🚀 go-pugleaf

L. C. Freeman (1992. A sociological concept of "group": An empirical
test of two models. American Journal of Sociology, 98[1], 152-166)
suggests that groups can best be explained by the "strength of weak
ties". Find out more by reading this article, unless a few equations
scare you.


Dunbar's article (see below) suggests that our concept of the group may
have to be differentiated into two parts. A "group" of at most a couple
of hundred persons, and a inner group or "clique" that has the function
of defending its members from harassment by other members of the group.
If this article's claims for a biological basis for structure and size
limits of groups holds up, it would mean an advance in the theoretical
foundations for development of groupware. Anyone developing groupware
for very large groups best read this.

What I conclude from the draft is that any groupware system for more
than two hundred people will have to include some formal mechanism for
sharing information about participants. My paper on consensus journals
offers one option (Stodolsky, D. S. (1990). Consensus Journals:
Invitational journals based upon peer consensus. Datalogiske Skrifter
(Writings on Computer Science). No. 29 / 1990. Roskilde University
Centre, Institute of Geography, Socioeconomic Analysis, and Computer
Science. (ISSN 0109-9779-29) ([1990, Nov.19]. Psycoloquy, 1[15].
[Available by anonymous ftp from PRINCETON.EDU in directory /pub/harnad
at Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, Dept. of Psychology.])).

====================================================

From PSYC@pucc.princeton.edu Thu Dec  3 04:04:18 1992
Return-Path: <PSYC@pucc.princeton.edu>
Message-Id: <9212030304.AA08973@relay1.UU.NET>
Date:         Wed, 2 Dec 1992 21:45:59 EST
Reply-To: "PSYCOLOQUY: Refereed Electronic Journal of Peer Discussion"
<PSYC@pucc.princeton.edu>
Sender: "PSYCOLOQUY: Refereed Electronic Journal of Peer Discussion"
<PSYC@pucc.princeton.edu>
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@clarity.princeton.edu>
Subject:      Brain, Language & Evolution: BBS Call for Commentators
Comments: To: PSYCOLOQUY <psyc@pucc.bitnet>
To: Multiple recipients of list PSYC <PSYC@pucc.princeton.edu>
Status: R

Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article by R. Dunbar on
cortex, language and evolution. It has been accepted for publication in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international,
interdisciplinary journal that provides Open Peer Commentary on
important and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and
cognitive sciences. Commentators must be current BBS Associates or
nominated by a current BBS Associate. To be considered as a commentator
on this article, to suggest other appropriate commentators, or for
information about how to become a BBS Associate, please send email to:

harnad@clarity.princeton.edu  or harnad@pucc.bitnet        or write to:
BBS, 20 Nassau Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08542  [tel: 609-921-7771]

To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give
some
indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring your
areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator. An
electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by
anonymous
ftp according to the instructions that follow after the abstract.
____________________________________________________________________

CO-EVOLUTION OF NEOCORTEX SIZE, GROUP SIZE AND LANGUAGE IN HUMANS

                    R.I.M. Dunbar
       Human Evolutionary Biology Research Group
            Department of Anthropology
            University College London
                   London WC1E 6BT

KEYWORDS: Neocortical size, group size, humans, language,
Macchiavellian Intelligence

ABSTRACT: Group size is a function of relative neocortical volume in
nonhuman primates. Extrapolation from this regression equation yields a
predicted group size for modern humans very similar to that of certain
hunter-gatherer and traditional horticulturalist societies. Groups of
similar size are also found in other large-scale forms of contemporary
and historical society. Among primates, the cohesion of groups is
maintained by social grooming; the time devoted to social grooming is
linearly related to group size among the Old World monkeys and apes. To
maintain the stability  of the large groups characteristic of humans by
grooming alone would place intolerable demands on time budgets. It is
suggested that (1) the evolution of large groups in the human lineage
depended on the development of a more efficient method for time-sharing
the processes of social bonding and that (2) language uniquely fulfills
this requirement. Data on the size of conversational and other small
interacting groups of humans are in line with the predictions for the
relative efficiency of conversation compared to grooming as a bonding
process. Analysis of a sample of human conversations shows that about
60% of time is spent gossiping about relationships and personal
experiences. It is suggested that language evolved to allow individuals
to learn about the behavioural characteristics of other group members
more rapidly than is possible by direct observation alone.

