ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the following three questions: how much time do different primate species actually spend in social behavior? How much of this behavior is friendly and how much is agonistic? How do these numbers vary among populations of the same species and among different species? If the purpose of behavioral interactions is proximate, and not solely to pass on one's own genes at the expense of others, there must be other factors driving social behavior and sociality among primates. B. Smuts emphasizes that "aggression and affiliative behaviors of male and female primates vary depending on the species, the social context, and the individual". Sufficient data required to substantiate the basic assumptions of the "competition-aggression/ affiliation-reconciliation" model have not been collected, and alternative theories on the causes of aggression and cooperation have not been adequately investigated. Theories on the importance of cooperative mutualism and other low-cost forms of social cooperation are generally lacking from the discussion of primate sociality.
