Abstract
Humans live in modular societies with a minimum of two levels of organization, the conjugal family and the local community. Yet any human community is likely to contain at least one other social unit whose evolutionary significance has not always been recognized: a same-sex association, such as a men’s “club” or “brotherhood.” The purpose of this article is to explore the role of all-male associations in relation to the conjugal families that are often taken to be the main constituents of human groups. What has been called bachelor threat in other mammalian species is a major problem in human societies, which may include follower males as well as all-male units. Yet tensions between married men and bachelors are often eclipsed by the need for warriors to defend the local community. The ethnographic record includes many cases in which fraternal security takes precedence over conjugal bonds, resulting in the physical segregation of the sexes, including husbands and wives. At the extreme, a husband usually sleeps at a men’s house while making regular visits to his conjugal family. Though this pattern is classically associated with tribal Amazonia and Melanesia, it is seen here as part of a continuum of variation in small-scale societies worldwide. These societies reflect a series of historical compromises, it is argued, between bachelors and elders, on the one hand, and between men’s associations and conjugal families, on the other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, M. R. (1967). Male cults and secret initiations in Melanesia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Biersack, A. (1982). Ginger gardens for the ginger woman: rites and passages in a Melanesian society. Man, 17, 239–258.
Biersack, A. (2001). Reproducing inequality: The gender politics of male cults in the Papua New Guinea Highlands and Amazonia. In T. A. Gregor & D. Tuzin (Eds.), Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An exploration of the comparative method (pp. 69–90). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boehm, C. (1999). Hierarchy in the forest: The evolution of egalitarian behavior. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chapais, B. (2008). Primeval kinship: How pair-bonding gave birth to human society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Collier, J. F., & Rosaldo, M. Z. (1981). Politics and gender in simple societies. In S. B. Ortner & H. Whitehead (Eds.), Sexual meanings: The cultural construction of gender and sexuality (pp. 275–329). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crone, P. (1989). Pre-industrial societies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Divale, W. T. (1984). Matrilocal residence in pre-literate society. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Dunbar, R. I. M., & Dunbar, E. P. (1975). Social dynamics of gelada baboons. Basel: Karger.
Elwin, V. (1947). The Muria and their Ghotul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ember, C. R., & Ember, M. (1997). Violence in the ethnographic record: Results of cross-cultural research on war and aggression. In D. L. Martin & D. W. Frayer (Eds.), Troubled times: Violence and warfare in the past (pp. 1–20). Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.
Gregor, T. A. (1977). Mehinaku: The drama of daily life in a Brazilian Indian village. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gregor, T. A. (1979). Secrets, exclusion, and the dramatization of men’s roles. In M. L. Margolis & W. E. Carter (Eds.), Brazil: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 250–269). New York: Columbia University Press.
Gregor, T. A. (1985). Anxious pleasures: The sexual lives of an Amazonian people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gregor, T. A., & Tuzin, D. (2001a). Comparing gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: A theoretical orientation. In T. A. Gregor & D. Tuzin (Eds.), Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An exploration of the comparative method (pp. 1–16). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gregor, T. A., & Tuzin, D. (2001b). The anguish of gender: Men’s cults and moral contradiction in Amazonia and Melanesia. In T. A. Gregor & D. Tuzin (Eds.), Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An exploration of the comparative method (pp. 309–336). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Grueter, C. C., & van Schaik, C. P. (2010). Evolutionary determinants of modular societies in colobines. Behavioral Ecology, 21, 63–71.
Grueter, C. C., Li, D., Ren, B., & Wei, F. (in press). Insights into the social system of black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys. In C. L. Tan, C. C. Grueter, & B. W. Wright (Eds.), Odd-nosed monkeys: Recent advances in the study of the forgotten colobines. New York: Springer.
Hart, C. W. M. (1930). The Tiwi of Melville and Bathurst islands. Oceania, 1, 167–180.
Hart, C. W. M., & Pilling, A. R. (1960). The Tiwi of North Australia. New York: Henry Holt.
