Monkey business: A girl's once strange dream

Abstract

For close to 50 years, my research has focused on social relationships and social structure, particularly in macaques, and has been marked by a gradual broadening of scope. Supported by open-minded parents, I followed a once unconventional path into field primatology largely by ignoring distinct gender-based ideas about appropriate occupations for women that were prevalent when I was a child. Later, as Robert Hinde's PhD advisee, I benefited enormously from his mentoring and from the transformative experience he provided. I began by examining infant social development in free-ranging rhesus monkeys and the integration of infants into the kinship and dominance structures of their groups. I gradually branched out to look at (1) kinship and dominance in additional age classes and macaque species, (2) additional aspects of social structure (reciprocity, agonistic support, tolerance, cooperation, conflict management), (3) mechanisms and organizing principles (e.g., attraction to kin and high rank, intergenerational transmission, demography, reciprocity, social style, time constraints) and (4) evolutionary underpinnings of social relationships and structure (e.g., parental investment, kin selection, socioecology, phylogeny, biological markets). For much of this journey, I have been accompanied by talented PhD students who have enriched my experience and whom I am now proud to call colleagues and friends. It is gratifying to realize that my career choice is no longer considered as unconventional as it once was.

Keywords: Macaca mulatta; Macaca thibetana; Macaques; Social development; Social relationships; Social structure.

Fig. 1

Carol Berman as a graduate student in 1975 on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Photo by Sam Libber with permission

Fig. 2

A rhesus mother on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, rejects her infant’s attempt to make nipple contact while her yearling sits nearby. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 3

Kin-based clusters of rhesus monkeys grooming on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 4

Barb DeVinney and Carol Berman on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico in 1990. Photo by Kathlyn Rasmussen Robbins with permission

Fig. 5

Rodney Johnson collecting data on rhesus monkeys in 1985 at Tughlaqabad, India, as a man makes offerings to the monkeys. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 6

Ellen (Eleni) Kapsalis waiting for the boat to Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, in 1986. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 7

Carol Berman collecting preliminary data on Tibetan macaques on Huangshan, China, in 1999. Photo by Jinhua Li with permission

Fig. 8

Carol Berman in 2000 in front of newly installed signage intended to enhance tourists’ knowledge about Tibetan macaques and their value. Photo by Jinhua Li with permission

Fig. 9

Huddling Tibetan macaques on Huangshan, China. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 10

The alpha Tibetan macaque male observes as the beta male mates openly with a female. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 11

Infant handling by nonmothers among Cayo Santiago rhesus monkeys. Photo by C. Berman

Fig. 12

Erica Dunayer, Carol Berman, Katharine Burke, and Krishna Balasubramaniam visiting Cayo Santiago during the 75th anniversary of its founding. Photographer unknown