scholarly journals Identifying constraints in the evolution of primate societies

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1618) ◽  
pp. 20120342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Thierry

The evolutionary study of social systems in non-human primates has long been focused on ecological determinants. The predictive value of socio-ecological models remains quite low, however, in particular because such equilibrium models cannot integrate the course of history. The use of phylogenetic methods indicates that many patterns of primate societies have been conserved throughout evolutionary history. For example, the study of social relations in macaques revealed that their social systems are made of sets of correlated behavioural traits. Some macaque species are portrayed by marked social intolerance, a steep dominance gradient and strong nepotism, whereas others display a higher level of social tolerance, relaxed dominance and a weaker influence of kinship. Linkages between behavioural traits occur at different levels of organization, and act as constraints that limit evolutionary responses to external pressures. Whereas these constraints can exert strong stabilizing selection that opposes the potential changes required by the ecological environment, selective mechanisms may have the potential to switch the whole social system from one state to another by acting primarily on some key behavioural traits that could work as pacemakers.

1997 ◽  
pp. 8-12
Author(s):  
Valentyna Bodak

Society is a person in its social relations. If the term "society" is used to determine reality as a system of interconnections and relationships between people, then its social system appears as an entity in which human societies are diverse in character and social role. Social life is expressed in the grouping of members of society on the basis of certain objectively predetermined types of relations between them. The integrity and unity of religious communities, their qualitative specificity determines the content of the doctrine and cult, on which they grow.


Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.


Author(s):  
Alexander A. Somkin

Introduction. The paper analyzes the specificity of the dialectical development of the integrated social systems of such a personality and society. The presence of positive (natural) contradictions is recognized as a necessary and creative factor in social practice. Under the influence of this type of contradiction, the old, outdated forms of social structure (individual components of the social system) are denied and transformed to new, more perfect ones occurs as a result of their successful resolution. Methods. In the analysis, the author relied on a system-holistic approach, traditional general philosophical methods: induction and deduction, theoretical analysis and synthesis, extrapolation, etc. Discussion. The social system as an integrated unity goes through a number of stages from inception, formation and maturity to the transition to a qualitatively new state. Accordingly, the process of the emergence and development of dialectical contradictions also has several stages: from insignificant differences between opposite sides at the beginning of the emergence of the system to their strengthening and exacerbation. The nature of the contradictions depends on the specifics of the opposing sides, as well as on the conditions in which their interaction unfolds. The determining factor here, in the opinion of the author, is the positive (natural) direction of social opposition, under the influence of which the essence of the contradictions themselves is formed. Conclusion. According to the dialectical approach, the source of social development is the unity and struggle of opposites within the social system. However, the presence of opposite sides is a necessary but insufficient condition for development. They create the preconditions for it, but do not act as its driving force. Only a change in one opposition relative to another creates alternative tension, giving rise to a dialectical contradiction. Therefore, the antagonistic or non-antagonistic character of the latter is due to the positive (natural) or negative character of the social opposition itself.


10.6036/10173 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-337
Author(s):  
JUAN AURELIO TAMAYO ◽  
JAVIER GAMERO ROJAS ◽  
JUAN ANTONIO MARTINEZ ROMAN ◽  
MARIA DE LORETO DELGADO GONZALEZ

A measure is proposed to estimate the degree of digital transformation of a social system that could be applied to different units of analysis: the organization, the industrial sector or society. The measure contemplates the existence of classic (non-digital) social systems, a transition stage and the transformation towards the digital social system. An estimate of the percentage of people who have made purchases over the Internet has been used to estimate the degree of digital transformation of different territories, regions and countries included in the INE and Eurostat statistics. The initially proposed function can serve as a basis to include panels of indicators or multiple parameters that diagnose other relevant aspects of society and the economy. In general, the measure could be useful to assess the transition and evolution of different types of systems.


Author(s):  
Hanne Veber

“Society” appears a difficult notion. We use it all the time. But is it any good as an analytical concept? Sociologists seem to agree it is not. Few societies have the empirical characteristics of the bounded entity that structural-functionalist theory assumed. Constructivist notions of society as “imagined community” appear to be tied up with the existence of the State or with the spread of information technology. This leaves contemporary anthropology with “society” as a residue, the left-over from culture’s gluttonous theoretical supper. Still, social science aims to explain or understand social relations, interactions, and the processes by which structures and functions are worked into social systems as implied by the notion of society. The notion of society allows us to assume the existence of objective structures of order in the social life of people. Unlike the notion of culture, however, the notion of society has not been critically scrutinized by anthropologists. In contemporary Danish anthropology with its focus on culture and cultural representations, writers tend to simply take society for granted as the intrinsic empirical context of culture. From the perspective of Durkheimian notions of “the social”, the paper provides a brief review of interpretations that retrospectively have appeared analytical dead-ends. The author goes on to suggest that the notion of “symbolically generalized media of communication” may offer a productive opening that embraces both sides of the culture/society dichotomy in the search for structured systems of social existence whether subjectively or objectively conceived. The idea of “symbolically generalized media or communication” was originally formulated by Talcott Parsons and subsequently reworked by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Rather than an interrelated series of parts that make up a whole plus something else in the classic Durkheimian sense, society from this perspective appears in the form of structured sets of actions oriented by a horizon of possibilities and expectations, symbolically constituted, yet always provisional and emergent. Inspired by analyses of two different cases in Amazonian research the paper offers a brief hint at how the notion may be employed in anthropology.


