Self-Reinforcing Dominance Interactions Between Virtual Males and Females. Hypothesis Generation for Primate Studies

Dominance is supposed to be associated with many benefits, such as priority of access to food, safe locations, and sexual partners. It is accordingly thought to be of central importance in primate behavior. Since most primates live permanently in bi-sexual groups, the dominance position of an individual depends on social skills with both males and females. It therefore comes as a surprise that hardly any data on malefemale dominance relationships exist (Kappeler, 1993). As a consequence there is also no theory. The main aim of the present paper is to provide theory on the dynamics of dominance relationships between the sexes. Although it is presumed that in most species (apart from lemurs, in which females often dominate males) adult males outrank females, in some studies it has been found that males dominate all females, whereas in others there is a certain degree of overlap between male and female hierarchies (Smuts, 1987; Kappeler, 1993). Lack of quantitative data on the degree of overlap is most unfortunate, because the degree of overlap may have wide-ranging effects. For instance, the higher the relative rank position of females to males, the lower their chance of becoming victims of male ‘demonic’ behavior (Wrangham & Peterson 1996), such as harassment, infanticide and sexual coercion (Smuts & Smuts, 1993; van Schaik, 1996). Furthermore, they then may exert female choice by refusing copulations more easily. It must be noted, however, that the concept of dominance is problematic in itself and polemics about its nature persist. Whereas some consider dominance to be a (possibly inherited) quality of individuals (e.g. Ellis, 1994), others see it as a relational characteristic Adaptive Behavior 2000, 8(1), 11-24