Pair relations within group life

Yoshiaki Itô

Early man probably lived in groups in which sexual relations were not constant but, contrary to the idea of primitive promiscuity expressed by L. H. Morgan and F. Engels, the monogamous relation might have been established for a sufficiently long time subsequently to permit the development of prolonged parental care. This is supported by the investigation of present-day primitive societies of man. If this was the case when did the conflict between the family and the group explicit in the proposition of Espinas disappear? The gorilla with a strong polygynous tendency does not form a multi-male group while the chimpanzee that forms large groups shows no fixed pair relations. To provide for young for an extended period of parental care without the participation of the male, the female chimpanzees have had to develop post-parturition anoestrus of at least three years […]. This is accompanied by a lowering of the intrinsic rate of natural increase, r, of the population. The key to the success of man might have been the duality of group life and monogamous life which prevented the lowering of r. How this was made possible is still unknown, but if would be interesting in this connection to re-examine the society of the wolf which maintains pair relations within group life – including adoption and nursing of puppies from different families within the group.

Fonte: Itô, Y. 1980 [1978]. Comparative ecology. Cambridge, CUP.