Cargando…
Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance
Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. Dance also has been reported in a small number of non-human primate species, in particular apes. However, its function has not be...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5043361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27687686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep34606 |
_version_ | 1782456742283575296 |
---|---|
author | Fan, Peng-Fei Ma, Chang-Yong Garber, Paul A. Zhang, Wen Fei, Han-Lan Xiao, Wen |
author_facet | Fan, Peng-Fei Ma, Chang-Yong Garber, Paul A. Zhang, Wen Fei, Han-Lan Xiao, Wen |
author_sort | Fan, Peng-Fei |
collection | PubMed |
description | Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. Dance also has been reported in a small number of non-human primate species, in particular apes. However, its function has not been systematically evaluated. We observed 357 intentional, rhythmic, and nonverbal dance displays performed by four adult female cao vit gibbons (Nomascus nasutus) residing in four polygynous groups during 3000 h of observation in Bangliang, Guangxi, China. Females used dance to solicit copulations, as well as to promote a social bond with the group’s lone adult male. In addition, this display appears to represent a form of non-aggressive competition among adult females living in the same group. We found that a female who had a weaker social relationship with the breeding male increased her social and sexual access to the male by an increase in dancing frequency. Given that gibbons dance in various behavioral contexts, and appears to serve several important social and sexual functions, a greater understanding of this form of gestural communication offers an instructive model for examining the origin and evolution of dance in humans and other apes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5043361 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50433612016-10-05 Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance Fan, Peng-Fei Ma, Chang-Yong Garber, Paul A. Zhang, Wen Fei, Han-Lan Xiao, Wen Sci Rep Article Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. Dance also has been reported in a small number of non-human primate species, in particular apes. However, its function has not been systematically evaluated. We observed 357 intentional, rhythmic, and nonverbal dance displays performed by four adult female cao vit gibbons (Nomascus nasutus) residing in four polygynous groups during 3000 h of observation in Bangliang, Guangxi, China. Females used dance to solicit copulations, as well as to promote a social bond with the group’s lone adult male. In addition, this display appears to represent a form of non-aggressive competition among adult females living in the same group. We found that a female who had a weaker social relationship with the breeding male increased her social and sexual access to the male by an increase in dancing frequency. Given that gibbons dance in various behavioral contexts, and appears to serve several important social and sexual functions, a greater understanding of this form of gestural communication offers an instructive model for examining the origin and evolution of dance in humans and other apes. Nature Publishing Group 2016-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC5043361/ /pubmed/27687686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep34606 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Fan, Peng-Fei Ma, Chang-Yong Garber, Paul A. Zhang, Wen Fei, Han-Lan Xiao, Wen Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title | Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title_full | Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title_fullStr | Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title_full_unstemmed | Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title_short | Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
title_sort | rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5043361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27687686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep34606 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT fanpengfei rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance AT machangyong rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance AT garberpaula rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance AT zhangwen rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance AT feihanlan rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance AT xiaowen rhythmicdisplaysoffemalegibbonsofferinsightintotheoriginofdance |