Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that the degree of role-segregation between husbands and wives is a function of the density in family networks is applied to a review of social relations among representative species from seven genera of Old World primates. On the whole, the hypothesis is supported. In seeking to apply Bott's ideas to primate research, her theory is formalized and stated more abstractly, with the result that its structural dynamics are highlighted. These structural processes revolve around three phenomena: (a) the negative causal effect of network overlap on density of each actor's networks; (b) the positive causal effect of network density on the degree of social support provided by, and a normative elaboration of, each actor's networks; and (c) the causal effect of social support and normative elaboration on the segregation of each actor's activities.
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