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Child's Play* Levels of Closeness* Ask a Rabbit* Paths of Growth* A Moving Story* Nature Corner*

Social Animals

"What's with the chimpy cover? I didn't think ya'll were that hairy over at the ecovillage."

Okay, it would be convenient as the weather starts to get more chilly, but no such luck. What we do have in common with our primate relatives, especially the great ape cousins, is our heavy reliance on social grouping as a mechanism for survival.

One of the dangers of forgetting that humans are animals, albeit fairly weird ones, is that we fail to recognize needs that we point out as obvious in our closest relations (chimps!). As highly social animals, we depend on each other. When our social needs don't get met, strange things begin to happen-communication failure, increase in aggression-just as they do when other resources run short.

Since DR is an intentional community, it seemed fitting to focus an issue on the ways we wacky hominids relate. In the Nature corner, Rachel relates her scientific findings on an unusual human subspecies. Tony reflects on the importance of acquaintanceship, which squares with many projections of the ideal numbers for large human groups (150, composed of people you would ask a minor favor of or send a holiday card, for example). Ted focuses on his path to better communication, while Juan narrows it down to communicating a major life choice in "You're moving where?" Finally, "Child's Play" gives a quick peek into the need for meaningful work in the young of our species.

Judging by my in-depth sociological research (all ten minutes of it), now is a particularly pertinent time in the development of the village to discuss how we get along. Meaning: many educators and business-types list 20-30 as a top group size for learning or communicating just about anything. In other words, just the number of members we currently have.

Other significant numbers included twelve, the size listed for a more intimate clique group within the large (150) group identified by Robin Dunbar, a scientist looking at the relationship between these group sizes and the size of the neocortex. Our subcommunities better get growing-it's more likely than getting our neocortexes to shrink, after all.

The most heartening quote for a smaller community in the process of developing into a village: "the larger the group size, the looser the social structure." Perhaps that can be our mantra as we continue to meet the challenges of our transition and lay out our infrastructure for the future.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our tales of social interaction. Unfortunately, you won't enjoy our tails; great apes don't have them.

Child's Play* Levels of Closeness* Ask a Rabbit* Paths of Growth* A Moving Story* Nature Corner*