2019 ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Vadim Chuiko ◽  
Valery Atamanchuk-Angel

In this article of the Doctor of Philosophy, professor of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Chuiko Vadim Leonidovich and Atamanchuk-Angel Valerii Ivanovich is applied the principle of «first philosophy» as the foundation of the a priori prerequisites of possible cognition, which define an existence in general rather than its individual parts. This application of metaphysics made it possible to introduce methods of «universal algebra» for the implementation of humanitarian research using algebraic description with the help of three notion: plural, operations, relation. This methodological novation makes it possible to create demonstrative models of social systems, not their constructions, because constructionsare traditionally makeby using binary description that use only two notions, categories. Question: How to fill the notion of «public agreement» with the actual content? How to make all generations participate in the adoption of a social contract? How to create a new one, without destroying it entirely, maintaining stability? How to ensure a high degree of mutation — rebuilding, rebuilding and construction? Introduced in the algebraic sense, the notion of «trust» as a definition of what is necessary for the existence of a society of being as such, forms an algebra that models social relations by the operation of trust, not violence. Based on the above, we can talk about creating a mathematical politics. Matpoliticsdeal with ideal political objects. Matpolitics is the activity of a summation of algebras. These algebras differ from each other by the choice of operations. Plurals that consist of different algebras can be the carrier of the algebra. In this case, we are talking about the algebra of trust / credo, whose signature consists of the following operations: sovereignty, trust / credit, understanding of need for the Other, agreement and recursive procedures. The result of the implementation of these methodological guidelines are the answers to the following questions: How to make the concept of «social agreement» really meaningful? How can all generations (and the unborn, too) be involved in the social agreement? How to create a new one, without destroying the foundations of the existing one, to realize the idea of conservative development: restructuring and building a new one? Based on the provisions of the algebra of trust, society appears as a plurality of sovereigns — C, possessing the full range of rights to identify trust / distrust — Di, creating agreements — Yn, and for their completeness they have and understand the need for the other — Ik. The model presented is a system of treaties that are not an abstract concept of the state, but an agreement with specific elected people who have gained the trust of those to whom they temporarily render their services. Agreements are urgent, limited by time frame, with obligatory full responsibility of the parties.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucille B. Mazo

This study investigates the core concepts and views that underlie the theories of social systems as explained by four theorists. It critically assesses and analyzes the role of the higher education system within society, as well as the role of the educator within this social system as defined and articulated by Durkheim (1956), outlined and explained from a hierarchical perspective by Parsons (1951), identified as an integrative process by Bertalanffy (1968), and viewed as a web of relationships by Capra (1996). Major themes from each theorist are analyzed with respect to what role social systems play in higher education and how educators are affected by internal social subsystems and collectivities. An example is presented on how collectivities exist online and use technology to continue at a university during the COVID-19 pandemic. 


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuma Kevin Owuamalam ◽  
Mark Rubin ◽  
Russell Spears

Do the disadvantaged have an autonomous system justification motivation that operates against their personal and group interests? System justification theory (SJT; Jost & Banaji, 1994) proposes that they do, and that this motivation helps to (a) reduce cognitive dissonance and associated uncertainties and (b) soothe the pain that is associated with knowing that one’s group is subject to social inequality. However, 25 years of research on this system justification motivation has given rise to several theoretical and empirical inconsistencies. The present article argues that these inconsistencies can be resolved by a social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA; Owuamalam, Rubin, & Spears, 2018). SIMSA assumes that instances of system justification are often in alignment with (rather than opposed to) the interests of the disadvantaged. According to SIMSA, the disadvantaged may support social systems (a) in order to acknowledge social reality, (b) when they perceive the wider social system to constitute a superordinate ingroup, and (c) because they hope to improve their ingroup’s status through existing channels in the long run. These propositions are corroborated by existing and emerging evidence. We conclude that SIMSA offers a more coherent and parsimonious explanation for system justification than does SJT.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo S Kgatle

Social-scientific criticism refers to an interpretation of the biblical text that takes into cognizance the social system that produced that text. This article presents a social scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28. The article outlines models of social systems in Matthew 15:21–28 like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status in order to achieve a social scientific reading. The purpose of this article is to firstly demonstrate that the models of social system in Matthew 15:21–28 served as boundaries to the faith of a Canaanite woman. Secondly, it is to demonstrate that the Canaanite woman crossed such boundaries in Matthew 15:21–28 for her daughter to receive healing. Lastly, the Canaanite woman serves as a model for South African women today who have to cross boundaries like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status.


E-Management ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
M. V. Samosudov

The formation and formation of the Industry 4.0 concept stimulated the discussion of the use of computer technology in various areas of economic activity and, in particular, in the automation of social systems management. The basis of the concept is the inclusion of a virtual image of the social system in the form of a mathematical model or a digital twin of the enterprise in the production and management system. At the same time, it should be noted that today digital twin are created mainly only for technical objects used in the activities of enterprises. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the possibility of fixing organizational documents as one of the system-forming factors in the digital twin of an enterprise. This circumstance makes it possible, firstly, to more accurately calculate the managerial effects of managers by taking into account the impact of organizational documents on the activities of employees of the enterprise; secondly, to identify conflicts of documents developed by various departments of the company; thirdly, to calculate the content of documents during their development (design), based on the requirements of the situation or a given control effect. This possibility arises due to the use of a comprehensive mathematical model of the social system operating in an active environment. The model is a simulation agent-based model and allows you to calculate the dynamics of the social system in the socio-economic space, which allows its use in decision support systems by managers of any scale and activities to calculate the expected effect of management decisions – the specifics of a particular social system are taken into account by combining the values of the phase variables describing the state of the enterprise. The novelty of the research paper lies in the fact that it shows: the possibility to calculate the influence of organizational documents on the behavior of participants and, consequently, on the result of the social system, as well as the mechanism for converting messages, which are invariants of socio-economic space into information that affects the behavior of participants of relations.


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