BABOON PROGRESSIONS - ORDER OR CHAOS - STUDY OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL GROUP GEOMETRY

Baboon progressions were sampled in Africa during 1963-1972. Contrary to numerous speculations, there was no invariable progression order, either by individual or by age-sex class. Indeed, most progression orders were essentially random. In the few deviant cases, usually in dangerous situations, juveniles and adult males were over-represented in the fron third, adult males in the last third. Small infants were usually next to their mother, large ones next to each other. Deviations probably result primarily from residual effects of pre-progression social groupings, sometimes combined with differential roles in group co-ordination, and shifts in position, including male peripheralization, when baboons are faced with danger. Statistical techniques for analysis of group geometry are discussed. Some are insensitive to subtle spatial patterns. © 1979.