Social systems {society, ecology} have evolved in colonial invertebrates, social insects, non-human mammals, and humans. Societal animals occupy territory, cooperate, communicate using 10 to 100 basic signals, recognize group members, use kinship for social structure and socialization, and divide labor. Altruism, cohesiveness, and cooperativeness decline among higher phyla, because more individualism emerges. Group behavior reduces competition, conserves energy, prevents overcrowding, and prevents food shortage. Population members typically live in small groups, to survive better.
effects
Social systems can preserve genes, because groups have better foraging and self-defense. Effects differ depending on society size. Small colonies survive better than large colonies, and individuals survive better in small colonies. Food shortages happen more often in small groups, especially in mammalian societies. Smaller groups tend to diversify habitat more. Males and females differ more in smaller groups. Polygamy, strong sexual selection, and inbreeding are typical of small groups. In small and large groups, females concentrate on food and nests, but males concentrate on females.
social change
Social organization is variable and labile. Small environment, individual-behavior, or group-behavior changes can lead to great societal changes. Individual behaviors typically change first, followed by structural changes that enhance behavior.
social factor
Quantifiable societal factors {social factor} include group size, demography, cohesiveness, communication intensity, communication networks, closedness or openness, subgroup number, subgroup isolation, specialization, behavior coordination, information-flow rate, and percentage of social behavior compared to individual behavior. For example, society demography can define available cooperative behaviors. Demography also affects adaptability.
Biological Sciences>Ecology>Community>Society
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Date Modified: 2022.0224