Analysis of Social Co-Operation

Abstract

IN the preceding chapters I have tried to show that social co-operation serves a great variety of ends. Mating behaviour is not merely the act of coition, but is preceded by long preliminaries. These preliminaries, or courtship, have very distinct functions. It is necessary that the two partners are brought together. Their activities must be synchronized. The reluctance against bodily contact must be overcome. Interspecific matings must be prevented. The female must appease the male’s aggressiveness. We have seen that all these functions are served by a signalling system, by which one individual can influence the other’s behaviour. In family life, the behaviour of the parents has to be co-ordinated so that they take turns in guarding the eggs or young. When the young are to be fed, or when they must he warned against a predator, close co-operation, often involving mutual signalling, is necessary. Several of the relationships of family life extend beyond that into group life, and here again we found that co-operation was based on signalling.