AN ALTERNATIVE FUNCTIONAL MODEL FOR THE EVOLUTIONARY STUDY OF HUMAN SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR: THE DOG

• Authors: Topal Jozsef , Miklosi Adam , Kubinyi Eniko , Gacsi Marta , Doka Antal , Pongracz Peter , Viranyi Zsofia , Csanyi Vilmos
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

The Human Behaviour Complex has been defined as a set of human-specific social behaviours (Csanyi, 2000), arguing that any account of human social evolution has to account for the full set of these skills. It is assumed that over the course of hominization the parallel emergence of the elements of this complex and their simultaneous alterations gave rise to human-specific behaviour. The traditional approach for studying the evolutionary emergence of human social cognition is based on comparisons with apes and monkeys as model species suggesting a homologue relationship between nonhuman primates and humans. Recently, however, research interest has focused on other species offering analogue models of the evolution of human social cognitive abilities. It seems that dogs provide an adequate behavioural model for studying some aspects of human social competence before the emergence of linguistic abilities, especially in the utilisation of visual and non-linguistic vocal signals. In the present paper reviewing the parallels between human and dog behaviour the authors argue that the convergent social evolution in dogs can be used to model the early (prelinguistic) state of human social evolution. They suggest that functionally analogue forms of many traits of the human behaviour complex are present in dogs. The dog behaviour complex incorporates those dog-specific traits which were influenced by the behavioural adaptation to the human environment and made the dog able to perform human analogue forms of social competence.

Keywords

EN

BEHAVIOUR ANALOGIES; DOG; DOMESTICATION; EVOLUTION; HUMAN BEHAVIOUR COMPLEX; SOCIAL COGNITION

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Hungarian Association for Psychology
• Journal: Magyar Pszichologiai Szemle (Hungarian Psychological Review)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 62
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 139-158
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Topal Jozsef

author

Miklosi Adam

author

Kubinyi Eniko

author

Gacsi Marta

author

Doka Antal

author

Pongracz Peter

author

Viranyi Zsofia

author

Csanyi Vilmos

• Jozsef Topal, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10HUAAAA07396