There Ought to Be Roots

Abstract

This chapter explores the notion that the behavioural and cognitive constituents of human social norms have equivalents or precursors in humans’ closest living relatives, the non-human primates. Scrutiny of the definitions of various forms of conformity revealed, on the one hand, that some key features defining social norms are essentially impossible to infer in animals so that from a purist perspective, homologous equivalents of social norms cannot be demonstrated. On the other hand, this review revealed that functional equivalents or precursors of behavioural, emotional, and cognitive mechanisms constituting normative conformity are present and ubiquitous among (group-living haplorhine) non-human primates and that social patterns reflecting normative conformity have been described, hence supporting the authors’ main thesis that this salient aspect of human sociality, even though it may depend upon some uniquely derived features, has strong and long roots in the evolutionary history shared with other primates.