New Aspects of Human Ethology: Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the International Society for Human Ethology Held in Vienna, Austria, August 5-10, 1996 (Recent Advances in Phytochemistry)

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 Human Ethology : Origins And Prospects Of A New Discipline / Irenäus Eibl-eibesfeldt -- Research On Emotions And Future Developments In Human Ethology / Glenn Weisfeld -- Play Fighting And Real Fighting : Perspectives On Their Relationships / Peter K. Smith -- Games Evolution Plays / Karl Sigmund -- Groups, Gossip, And The Evolution Of Language / R.i.m. Dunbar -- The Communication Paradox And Possible Solutions : Towards A Radical Empiricism / Karl Grammar, Valentina Filova, And Martin Fieder -- Twin Studies Of Behavior : New And Old Findings / Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr. -- Hormonal Influences On Human Behavior / C. Sue Carter -- Copulation, Masturbation, And Infidelity : State-of-the-art / R. Robin Baker. Edited By Alain Schmitt ... [et Al.]. Proceedings Of The 13th Conference Of The International Society For Human Ethology, Held August 5-10, 1996, In Vienna, Austria--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Human Ethology....Pages 1-23 Research on Emotions and Future Developments in Human Ethology....Pages 25-46 Play Fighting and Real Fighting....Pages 47-64 Games Evolution Plays....Pages 65-76 Groups, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language....Pages 77-89 The Communication Paradox and Possible Solutions....Pages 91-120 Twin Studies of Behavior....Pages 121-140 Hormonal Influences on Human Behavior....Pages 141-162 Copulation, Masturbation, and Infidelity....Pages 163-188 Back Matter....Pages 225-239 "Our aim when organizing the conference was to bring together ideas some of which "normally" are not considered to be of immediate and burning inters to human ethology. The authors, zoologist, psychologist, a geneticist, a mathematician and a physiologist have found a transdisciplinary language to write on human social behavior without losing the specific world views of their branches. All papers contain many new aspects, and even some brand-new insights and (yet unpublished) data."--Page v