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This course provides an introduction to primate behavior. Like us, most nonhuman primates live in groups that provide a complex social environment. We explore how social structure and social relationships are affected by competition for resources: how dominance relationships develop, how conflicts are resolved, and how friendships and close bonds are formed. Primates are particularly skilled at manipulating their social environment. In humans, language and certain mental skills particularly enhance such social expertise. For example, the mental ability to see the world from another individual's perspective gives us some insight into how other individuals may behave in different contexts. How well are these and other traits developed in nonhuman primates, such as monkeys and apes, and what can this tell us, if anything, about our own evolutionary origins?
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ANTH Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459