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Sociability in Old Female Japanese Monkeys: Human versus Nonhuman Primate Aging
Author(s) -
PAVELKA MARY S. MCDONALD
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1991.93.3.02a00030
Subject(s) - disengagement theory , psychology , social isolation , developmental psychology , social relation , primate , demography , nonhuman primate , gerontology , social psychology , biology , medicine , sociology , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , psychotherapist
Over a period of 20 months, 18 aged and 22 non‐aged semi‐free ranging female Japanese monkeys were observed, and a total of 440 hours of focal animal data were collected. The goal of the study was to investigate the reported pattern of disengagement in old female monkeys. For each subject female, two sociability scores were calculated: the total number of other animals with whom time was spent in affiliative social interaction, and the total amount of time spent in affiliative social interaction. These data were analyzed in order to determine any change in sociability based on age. No relationship was found between age and sociability. The absence of a pattern of decreased social interaction with advancing age in these monkeys is discussed in terms of the methodological differences with earlier studies. It is suggested that the life of nonhuman primates may be essentially continuous from the attainment of adulthood to death, with no recognizable social stage for the elderly, at least in terms of sociability and isolation. Menopause, awareness of mortality, and interindividual dependence are three elements of the human life course that appear to be absent in this troop of Japanese monkeys, and these are discussed as key elements that may render the later portion of the human life course to be very different from that of monkeys, and possibly from that of all other primates.