scholarly journals The Nature of Privilege: Intergenerational Wealth in Animal Societies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Smith ◽  
Barbara Horowitz ◽  
Michael Alfaro
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Intergenerational Transfer ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Animal Societies ◽  
Differential Access

Rampant structural inequality exists across human societies, exerting a powerful influence on the health of individuals around the globe. Differential access to – and variation in – material wealth contributes greatly to this imbalance. Intergenerational transfer of material wealth can advantage some individuals over less fortunate individuals, shaping divergent destinies and creating a hierarchy of privilege. This concept is familiar within the context of human economic and social systems, but we argue that privilege is not a uniquely human phenomenon. Rather, privilege has evolved multiple times and its phylogenetic reach may be startlingly widespread across the Tree of Life, raising the provocative possibility that comparative study of privilege may offer insights leading to effective strategies countering inequality in human societies.

scholarly journals Hypocrisy and Corruption: How Disparities in Power Shape the Evolution of Social Control

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 147470491875699
Author(s):  
Omar Tonsi Eldakar ◽  
J. Oliver Kammeyer ◽  
Nikhil Nagabandi ◽  
Andrew C. Gallup
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Game ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Large Power ◽  
Egalitarian Society ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Animal Societies

Altruism presents an evolutionary paradox, as altruistic individuals are good for the group yet vulnerable to exploitation by selfish individuals. One mechanism that can effectively curtail selfishness within groups is punishment. Here, we show in an evolutionary game-theoretical model that punishment can effectively evolve and maintain high levels of altruism in the population, yet not all punishment strategies were equally virtuous. Unlike typical models of social evolution, we explicitly altered the extent to which individuals vary in their power over others, such that powerful individuals can more readily punish and escape the punishment of others. Two primary findings emerged. Under large power asymmetries, a powerful selfish minority maintained altruism of the masses. In contrast, increased symmetry of power among individuals produced a more egalitarian society held together by altruism and punishment carried out by the collective. These extremes are consistent with the coercive nature of the powerful elites in social insects and egalitarian mechanisms of punishment in humans such as coalitional enforcement and gossip. Our overall findings provide insights into the importance of oversight, the consequences to changes in the power structure of social systems, and the roots of hypocrisy and corruption in human and nonhuman animal societies.

*The Study of Social Organizations

Behaviour ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 96-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Mcbride
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Animal Societies

AbstractThis paper presents a theoretical model of and a practical approach to the study of social systems. It was prepared after discussions at the XI and XII International Ethological Conferences, and each draft was presented to many ethologists for comment, and many responded. The paper looks at the social organization within animal species, and at the way animals build, maintain, and change it by their behaviour. The questions asked move always from the individual behaviours, through the social interactions, to the social reiationships and groups which are stable features of societies. The main societal subsystems discussed are: I. Social phases, or social structures which are maintained for periods of time; 2. Organic specialization by castes; 3. Social specialization in groups ; 4. The pattern of dispersal of individuals or groups; 5. The social organization of sexual and parent-offspring behaviour; 6. The organization of behaviour in relation to the environment; 7. The dynamic aspects of animal societies, particularly with changes in density. In each section, questions aim to draw out the pattern of behavioural organization, emphasising the structural features of the theoretical model presented.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Dragline Initiation in Spiders: Multiple Transitions from Multi- to Single-Gland Usage

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas O. Wolff
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Spider Silk ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Biological Role ◽  
Silk Glands ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Major Impediment ◽  
Plesiomorphic State

Despite the recognition of spider silk as a biological super-material and its dominant role in various aspects of a spider’s life, knowledge on silk use and silk properties is incomplete. This is a major impediment for the general understanding of spider ecology, spider silk evolution and biomaterial prospecting. In particular, the biological role of different types of silk glands is largely unexplored. Here, I report the results from a comparative study of spinneret usage during silk anchor and dragline spinning. I found that the use of both anterior lateral spinnerets (ALS) and posterior median spinnerets (PMS) is the plesiomorphic state of silk anchor and dragline spinning in the Araneomorphae, with transitions to ALS-only use in the Araneoidea and some smaller lineages scattered across the spider tree of life. Opposing the reduction to using a single spinneret pair, few taxa have switched to using all ALS, PMS and the posterior lateral spinnerets (PLS) for silk anchor and dragline formation. Silk fibres from the used spinnerets (major ampullate, minor ampullate and aciniform silk) were generally bundled in draglines after the completion of silk anchor spinning. Araneoid spiders were highly distinct from most other spiders in their draglines, being composed of major ampullate silk only. This indicates that major ampullate silk properties reported from comparative measurements of draglines should be handled with care. These observations call for a closer investigation of the function of different silk glands in spiders.

