Why are primates so social?

Question

Why are primates so social?

Answer 1

cos they have no need for fame and fortune ?

Answer 2

Without fangs or claws or other natural weapons that most animals have, primates had to depend on each other to survive.  Easy enough.

Answer 3

Because they were like me  !

Answer 4

Evolution: Primates are social because it is the most successful strategy for their ecological niche. Long development times necessitate a protective society and the transmission of accumulated knowledge (ie. fishing for termites or building rifles) requires social interaction. The two combined has led to the most advanced species EVAR: humans, with no natural predators.

Hitsuzen: Primates represent a new stage in communication. Information was passed in DNA, the nueral structures, and finally through society. Right now, human society has put out about 5 exabytes of data, a few orders of magnitude more than the genome.

Answer 5

Not all primates are social. Orangutans and gibbons are rather not social, especially their males.

Factors that determine sociability:

Positives: Predator alert, better exploitation of  certain resources, child rearing assistance

Negatives: communicable diseases, competition, easier for predators to notice.

Baboons which live in the savannah need group cooperation since there is little protection and many predators.

Orangutans live in areas with patchy resources so that many primates in one area would cause more competition (social behavior is disadvangateous)

Humans and chimps are social because it is easy for them to get their resources (meat in the case of later hominins) and because it helps with infant care.

Answer 6

they don't have the same "inhibitions, fears, etc" that people have,  because they don't play the same "relationship games" that people do.

cheers

hope that helps,

(I know there's more to it than that.)

Answer 7

No social alienation, all are members of a group that help and has to help each other, primitive social structure, primitive brains...