Researchers challenge, not for the first time, psychologist Robin Dunbar's insistence that the human brain will only allow for about 150 friendships. Behind that debate: How did our brains get so big?
I found that individual networks - indicated by friendships as well as kinship - were about that size at any one time, in my research in the Kalahari as well as several ethnic groups in West Africa. However, they had nothing to do with the composition or membership in camping parties or villages. They actually seemed to constitute links that connected these temporary groups to each other, and to surrounding communities speaking different languages. Every adult was multilingual.. and so each individual network was actually linked to a vast inter-network that constituted the whole culture-area. Camping parties (bands") were always smaller, while villages were always bigger, than the networks of individuals, and people's networks were not usually identical in membership. Even a husband and wife, or a pair of siblings, would only have some network overlap, but still not have all their friends in common.
I found that individual networks - indicated by friendships as well as kinship - were about that size at any one time, in my research in the Kalahari as well as several ethnic groups in West Africa. However, they had nothing to do with the composition or membership in camping parties or villages. They actually seemed to constitute links that connected these temporary groups to each other, and to surrounding communities speaking different languages. Every adult was multilingual.. and so each individual network was actually linked to a vast inter-network that constituted the whole culture-area. Camping parties (bands") were always smaller, while villages were always bigger, than the networks of individuals, and people's networks were not usually identical in membership. Even a husband and wife, or a pair of siblings, would only have some network overlap, but still not have all their friends in common.