Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sadi Carnot (talk | contribs) at 13:32, 24 January 2006 (added mammalian bond section). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The term human bond, or more generally human bonding, refers to the process or formation of a close personal relationship, as between a mother and child, especially through frequent or constant association. The concept of nuclear family or bonded unit or two parents plus one or more children was coined by American anthropologist George Murdock in his 1949 work “Social Structure”. According to Merriam-Webster, the application of the term “bonding” to interpersonal relationships came of use in 1976. The concept of “male bonding” refers to bonding between males through shared activities excluding females or the formation of a close personal relationship between men; for example: "the rituals known as male bonding do not necessarily involve drinking beer together".

In 2000, psychologists Lewis, Amini, and Lannon published there famous A General Theory of Love in which they postulated the concept of the mammalian bond, which defines a bodily connection that is limbic in nature. Here, a mutually synchronizing sensory exchange as bodily warmth, olfactory cues, vocal exchange, visual interactions, etc., function to keep ties or organizing sensory channels between connected individuals. These ties or bonds function to regulate the those associated persons. They define this design as open-loop regulatory system; where, as they state, adults are social animals: they continue to require a source of stabilization outside themselves. The open loop design means that in some important ways, people cannot be stable on their own; stability means finding people who regulate you well and staying near them.

See also

• Maternal bond
• Paternal bond
• Nuclear family
• Psychological bond

References

• Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary © 2000.
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
• Lewis, T., Amini, F., & Lannon, R. (2000). A General Theory of Love. ISBN 0375709223