A Cross-Species Application of Bott's Hypothesis on Role Segregation and Social Networks

Abstract

Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that the degree of rolesegregation between husbands and wives is a function of the density in family networks is applied to a review of social relations among representative species from seven genera of Old World primates. On the whole, the hypothesis is supported. In seeking to apply Bott's ideas to primate research, her theory is formalized and stated more abstractly, with the result that its structural dynamics are highlighted. These structural processes revolve around three phenomena: (a) the negative causal effect of network overlap on density of each actor's networks; (b) the positive causal effect of network density on the degree of social support provided by, and a normative elaboration of, each actor's networks; and (c) the causal effect of social support and normative elaboration on the segregation of each actor's activities.

Gendered Occupational Shifts in the Transition to Parenthood: The Influence of Personal Networks

“…The work of Bott received attention during the 1960s and the 1970s, and a series of researchers tried to replicate it with, at best, mixed results (for a review, see Milardo and Allan, 2000). Some researchers confirmed the significance of a network effect on conjugal interactions (Maryansky and Ishii-Kuntz, 1991; Nelson, 1966), while others did not (Aldous and Straus, 1966; Lloyd and Procidano, 1986; Udry and Hall, 1965). These studies, realized using a great variety of measures and methodologies, were usually based on small cross-sectional samples.…”

The Savanna Principle

“…Hypotheses derived from network exchange theory would probably have been successful in the EEA, while those derived from noncooperative game theory and public choice theory would not have been. Perhaps the strongest indication for this is that network exchange theory has been tested and supported with nonhuman primate species (Maryanski, 1987;Maryanski and Ishii-Kuntz, 1991). It is therefore likely that scope conditions and assumptions of network exchange theory held true even before the EEA in the evolutionary history of primates, before our ancestors were human.…”

Communication networks and dispersal patterns in human evolution: A simple simulation model

“…On the comparative level, Maryanski and Ishii-Kuntz (1991) have recently applied social network theories of role segregation in human households to non-human primate cases. Their starting point is Bott's theory of the social network characteristics which give Downloaded by [University of Massachusetts] at 20:57 02 January 2015 rise to clear role segregation in some human marriage partnerships.…”