--------------------------------------------------------------
To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from
princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is
bbs.dunbar). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft. Just
let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise you
feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article.
-------------------------------------------------------------
   To retrieve a file by ftp from a Unix/Internet site, type either:
ftp princeton.edu
   or
ftp 128.112.128.1
   When you are asked for your login, type:
anonymous
   Enter password as per instructions (make sure to include the
specified @),
   and then change directories with:
cd /pub/harnad/BBS
   To show the available files, type:
ls
   Next, retrieve the file you want with (for example):
get bbs.dunbar
   When you have the file(s) you want, type:
quit

   Certain non-Unix/Internet sites have a facility you can use that is
   equivalent to the above. Sometimes the procedure for connecting to
   princeton.edu will be a two step process such as:

ftp
   followed at the prompt by:
open princeton.edu
  or
open 128.112.128.1

   In case of doubt or difficulty, consult your system manager.

----------

   JANET users who do not have an ftp facilty for interactive file
   transfer (this requires a JIPS connection on your local machine -
   consult your system manager if in doubt) can use a similar facility
   available at JANET site UK.AC.NSF.SUN (numeric equivalent
   000040010180), logging in using 'guestftp' as both login and
   password. The online help information gives details of the transfer
   procedure which is similar to the above. The file received on the
   NSF.SUN machine needs to be transferred to your home machine to read
   it, which can be done either using a 'push' command on the NSF.SUN
   machine, or (usually faster) by initiating the file transfer from
   your home machine. In the latter case the file on the NSF.SUN
machine
   must be referred to as directory-name/filename (the directory name
to
   use being that provided by you when you logged on to UK.AC.NSF.SUN).
   To be sociable (since NSF.SUN is short of disc space), once you have
   received the file on your own machine you should delete the file
from
   the UK.AC.NSF.SUN machine.

   This facility is very often overloaded, and an off-line relay
   facility at site UK.AC.FT-RELAY (which is simpler to use in any
   case) can be used as an alternative. The process is almost identical
   to file transfer within JANET, and the general method is illustrated
   in the following example. With some machines, filenames and the
   username need to be placed within quotes to prevent unacceptable
   transposion to upper case (as may apply also to the transfer from
   NSF.SUN described above).

transfer
Send or Fetch: f
>From Remote Filename: princeton.edu:/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.dunbar
To Local Filename: bbs.dunbar
Remote Sitename: uk.ac.ft-relay
Remote Username: anonymous
Remote Password: [enter your full email address including userid for
                  this, or it won't be accepted]
Queue this request? y


   Or if you wish you can get a listing of the available files, by
giving
   the remote filename as:

princeton.edu:(D)/pub/harnad/BBS

   Because of traffic delays through the FT-RELAY, still another method
   can sometimes be recommended, which is to use the Princeton bitftp
   fileserver described below. Typically, one sends a mail message of
   the form:

FTP princeton.edu UUENCODE
USER anonymous
LS /pub/harnad/BBS
GET /pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.dunbar
QUIT

   (the line beginning LS is required only if you need a listing of
   available files) to email address BITFTP@EARN.PUCC or to
   BITFTP@EDU.PRINCETON, and receives the requested file in the form of
   one or more email messages.

   [Thanks to Brian Josephson (BDJ10@UK.AC.CAM.PHX) for the above
   detailed UK/JANET instructions; similar special instructions for
file
   retrieval from other networks or countries would be appreciated and
   will be included in updates of these instructions.]

---

Where the above procedures are not available (e.g. from Bitnet or other
networks), there are two fileservers:
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
       and
bitftp@pucc.bitnet
that will do the transfer for you. To one or the
other of them, send the following one line message:

help

for instructions (which will be similar to the above, but will be in
the form of a series of lines in an email message that ftpmail or
bitftp will then execute for you).

-- 
David S. Stodolsky                            Tel: + 45 31 95 92 82
Department of Computer Science                Fax: + 45 46 75 42 01
Bldg. 20.1, Roskilde University              Internet: david@ruc.dk
Post Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark      or: david@mcsun.EU.net