"Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow", But Only for Humans?

Abstract

Homo sapiens show greeting rituals when they meet and leave-taking rituals when they part. Presumably this reflects the species' fission-fusion social organisation, and such displays show notably symmetrical form and content. But what about non-humans? Here we seek in our nearest living relations (Pan troglodytes) these behavioural complexes in two ways: We report frequencies of meeting and parting in daily life and solicit data on greeting and leave-taking from field sites of long-term study of these apes. Chimpanzees greet emphatically but show no leave-taking behaviour. This lack of symmetry in our nearest living relations (as well as in other animals) suggests that human greeting and leave-taking may be unique.