scholarly journals Solitary meat-eaters: solitary, carnivorous carnivorans exhibit the highest degree of sexual size dimorphism

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris J. Law
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sexual Size Dimorphism ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Size Dimorphism ◽  
Niche Divergence

Abstract Although sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is widespread across the animal tree of life, the underlying evolutionary processes that influence this phenomenon remains elusive and difficult to tease apart. In this study, I examined how social system (as a proxy for sexual selection) and diet (as a proxy for natural selection) influenced the evolution of SSD in terrestrial carnivorans (Carnivora; Mammalia). Using phylogenetic comparative methods, I found that are territorial solitary and carnivorous carnivorans exhibited selection towards increased degree of male-biased SSD compared to other carnivorans with alternative social systems and diets. I also found the absence of Rensch’s rule across most carnivoran clades, suggestion a relaxation of the influences of sexual selection on SSD. These results together suggest that sexual selection and niche divergence together are important processes influencing the evolution of male-biased SSD in extant terrestrial carnivorans.

SACRIFICE AT THE MAIZE TREE

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruud van Akkeren
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Postclassic

In pre-Columbian times the famous dance drama, known as the Rab'inal Achi, but whose indigenous name is Xajoj Tun, ended in a human sacrifice. A comparative study of the native documents shows that the victim, an important prisoner of war, died by being shot with arrows. The tun dance was part of a larger festival, which served propagandistic aims. The ritual of the arrow sacrifice highlighted crucial political moments, for example, when new lords were installed, titles were handed out, or glorious battles that led to the power and hegemony of one or more ruling lineages were commemorated. In the case of the Rab'inal Achi, it is the heroic past of the Toj lineage, rulers in Late Postclassic Rab'inal, that proves to be the main subject. Interestingly, when focusing on the language used to describe the arrow sacrifice, we see that the victim, who was tied to a scaffold, a stake, or a column, was considered game, and the archers as hunters. The stake had a symbolic meaning, as well. It represented a tree of life, a tree we have come to know as the World Tree growing in the center of the earth and holding up the sky. In the Rab'inal Achi, that tree, the place where the Warrior of K'iche' is shot, is named the Maize Tree, the same fictitious tree that is depicted on the Tablet of the Foliated Cross of Palenque.

scholarly journals How disease constrains the evolution of social systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1932) ◽  
pp. 20201284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oyita Udiani ◽  
Nina H. Fefferman
Keyword(s):  
Disease Risk ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Animal Societies ◽  
Evolutionary Fitness

Animal populations are occasionally shocked by epidemics of contagious diseases. The ability of social systems to withstand epidemic shocks and mitigate disruptions could shape the evolution of complex animal societies. We present a mathematical model to explore the potential impact of disease on the evolutionary fitness of different organizational strategies for populations of social species whose survival depends on collaborative efficiency. We show that infectious diseases select for a specific feature in the organization of collaborative roles—cohort stability—and that this feature is costly, and therefore unlikely to be maintained in environments where infection risks are absent. Our study provides evidence for an often-stated (but rarely supported) claim that pathogens have been the dominant force shaping the complexity of division of labour in eusocial societies of honeybees and termites and establishes a general theoretical approach for assessing evolutionary constraints on social organization from disease risk in other collaborative taxa.

Comparison of Slovenian and Korean library laws

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 884-893
Author(s):  
Hyeonsook Ryu ◽  
Primož Južnič
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Country ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Multiple Cultures ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Different Cultures

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive report of the results of a comparative study of Slovenian and Korean library law. Although the countries of Slovenia and Korea have entirely different historical backgrounds, the library laws of both countries are of a comprehensive nature. Despite this, there are many differences between them. This study aims to clarify the differences between the library legislation of Slovenia and Korea and indicates the origins of these differences. The library laws of Slovenia and Korea share a common comprehensive nature and in both countries, library policy is administered by the Ministry charged with culture. Nonetheless, significant differences may be observed in their chapter structures, description methods, composition, as well as the characteristics of the shared national bibliographic system, etc. Additional findings indicate that as a small country surrounded by larger states, Slovenia has historically been more prone to accepting different cultures and can interact with them easily. On the other hand, by not embracing multiple cultures within its system of library law, Korea still fails to provide social and cultural security to ethnic minorities and migrants. This paper represents not only a juxtaposed comparison of Slovenian and Korean library laws, but also provides a detailed cross comparison, considering all of the similarities and differences that may be understood through this process. This study clarifies how each country’s social systems and the environment surrounding library affected the enactments of currently applicable library legislation.

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