Sep 04 2009
Grooming as a Social Tool
“Primates groom one another to cement bonds, to reconcile conflicts, to solicit copulations, to calm distress, and (apparently) to pass the time.” – William McGrew (24)
Human beings spend zero time fingering through each other’s hair apparently in search of parasites while picking out bits of detritus. So how do we engage in social grooming? We chit-chat and gossip, we share stories. We talk about the weather, office romances, celebrity scandals, the wins and losses of our favorite sports teams, etc. We make pleasing noises at one another. Can you believe it! It is largely the nonverbal component to this small talk that does the job.
Grooming, whether physical or auditory, does a lot. It’s a handy tool. In the book New World Primate: Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, the subject of grooming is placed under the “communication” heading. (25)
What can grooming communicate? I am a friend/friendly; We are in this together; I scratch your back, you scratch mine . . . For chimp and human. Of course, communication does not occur in a vacuum. That is why grooming is also included in the New World Primate section on “social behavior” (26)
So what does nonverbal and verbal grooming-communication accomplish socially? I can think of two basic categories. Grooming provides 1) a sort of social glue — it helps establish and maintain bonds/relationships, 2) a way to curry favor.
Interestingly, an online definition of “curry favor” goes like this:
Seek gain or advancement by fawning or flattery, as in Edith was famous for currying favor with her teachers. This expression originally came from the Old French estriller fauvel, “curry the fallow horse,” a beast that in a 14th-century allegory stood for duplicity and cunning. It came into English about 1400 as curry favel–that is, curry (groom with a currycomb) the animal–and in the 1500s became the present term. (27)
To groom with a currycomb. The dovetail of those two terms was unintended by me yet telling.
What favors does a person gain through social grooming? While there sometimes may be a specific gain in mind (flattering the boss before asking for a raise) other times the goal is to simply get on an individual’s “good” side. This ensures that you are more likely to be treated favorably in the future.
Anthropologist and evolutionary biologist Robin Dunbar has written -
“The coalitions of monkeys and apes are long-term commitments, often formed months ahead of their being needed. They are a promise of future action in circumstances as yet unimagined.” (28)
Grooming is a social glue that can build and sustain smaller alliances and larger coalitions of primates. And alliances and coalitions are powerful social resources that warrant investment.
In the coming two posts we will look at these two functions of nonverbal and verbal grooming in greater detail.
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(24) McGrew, W.C., “The Nature of Culture: Prospects and Pitfalls of Cultural Primatologist,” in de Waal, F. B. M., (ed.), Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us About Human Social Evolution, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, p. 245
(25) Kinzey, W. G. New World Primate: Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Aldine De Gryter, New York, 1997, p.191
(26) Kinzey, W. G., 1997, p. 254
(27) http://www.answers.com/curry%20favor
(28) Dunbar, R. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996, p. 19
