MACAQUE SOCIAL CULTURE - DEVELOPMENT AND PERPETUATION OF AFFILIATIVE NETWORKS

Maternal affiliative relations may be transmitted to offspring, simila r to the way in which maternal rank determines offspring rank. The dev elopment of 23 captive female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) was foll owed from the day of birth until adulthood. A multivariate analysis co mpared relations among age peers with affiliative relations, kinship, and rank distance among mothers. Maternal relations were an excellent predictor of affiliative relations among daughters, explaining up to 6 4% of the variance. Much of this predictability was due to the effect of kinship. However, after this variable had been controlled, signific ant predictability persisted. For relations of female subjects with ma le peers, on the other hand, maternal relations had no significant pre dictive value beyond the effect of kinship. One possible explanation o f these results is that young rhesus females copy maternal social pref erences through a process of cultural learning.