Understanding Social Systems and Mating Systems in Primates Making a clear distinction between social systems and mating systems is essential to comprehend the interactions among individuals in primate species. Social systems involve various interactions between sexes and ages, while mating systems focus on the patterns and behaviors related to reproduction. Transcript: Speaker 1 Thank you Ricardo. It’s a pleasure. The pleasure is mine. It’s been an impressive program that you’ve been developing over the years. So I’m honored to be joining the host of speakers you’ve had in the past. Thank you. Speaker 2 Well, thank you so much for the kind words. And so to start off with what different kinds of mating systems do we find across primate species? Exactly. Speaker 1 So before I answer specifically that, I’d like to make the distinction. It’s going to help us in our conversation later on between social systems and mating systems. And this is one of those times when maybe relating it to humans really helps us get the message across. We always try to be very careful when we move between monkeys and humans. But a social system, it’s the kind of situation in which individuals of the different sexes and different ages interact with each other socially, behaviorally, demographically. (Time 0:00:39)
Understanding Social Systems and Mating Systems in Primates Distinguishing between social systems and mating systems in primates is crucial. Social systems involve interactions among different sexes and ages without explicit reference to mating, while mating systems focus on who mates with whom. In primates, there are various mating systems such as multi male multi female mating systems where multiple adult males and females mate with each other, with some males having more mating opportunities than others. Transcript: Speaker 1 So before I answer specifically that, I’d like to make the distinction. It’s going to help us in our conversation later on between social systems and mating systems. And this is one of those times when maybe relating it to humans really helps us get the message across. We always try to be very careful when we move between monkeys and humans. But a social system, it’s the kind of situation in which individuals of the different sexes and different ages interact with each other socially, behaviorally, demographically. But without any explicit reference to where they are mating with each other, whether they are having sex with each other or not. So when we talk about a mating system, we’re referring to in a very general sense who has sex with whom. And again, further on, I suspect we will be elaborating a little bit more on the differences between having sex and actually reproducing with each other. But we can come back. We can come back to that later. So if we’re going to talk about who has sex with whom, who mates with whom in primates, you have them of all kinds. Most people are very familiar with those species where you have several adult males and several adult females, and they’re all mating with each other. There are patterns, of course, sometimes a male will concentrate most of the mating opportunities. Another male may not be so lucky. But usually, most of the females do have access to mating. So we talk about those groups as being multi male multi female mating systems. We may also refer to them as polygenous, meaning that one male has access to many females. We have in primates as well a system that’s very rare in most animals, definitely rare (Time 0:01:04)
Understanding Social Systems vs Mating Systems in Primates Distinguishing between social systems and mating systems in primates is crucial. A social system involves interactions between individuals of different sexes and ages without explicit reference to mating. On the other hand, a mating system refers to who is having sex with whom. It’s important to note that mating does not always result in reproduction. In primates, there are various mating structures, including species with multiple adult males and females mating with each other. Transcript: Speaker 1 So before I answer specifically that, I’d like to make the distinction. It’s going to help us in our conversation later on between social systems and mating systems. And this is one of those times when maybe relating it to humans really helps us get the message across. We always try to be very careful when we move between monkeys and humans. But a social system, it’s the kind of situation in which individuals of the different sexes and different ages interact with each other socially, behaviorally, demographically. But without any explicit reference to where they are mating with each other, whether they are having sex with each other or not. So when we talk about a mating system, we’re referring to in a very general sense who has sex with whom. And again, further on, I suspect we will be elaborating a little bit more on the differences between having sex and actually reproducing with each other. But we can come back. We can come back to that later. So if we’re going to talk about who has sex with whom, who mates with whom in primates, you have them of all kinds. Most people are very familiar with those species where you have several adult males and several adult females, and they’re all mating with each other. (Time 0:01:04)
Understanding Mating Systems in Primates Mating systems in primates refer to the general concept of who has sex with whom. These systems can include multi male multi female mating, polygenous systems where one male mates with many females, polyandry where a female mates with many males, and monogamous mating where one adult male mates with one adult female. These systems vary in prevalence among different primate species, with monogamous mating being particularly rare. Transcript: Speaker 1 But without any explicit reference to where they are mating with each other, whether they are having sex with each other or not. So when we talk about a mating system, we’re referring to in a very general sense who has sex with whom. And again, further on, I suspect we will be elaborating a little bit more on the differences between having sex and actually reproducing with each other. But we can come back. We can come back to that later. So if we’re going to talk about who has sex with whom, who mates with whom in primates, you have them of all kinds. Most people are very familiar with those species where you have several adult males and several adult females, and they’re all mating with each other. There are patterns, of course, sometimes a male will concentrate most of the mating opportunities. Another male may not be so lucky. But usually, most of the females do have access to mating. So we talk about those groups as being multi male multi female mating systems. We may also refer to them as polygenous, meaning that one male has access to many females. We have in primates as well a system that’s very rare in most animals, definitely rare in primates and in humans, which is a system where a single female may mate with many males, polyandry. And it’s in primates, we only see it in some relatively small primates, monkeys of South America. And then we have another system which is the system where I have focused my research, which is a system where there is monogamous mating, meaning that there’s only one adult male mating With one adult female. (Time 0:01:40)
The Influence of Resource Distribution on Mating Systems Factors influencing mating systems in primates revolve around ecological settings and the distribution of resources. Causal inference claims are crucial, especially when studying significant social matters. The distribution of resources, particularly in a relatively homogeneous space, may contribute to a higher probability of a monogamous mating system, considering the distinct reproductive biology of male and female mammals. Transcript: Speaker 1 Having made that clarification that we are talking about factors that influence what we really mean when we study living primates in an ecological setting is what are some factors That we see happening in a certain relationship, in a certain association with these mating systems that we observe. And then we have made that clarification which sometimes of course we are talking about mating systems in primates. Maybe it isn’t that serious if we do not get the causal pathway correctly, but it is profoundly important. The misunderstanding we have in making causal inference claims for very, very important social matters that we are interested in. So what are some of the factors that the typical cool prints have in of course all kinds of social and environmental factors. And a very, very general hypothesis that it is so general that you cannot really test it adequately is that when you have resources that are distributed in space in a relatively homogeneous Manner, there may be a situation that lends itself to a higher probability of having a monogamous mating system. Because in mammals and this is very, very important in mammals, let’s not forget that male and females have very, very different reproductive biology. (Time 0:05:01)