Herdt, G. (1981). Guardians of the flutes: Idioms of masculinity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Herdt, G. (Ed.). (1982). Rituals of manhood: Male initiation in Papua New Guinea. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Herdt, G. (Ed.). (1984). Ritualized homosexuality in Melanesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Herdt, G. (1989). Father presence and masculine development: the case of paternal deprivation and ritual homosexuality reconsidered. Ethos, 18, 326–370.
Herdt, G. (1999). Sambia sexual culture: Essays from the field. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Herdt, G. (2003). Secrecy and cultural reality: Utopian ideologies of the New Guinea men’s house. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Herdt, G. (2006). The Sambia: Ritual, sexuality, and change in Papua New Guinea. Belmont: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Jones, D. (2011). The matrilocal tribe: an organization of demic expansion. Human Nature, 22, 177–200.
Keesing, R. M. (1982). Introduction. In G. Herdt (Ed.), Rituals of manhood: Male initiation in Papua New Guinea (pp. 1–42). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kelly, R. C. (1977). Etoro social structure: A study in structural contradiction. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kelly, R. C. (1993). Constructing inequality: The fabrication of a hierarchy of virtue among the Etoro. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kelly, R. C. (2000). Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kirkpatrick, R. C., & Grueter, C. C. (2010). Snub-nosed monkeys: multilevel societies across varied environments. Evolutionary Anthropology, 19, 98–113.
Knauft, B. M. (1987). Reconsidering violence in simple human societies: homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea. Current Anthropology, 28, 457–500.
Knauft, B. M. (1991). Violence and sociality in human evolution. Current Anthropology, 32, 391–428.
Langness, L. L. (1967). Sexual antagonism in the New Guinea Highlands: a Bena Bena example. Oceania, 37, 161–177.
Langness, L. L. (1974). Ritual, power, and male dominance. Ethos, 2, 189–212.
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1969 [1949]. The elementary structures of kinship. Boston: Beacon Press.
Lowie, R. H. (1920). Primitive society. New York: Liveright.
Malinowski, B. (1913). The family among the Australian Aborigines. London: University of London Press.
Malinowski, B. (1929). The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia. New York: Halcyon House.
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1967). Akwe-Shavante society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Murphy, R. F. (1956). Matrilocality and patrilineality in Mundurucú society. American Anthropologist, 58, 414–434.
Murphy, R. F. (1957). Intergroup hostility and social cohesion. American Anthropologist, 59, 1018–1035.
Murphy, R. F. (1959). Social structure and sex antagonism. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 15, 89–98.
Murphy, R. F. (1960). Headhunters’ heritage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Murphy, Y., & Murphy, R. F. (2004) [1974]. Women of the forest. New York: Columbia University Press.
Osgood, C. (1958). Ingalik social culture. Yale University Publications in Social Anthropology, no. 53. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Paige, J. M. (1974). Kinship and polity in stateless societies. American Journal of Sociology, 80, 301–319.
Paige, K. E., & Paige, J. M. (1981). The politics of reproductive ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Qi, X.-G., Li, B.-G., Garber, P. A., Ji, W., & Watanabe, K. (2009). Social dynamics of the golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana): female transfer and one-male unit succession. American Journal of Primatology, 71, 670–679.
Read, K. E. (1952). Nama cult of the Central Highlands, New Guinea. Oceania, 23, 1–25.
Read, K. E. (1955). Morality and the concept of the person among the Gahuku-Gama. Oceania, 25, 233–282.
Read, K. E. (1965). The high valley. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Robbins, M. M. (2001). Variation in the social system of mountain gorillas: The male perspective. In M. M. Robbins, P. Sicotte, & K. J. Stewart (Eds.), Mountain gorillas: Three decades of research at Karisoke (pp. 29–58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rodseth, L. (1990). Prestige, hunger and love: plumbing the psychology of sexual meanings. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology, 9, 107–127.
Rodseth, L., & Novak, S. A. (2000). The social modes of men: toward an ecological model of human male relationships. Human Nature, 11, 335–366.
Rodseth, L., & Novak, S. A. (2006). The impact of primatology on the study of human society. In J. H. Barkow (Ed.), Missing the revolution: Darwinism for social scientists (pp. 187–220). New York: Oxford University Press.
