The social unit for man is the family. It is unlikely that a child reared in a non-family circumstance would ever behave as a human in human society, and this is probably true for other animals when they are removed from their natural surroundings. The experience of Elsa, in Born Free, demonstrated the difficulty of "teaching" a lion how to become wild again after being raised in captivity. Without the patient and persistent efforts of the individuals involved, it is almost certain that Elsa would not have readapted to the wild state. Jokingly we sometimes refer to our dogs as though they were people, and a dog raised from puppyhood as a member of a human family often acquires behavioral responses similar to those of the human members of the group. This is not to argue that the dog really becomes human, for obviously it cannot since its genetic makeup is that of a dog. Nevertheless, it has learned social behavior that is acceptable in a human family, behavior quite different from that acceptable to a pack of dogs. The habitat of the orangutan in New Guinea is being destroyed by logging and agricultural development. An organization established to save the orangutan is finding that because the orangutan so quickly became socialized to man, their future is uncertain when they are released to the wild. Orangutans, of course, are by nature highly social animals and man's efforts to save them must allow for this social behavior.

Contrary to popular belief, the principal difference in the socialization of a human child and the socialization of an animal is not the language component. With or without language man's offspring must be socialized by him in order to function in the human community. The rearing of an elephant is much the same as the rearing of a human child and just as rigidly controlled biologically. For the first 6 months of its life the infant elephant remains at its mother's side and is not allowed to wander outside the circle of the herd. It is closely watched by the mother for about 2 years, and does not join the herd as a full-fledged member for about 11 years. The elephant's life span is about 60 years, so this development process roughly corresponds to the upbringing of a human in a similar life span. It should be noted that before the advent of sanitary engineering and public health, the life span of elephants was much longer than that of man. If behavior learned in a social grouping is necessary to function in the group, then it follows that an individual reared outside the group and deprived of the proper learning experience will not fit into the group.

Families can form in any number of ways. In modern Western society the typical family is the nuclear family consisting of the mother, the father, and the children. In other parts of the world polygamous marriages (both polyandrous and polygynous), matriarchies, and patriarchies can be found, and in some of the "hippie" communes of the United States group marriage is practiced. The particular arrangement of the family does not seem to be very important as long as each member of the family understands his or her status within the family and responds behaviorally in ways that stabilize the social group.

The family as a social entity may have evolved independently in several groups of hominoids, all having a common behavior pattern, who fused into a single coherent species millions of years ago. Under these circumstances it is reasonable to assume that different social groupings arose very early among these closely related hominoids. These relationships must have been much closer than the relationship between man and the higher apes. Man is the only species, of several tens of millions of species that have existed on the face of the earth, to have developed a language-based technology. If language-based technology occurred in more than one biological grouping, it is very likely that the groups in which this capacity appeared would be so closely related to each other as to be virtually the same species. Moreover, if the pattern of family association and grouping reflects a social evolution, one that responds to language and technology and economic effects, then the social groupings that would tend to fill the requirements of biological survival may be the limiting factors of social evolution.

Nevertheless, wherever man exists he is found in a family setting and the family is the context in which he is socialized. Man is taught to live in a social group, to accept group values and norms, and to behave in a manner prescribed by the group. The concept of socialization simply means teaching the biological organism, in this case man, to live in a social grouping of his own species.

The family, therefore, is the primary biological grouping of man, and all subsequent social organization is dependent upon this fact. From the standpoint of the biological requirements for survival, the family unit provides reproductive continuity for the preservation of the species, and for survival in a manner compatible with reproductive continuity. Moreover, the family unit gives social satisfaction beyond mere survival, for it provides for comfort, security, and well-being. Other animal species may or may not be organized in a fashion similar to that of man, but the fact that family groupings are prevalent in most, if not all, higher animals indicates that it must be a stable biological-ecological configuration. This is particularly true during the formative years of the young when the number of lessons to be learned by a new member of the group is quite extensive. In many cases the social groupings of animals occur only at seasonal times of the year and seem to be related primarily to reproductive functions. Moose seem to be loners except during the breeding season, and male grizzly bears do not associate with female grizzly bears except during the mating season. Their offspring may remain with the mother until the sub-adulthood of the offspring is reached, at which time they may be replaced in the social grouping by newborn. The social grouping then becomes that of the new offspring and the mother, who again form a relatively short-term stable association.

Since man evolved in the biological environment of the earth's biosphere, his existence depends upon his existence with other living things. Man's primary requirement for his biological and psychological well-being are other people and the natural setting of vegetation, together with the animals found there, i.e., birds, butterflies, rabbits, deer, and so on. All animals, including man, must be preoccupied with the gathering of food, and hence man's environment must also provide him with the plants and animals that constitute food. Since hunting is a basic elementary social pattern for the survival of man, it is not surprising that the excitement of the hunt still survives in modern society as a very strong social behavioral pattern.

In recent times it may appear that man has abandoned the concept of surrounding himself with living organisms in favor of the bricks and mortar of the cities. But places like New York and Tokyo are not merely bricks, mortar, plastic, glass, and steel; they are also millions of people. And further, prior to the development of food storage and refrigeration devices, large cities like London, Paris, and Peking must have teemed with plant and animal life brought to the city to feed the population.