The Other End of the Leash by Patricia B. Mcconnell

Author:Patricia B. Mcconnell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science, Non-fiction
ISBN: 9780345446787
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2002-01-01T10:00:00+00:00

Social to the Bone

Humans also need social interaction during development to be our normal selves. Just like laboratory primates isolated from others, human babies that don't receive close, nurturing physical contact and social interaction from adults begin to hug themselves and rock back and forth as they age. If they manage to mature, most of them are never able to show empathy for others or form meaningful attachments later in life.

But when we are raised normally, we humans are the antihermits of the animal world, ever seeking companionship and social interaction. Some of us may prefer more private time than others, and we may get overtired by too many people or too many phone calls, but we rarely seek complete solitude for long. Indeed, the ultimate punishment in prison is solitary confinement. We use “time-outs” now as a consequence for misbehaving children, but the idea isn't new. Children in England were “sent to Coventry” for punishment, meaning they were banished from social interaction. “Shunning” is used the world over as a consequence for inappropriate behavior. In some cultures even entire families are shunned for the social sins of one of their relatives. The Cheyenne Native American culture banned whole families, in one case banishing a family for the social transgressions of one of its members, even though in battle they had risked their lives and killed many of the enemy. But in spite of their bravery, the tribal council refused to recognize or reward their acts. Because they were banished, they functionally didn't exist, and not acknowledging them was considered the gravest of all possible punishments, worse than death or physical torture.

Enforced solitude as an extreme punishment is an excellent example of how important social interaction is to our species. If it weren't, taking it away wouldn't be so powerful. This dependence on sociality isn't characteristic of all animals. Many animals live a life of solitude as adults, from grizzly bears to tigers. Many more species, like some fish and butterflies, spend a lot of time in groups, but just because they are in a group doesn't mean that they have a lot of social interactions. Butterflies, for example, congregate around a valued resource, like the minerals in a puddle in a gravel driveway, but they are drawn by needing similar things, not by an attraction to one another.

Primates, who are otherwise a remarkably varied group, are consistent in their high degree of sociality. Primate social relationships tend to be complex, involving relationships that differ in degrees of familiarity and intensity with a variety of individuals. Male chimpanzees have such strong social ties that no adult male can achieve or retain dominance without a coalition of other males to support him. Frans de Waal titled his book about these coalitions Chimpanzee Politics for good reason: status-seeking male chimps play a complicated game of currying favor with the power brokers while always assessing the potential of a takeover from another group. Some individuals do their best to play both sides of

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