In
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
, a
pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
between the males and or females in a pair, potentially leading to breeding. Pair-bonding is a term coined in the 1940s that is frequently used in
sociobiologySociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines which attempts to explain social behavior in animal species by considering the Darwinian advantages specific behaviors may have. It is often considered a branch of biology and sociology, but also draws from ethology, anthropology, evolution,...
and
evolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system,...
circles. The term often implies either a lifelong socially monogamous relationship or a stage of mating interaction in socially monogamous species.
In
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
, a
pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
between the males and or females in a pair, potentially leading to breeding. Pair-bonding is a term coined in the 1940s that is frequently used in
sociobiologySociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines which attempts to explain social behavior in animal species by considering the Darwinian advantages specific behaviors may have. It is often considered a branch of biology and sociology, but also draws from ethology, anthropology, evolution,...
and
evolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system,...
circles. The term often implies either a lifelong socially monogamous relationship or a stage of mating interaction in socially monogamous species. It is sometimes used in reference to human relationships.
Pair bonding is also sometimes seen between individuals of the same sex, as demonstrated by behavior similar to that of male-female pair-bonded individuals.
Varieties
According to evolutionary psychologists David Barash and Judith Lipton, from their 2001 book
The Myth of Monogamy, there are several varieties of pair bonds:
- Short-term pair-bond: a transient mating or associations
- Long-term pair-bond: bonded for a significant portion of the life cycle of that pair
- Lifelong pair-bond: mated for the life of that pair
- Social pair-bond: attachments for territorial or social reasons, as in cuckold
Strictly speaking, a cuckold is a married man with an adulterous wife, but current usage sometimes extends the term informally to include cuckqueans , wittols , and non-married couples in analogous situations.-History of the term:Cuckold is derived from the Old French for the...
situations
- Clandestine pair-bond: quick extra-pair copulations
- Dynamic pair-bond: e.g. gibbon
Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...
mating systems being analogous to "swingersSwinging, sometimes referred to as the swinging lifestyle, is "non-monogamous sexual activity, treated much like any other social activity, that can be experienced as a couple." The phenomenon of swinging may be seen as part of the sexual revolution of recent decades, which occurred after the...
"
Examples
When discussing the social life of the bank swallow, Lipton and Barash state:
For about four days immediately prior to egg-laying, when copulations lead to fertilizations, the male bank swallow is very busy, attentively guarding his female. Before this time, as well as after—that is, when her eggs are not ripe, and again after his genes are safely tucked away inside the shells—he goes seeking extra-pair copulations with the mates of other males…who, of course, are busy with defensive mate-guarding of their own.
Counterpoint:
In various species, males provide parental care and females mate with multiple males. For example, recent empirical studies show that extra-pair copulation frequently occurs in monogamous birds in which a “social” father provides intensive care for its “social” offspring
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050727060446.htm
University of Florida scientist reports that male sand gobies work harder at building nests and taking care of eggs when females are present – the first time such "courtship parental care" has been documented in any species.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040505064746.htm
External links
- The neurobiology of pair bonding, from Nature
Nature is a prominent British scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Most scientific journals are now highly specialized, and Nature is among the few journals that still publish original research articles across a wide range of scientific...