Social grooming

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Hyacinth macaws feathering
Mutual "nibbling" with domestic horses
An adult anubi baboon launches a young animal.

Social body care , external cleaning or allogrooming , sometimes also called feathering , louse or mutual louse , is a frequent, albeit not generally widespread, comfort or social behavior in birds and mammals , which, in contrast to cleaning behavior for personal hygiene, primarily serves to maintain social structures serves. It is perceived as pleasant by the well-groomed, takes place one-sided, alternately or simultaneously and is aimed at those parts of the body of conspecifics that are difficult to access .

Originally, these parts of the body were cleaned of dirt and parasites by mutual cleaning . The ritualized, social body care derived from this, as Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt recognized, has its roots in brood care and is associated with pair bonding, group bonding as well as appeasement and other signaling functions. The cleaning request positions and cleaning postures are often species-specific.

Many bird species clean the plumage of their social partner, preferably in the head area. This feathering with the beak is particularly important for some ducks . While horses "nibble" each other mutually, the cleaning of cattle is one-sided. They are most likely to lick the partner's neck, face and lower neck area, less often on the back and even less often on the flanks. In primates , lousing is also one-sided and is of great importance for strengthening groups and for establishing a communication network. Lower-ranking animals show subdominance by combing through the fur of higher-ranking animals with their hands and put any skin flakes and food crumbs into their mouths.

In humans, too, symbolic lousing, stroking the hair and the like strengthen the bond. In public, however, this is frowned upon in some cultures and in industrial society there is a professionalization in this area (examples: masseur, hairdresser, pedicure and manicure). The social body care is an important condition in the context of the development of the language , which emerged from the gestures and which, through shouting, has a bondage effect even at a distance. Desmond Morris coined the term grooming talking for short everyday conversations with this effect that are not used for the exchange of information .

literature

  • Theodor CH Cole, Ingrid Haußer-Siller: Dictionary of Biology / Dictionary of Biology . 2nd Edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag (Elsevier), Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8274-1628-0 (777 pages).
  • Rolf Gattermann (Ed.): Dictionary for the behavioral biology of animals and humans . 2nd Edition. Spectrum Akademischer Verlag (Elsevier), Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-8274-1703-1 (410 pages).
  • Rolf Sauermost, Doris Freudig (Ed.): Lexicon of Biology in fourteen volumes. First volume: A to Arj . Spectrum Akademischer Verlag (Elsevier), Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8274-0326-X (452 pages).
  • Rolf Sauermost, Doris Freudig (Ed.): Lexicon of Biology in fourteen volumes. Sixth Volume: Flo to Gzh . Spectrum Akademischer Verlag (Elsevier), Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 3-8274-0331-6 (497 pages).
  • Rolf Sauermost, Doris Freudig (Ed.): Lexicon of Biology in fourteen volumes. Volume thirteenth: Sin to Trac . Spektrum Akademischer Verlag (Elsevier), Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-8274-0338-3 (506 pages).

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Gattermann, 2006 ("Fremdputzen", p. 107)
  2. ↑ Cole and Haußer-Siller, 2005 ("Allogrooming", p. 387)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Sauermost and Freudig, 2004 ("social body care", p. 46)
  4. ↑ a b c Sauermost and Freudig, 2001 ("grooming", pp. 462–463)
  5. ↑ a b Sauermost and Freudig, 1999 ("allogrooming", p. 213)