Differences Book

A fascinating book that is well argued, and that has a compelling thesis. Robin Dunbar argues that language evolved, ultimately, from the grooming behavior of primates, which was used to give pleasure and to establish social bonds, as well as to cement social alliances. This enabled primates to survive by being able to distinguish friend from foe, and create cohort groups. In the meantime, the size of larger primates grew as primates traveled further afield in the search for food and, therefore, faced greater risk from predators. Dunbar discovers that the maximum number of other primates primates could deal with in a group was 150; this was because of the large amount of time that was required to engage in grooming behaviors. Dunbar argues that language developed as a substitute for grooming as the size and complexity of groups made grooming an inefficient and too-time consuming activity. The members of society who first began using language were women, as they tended to stay in the same groups and develop the strongest alliances. Fascinating stuff.