Growing Up Cooperatively: Family Processes and Infant Care in Marmosets and Tamarins

Parenting patterns range widely among human and nonhuman primates. Rarely do single mothers parent without help. Many female-bonded species have female relatives (grandmothers and aunts) to help with infant care. In other species both parents assist in infant care, or there is cooperative care where several group members work together to rear a single infant or litter. Cooperative care is relatively uncommon in primates, but is found in many birds and in some non-primate mammals such as wolves and meerkats. In primates, cooperative care is seen primarily in marmosets and tamarins, small monkeys from the New World. We first describe patterns of cooperative care of infants in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Then we examine the cooperative care family as a social system describing the mechanisms that maintain relationships among family members to maintain cooperative care. Human beings also require cooperative care due to the long duration of infancy and childhood, so we conclude with some speculations about how cooperative care benefits children and how research with cooperative care primates might help us to become more successful parents. Growing Up Cooperatively Childcare in mammals is often studied and discussed only in the context of mother-infant interactions because mothers bear the costs of gestation and lactation. Occasionally there are studies on fathers and the role they play in infant care. Rarely is infant care and infant development studied in the context of families and the contributions that each family member might make to successful infant care. The animal models that are used to study parenting are typically species where mothers alone are responsible for all infant care (e.g., rats, Fleming, 1996; vervet monkeys, Fairbanks, 40 02--Snowdon--40-66 5/10/07 8:14 AM Page 40