Rodseth, L., & Novak, S. A. (2009). The political significance of gender violence. In M. N. Muller & R. W. Wrangham (Eds.), Sexual coercion in primates and humans (pp. 292–321). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Rodseth, L., & Wrangham, R. W. (2004). Human kinship: A continuation of politics by other means? In B. Chapais & C. M. Berman (Eds.), Kinship and behavior in primates (pp. 389–419). New York: Oxford University Press.
Rodseth, L., Wrangham, R. W., Harrigan, A. M., & Smuts, B. B. (1991). The human community as a primate society. Current Anthropology, 32, 221–254.
Rubenstein, D. I. (1986). Ecology and sociality in horses and zebras. In D. I. Rubenstein & R. W. Wrangham (Eds.), Ecological aspects of social evolution: Birds and mammals (pp. 282–302). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rubenstein, D. I., & Hack, M. (2004). Natural and sexual selection and the evolution of multi-level societies: Insights from zebras with comparisons to primates. In P. M. Kappeler & C. P. van Schaik (Eds.), Sexual selection in primates: New and comparative perspectives (pp. 266–279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rubenstein, D. I., & Wrangham, R. W. (1986). Socioecology: Origins and trends. In D. I. Rubenstein & R. W. Wrangham (Eds.), Ecological aspects of social evolution: Birds and mammals (pp. 3–17). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schreier, A. L., & Swedell, L. (2009). The fourth level of social structure in a multi-level society: Ecological and social functions of clans in hamadryas baboons. American Journal of Primatology, 71, 948–955.
Schurtz, H. (1902). Altersklassen und Männerbünde. Berlin: Reimer.
Shapiro, W. (2011). The nuclear family versus the men’s house? A re-examination of Mundurucú sociality. Anthropological Forum, 21, 57–75.
Smith, E. A., Hill, K., Marlowe, F. W., Nolin, D., Wiessner, P., Gurven, M., et al. (2010). Wealth transmission and inequality among hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology, 51, 19–34.
Spencer, P. (1965). The Samburu: A study of gerontocracy in a nomadic tribe. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Spencer, P. (1988). The Maasai of Matapato: A study of rituals of rebellion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Spencer, P. (2003). Time, space, and the unknown: Maasai configurations of power and providence. New York: Routledge.
Thoden van Velzen, H., & van Wetering, W. (1960). Residence, power groups, and intra-societal aggression. International Archives of Ethnography, 49, 169–200.
Tiger, L. (1969). Men in groups. New York: Random House.
Tuzin, D. F. (1997). The Cassowary’s revenge: The life and death of masculinity in a New Guinea society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tylor, E. B. (1889). On a method of investigating the development of institutions: applied to laws of marriage and descent. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 18, 245–272.
Van Baal, J. (1966). Dema: Description and analysis of Marind-anim culture. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Van Baal, J. (1984). The dialectics of sex in Marind-anim culture. In G. Herdt (Ed.), Ritualized homosexuality in Melanesia (pp. 128–166). Berkeley: University of California Press.
van Hoof, J., & van Schaik, C. P. (1994). Male bonds: affiliative relationships among nonhuman primate males. Behaviour, 130, 309–337.
Webster, H. (1908). Primitive secret societies: A study in early politics and religion. New York: Macmillan.
Whiting, J. W. M. (1941). Becoming a Kwoma: Teaching and learning in a New Guinea tribe. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Whiting, J. W. M., & Whiting, B. B. (1975). Aloofness and intimacy of husbands and wives: a cross-cultural study. Ethos, 3, 183–207.
Woodburn, J. (1980). Hunters and gatherers today and reconstruction of the past. In E. Gellner (Ed.), Soviet and Western anthropology (pp. 95–117). New York: Columbia University Press.
Woodburn, J. (1982). Egalitarian societies. Man (n.s.), 17, 431–451.
Wrangham, R. W. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rodseth, L. From Bachelor Threat to Fraternal Security: Male Associations and Modular Organization in Human Societies. Int J Primatol 33, 1194–1214 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-012-9593-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-012-9593-4