ABSTRACT
Until now, very few species of primates have been studied so as to make possible a good comparison of their social grouping in natural conditions. No representative of such important groups as the marmosets and tamarins (Hapalidae) or the sakis, uakaris, capuchins, woolly monkeys (Cebidae) of the New World, or the African guenons (Cercopithecidae) and guerezas (Colobinae) of the Old World has yet been the object of a real ethological or ecological study in the field. As for the Pongidae, the social life in the wild of a species as well known as the chimpanzee still remains almost a complete mystery. In the face of the number and importance of the gaps in our knowledge, it would be completely useless to attempt a synthesis of the whole.
