys (Figure 4).

Figure 5: Rhesus macaques

The multimale group is also a misnomer.  It refers to multiple males and females who reside in a group.  There is typically no monogamous pair groupings as males and females will typically mate and interact with each other at will.  There may be repeat partnerships or long term relationships in some cases, typically with a primary male who commands that sort of control among females.  You can find this type of grouping among rhesus macaques (Figure 5).

Figure 6: Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees characterize the final social grouping, which is a fission-fusion grouping (Figure 6).  This type of social grouping is made up of various groups of different sizes and compositions coming together to share members.  Among fission-fusion groupings, males or females will leave their home groups to enter new ones, diversifying the gene pools of every group.  Much like with the multimale group there is also some sort of male and female hierarchy within each group where there is a dominant male and dominant female who decides how sexual relations among group members will take shape.

References

Jurmain, Robert, Kilgore, Lynn, Trevathan, Wenda, Ciochon, Russell L. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 2014. Print.

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