New Aspects of Human Ethology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Human Ethology

   • Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt

   Pages 1-23

3. Research on Emotions and Future Developments in Human Ethology

   • Glenn Weisfeld

   Pages 25-46

4. Play Fighting and Real Fighting

   • Peter K. Smith

   Pages 47-64

5. Games Evolution Plays

   • Karl Sigmund

   Pages 65-76

6. Groups, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language

   • R. I. M. Dunbar

   Pages 77-89

7. The Communication Paradox and Possible Solutions

   • Karl Grammer, Valentina Filova, Martin Fieder

   Pages 91-120

8. Twin Studies of Behavior

   • Thomas J. Bouchard Jr

   Pages 121-140

9. Hormonal Influences on Human Behavior

   • C. Sue Carter

   Pages 141-162

10. Copulation, Masturbation, and Infidelity

    • R. Robin Baker

    Pages 163-188

11. Back Matter

    Pages 225-239

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Rough-and-tumble play provided one of the paradigmatic examples of the appli- tion of ethological methods, back in the 1970's. Since then, a modest number of - searchers have developed our knowledge of this kind of activity, using a variety of methods, and addressing some quite fundamental questions about age changes, sex diff- ences, nature and function of behaviour. In this chapter I will review work on this topic, mentioning particularly the interest in comparing results from different informants and different methods of investigation. Briefly, rough-and-tumble play (or R&T for short) refers to a cluster of behaviours whose core is rough but playful wrestling and tumbling on the ground; and whose general characteristic is that the behaviours seem to be agonistic but in a non-serious, playful c- text. The varieties of R&T, and the detailed differences between rough-and-tumble play and real fighting, will be discussed later. 2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON R&T In his pioneering work on human play, Groos (1901) described many kinds of rough-and-tumble play. However, R&T was virtually an ignored topic from then until the late 1960's. There was, of course, a flowering of observational research on children in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in North America; but this research had a strong practical o- entation, and lacked the cross-species perspective and evolutionary orientation present in Groos' work.

• behavior
• communication
• development
• emotion
• evolution
• sexual behaviour

• Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Urban Ethology, Vienna, Austria

  Alain Schmitt, Karl Grammer

• Research Center for Human Ethology Max-Planck-Society, Andechs, Germany

  Klaus Atzwanger

• Institute for Human Biology, Vienna, Austria

  Katrin Schäfer

Policies and ethics