Social groups: male/female or human?

Abstract

Every practicing anthropologist is intuitively aware of social systemic differences in behavior attributable to sex differences. The only scientific method of establishing such a connection, however, resides in the analysis of the process of interaction: is it male/female (i.e., characteristically different for each sex), or human (i.e., characteristically similar throughout the species)? Twelve subjects (six male, six female ) were combined into four, three-person, single-sex groups that met three times for periods of roughly 40 minutes each. During these periods of conversational interaction, the subjects were monitored by several objective indices of the process and structure of social interaction, including noncontent verbal behavior and physiological response patterning. Analysis of the noncontent verbal behavior showed that both male and female groups generate similar types of social structures; structures characterized by equilibrium functions. Analysis of the physiological response patterning of individuals within the groups showed that the process of generating the equilibrium structure differed in degree, but not in kind, between the sexes. Thus, it was concluded that the process of social interaction is best described as male/female and human: the basic process of interaction is similar throughout the species, but differential elaboration of various aspects of the process results in interactional differences which could cause the large-scale differences in social- systemic behaviors marked by sex roles.