1. What is the “social intelligence hypothesis?”

2. What is the purpose of grooming in primate groups? Grooming is to monkeys as language is to humans. Explain that.

3. What does Dunbar mean by “natural human group size?” Why are groups unworkable beyond that number (especially if we didn’t have language)?

4. How does Dunbar argue this point? What is his evidence?

5. How do we reach that number, or beyond it, via language?

6. Based on contemporary research, what does Dunbar infer about the significance of women in human paleohistory?

7. And so women “gossip” more? Is this true in your experience, and if so, do you see that in a new light given Dunbar’s take on it?

8. At the end, how does Dunbar move outside language to speculate about the reason for “natural human group size?”

9. How does this idea accord with what you know about evolutionary theory?