IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v9y2022i1d10.1057_s41599-022-01061-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Saying “goodbye” to the conundrum of leave-taking: a cross-disciplinary review

Author

Listed:
  • Lucy Baehren

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

Leave-taking behaviours habitually occur before separation from social interaction in most human societies. It is thought to be a human universal, providing ritual brackets around interaction. Despite Knapp’s claim that leave-taking can tell us a good deal about human interaction, the topic remains critically overlooked from an evolutionary perspective. Cross-species data on leave-taking would be key to unveiling its evolutionary history and its role in sociality, but studies focusing on non-human species are rare. Here, leave-taking is reviewed using an evolutionary approach, pitting it against its symmetrical counterpart, greeting, and emphasising the lacunae in research on leave-taking. It is argued that leave-taking is overdue for serious, empirical attention regarding the ways in which leave-taking could contribute to understanding social evolution. Finally, methods are outlined to operationalise the study of leave-taking and propose the use of “levels of separation” to allow comparison of human and non-human species and to expand research efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucy Baehren, 2022. "Saying “goodbye” to the conundrum of leave-taking: a cross-disciplinary review," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01061-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01061-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-022-01061-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-022-01061-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer E. Smith & Russell C. Van Horn & Katherine S. Powning & Alison R. Cole & Katharine E. Graham & Sandra K. Memenis & Kay E. Holekamp, 2010. "Evolutionary forces favoring intragroup coalitions among spotted hyenas and other animals," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(2), pages 284-303.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Annie Bissonnette & Mathias Franz & Oliver Schülke & Julia Ostner, 2014. "Socioecology, but not cognition, predicts male coalitions across primates," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 25(4), pages 794-801.
    2. Matthieu Barbier & James R Watson, 2016. "The Spatial Dynamics of Predators and the Benefits and Costs of Sharing Information," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, October.
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0091725 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jennifer E Smith & B Natterson-Horowitz & Michael E Alfaro, 2022. "The nature of privilege: intergenerational wealth in animal societies [Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies]," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 33(1), pages 1-6.
    5. Jessica L. Barker & Pat Barclay & H. Kern Reeve, 2012. "Within-group competition reduces cooperation and payoffs in human groups," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(4), pages 735-741.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01061-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.