Male bonding

For the band, see Male Bonding (band).

In ethology and social science, male bonding is the formation of close personal relationships, and patterns of friendship or cooperation between males.

In the context of human relationships, male bonding is used to describe friendship between men, or the way in which men befriend each other. The expression is sometimes used synonymously with the word camaraderie. The first widely noticed use of the term was in Men in Groups (1969; 2004) by anthropologist Lionel Tiger.

Anthropologists at Germany's University of Göttingen found out, by studies on the Barbary macaques (an ape which exhibits humanlike social behaviour) that spending more time with other males relieved their stress levels and reduced stress-related illnesses, and may do so in humans as well.

See also

• Bachelor herd
• Bromance
• Female bonding
• Homosociality
• Human bonding
• Mancation
• Man cave
• Masculine psychology
• Men's spaces

Further reading

• Brehm, S.S., Miller, R.S., Perlman, D. & Campbell, S.M. (1992). Intimate relationships. Third edition, chapter 7: paragraph about "gender differences in same-sex friendships", pp. 212–213.
• Fanning, Patrick & McKay, Matthew. (1993). Being a friend: Making and keeping male friends. In Being a man: A guide to the new masculinity (pp. 108–125). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
• Garfinkel, Perry. (1992). "In a man's world: Father, son, brother, friend, and other roles men play." Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
• Miller, Stuart. (1986). "Men & friendship." Bath, England: Gateway Books.
• Nardi, Peter. (1999). Gay Men's Friendships: Invincible Communities. U. of Chicago Press.
• Nardi, Peter. (1992). "Men's friendships" (Research on men and masculinities series). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
• Pasick, Robert S. (1990). Friendship between men. In Meth, Richard L., Pasick, Robert S., et al., Men in therapy: The challenge of change (pp. 108–127). New York: The Guilford Press.
• Pasick, Robert S. (1992). Staying awake: The importance of friendship. In Awakening from the deep sleep: A powerful guide for courageous men (pp. 222–244). San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco (A division of HarperCollins, Publishers).
• Wrangham, R. & Peterson, D. (1996). Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Lionel Tiger, Men in Groups, Random House 1969; Transaction, 2004
• Potvin, John. (2008) Material and Visual Cultures Beyond Male Bonding, 1870–1914. Hampshire England, Ashgate Publishing Limited