Booking is well under way for Professor Dunbar’s lecture Social Evolution in Darwin’s World which will take place at Theatre Severn on Sunday 13th February 2022 at 2.30.
Professor Dunbar is a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford. He spent many years carrying out fieldwork in Ethiopia on Gelada Baboons and he developed a major thesis on the importance of social grooming (“Debunking the Hygiene Hypothesis on Grooming in Primates”).
Later he emphasised the role of social bonding (“Social Brain Hypothesis and the Importance of Social Bonding”). These ideas were transferred to human behaviour and the development of ‘Dunbar’s Number’ which suggested a cognitive upper limit to the number of people necessary for meaningful social relationships. His latest book is Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships, published 2021.
Maurice Headon, our Talks Officer, says that more than 100 tickets have now been sold and he is cautiously hopeful that Government restrictions will not change so that this important event can safely go ahead. Book by ringing the Theatre Box Office: 01743 281281 or from their website at https://www.theatresevern.co.uk.
