Effect of relative social rank within a social hierarchy on neural activation in response to familiar or unfamiliar social signals

Competent social functioning of group-living species relies on the ability of individuals to detect and utilize conspecific social cues to guide behavior. Previous studies have identified numerous brain regions involved in processing these external cues, collectively referred to as the Social Decision-Making Network. However, how the brain encodes social information with respect to an individual’s social status has not been thoroughly examined. In mice, cues about an individual’s identity, including social status, are conveyed through urinary proteins. In this study, we assessed the neural cFos immunoreactivity in dominant and subordinate male mice exposed to familiar and unfamiliar dominant and subordinate male urine. The posteroventral medial amygdala was the only brain region that responded exclusively to dominant compared to subordinate male urine. In all other brain regions, including the VMH, PMv, and vlPAG, activity is modulated by a combination of odor familiarity and the social status of both the urine donor and the subject receiving the cue. We show that dominant subjects exhibit robust differential activity across different types of cues compared to subordinate subjects, suggesting that individuals perceive social cues differently depending on social experience. These data inform further investigation of neurobiological mechanisms underlying social-status related brain differences and behavior.

Effect of relative social rank within a social hierarchy on neural activation in response to familiar or unfamiliar social signals

Competent social functioning of group-living species relies on the ability of individuals to detect and utilize conspecific social cues to guide behavior. Previous studies have identified numerous brain regions involved in processing these external cues, collectively referred to as the Social Decision-Making Network. However, how the brain encodes social information with respect to an individual’s social status has not been thoroughly examined. In mice, cues about an individual’s identity, including social status, are conveyed through urinary proteins. In this study, we assessed the neural cFos immunoreactivity in dominant and subordinate male mice exposed to familiar and unfamiliar dominant and subordinate male urine. The posteroventral medial amygdala was the only brain region that responded exclusively to dominant compared to subordinate male urine. In all other brain regions, including the VMH, PMv, and vlPAG, activity is modulated by a combination of odor familiarity and the social status of both the urine donor and the subject receiving the cue. We show that dominant subjects exhibit robust differential activity across different types of cues compared to subordinate subjects, suggesting that individuals perceive social cues differently depending on social experience. These data inform further investigation of neurobiological mechanisms underlying social-status related brain differences and behavior.

Abimelech the manly man? Judges 9.1-57 and the performance of hegemonic masculinity

Feminist readings have long noted the gender anxiety present in the closing portion of Judges 9.1-57 where, in his last moments, Abimelech implores his armor bearer to cut him down lest he be remembered as a man killed by a woman. Utilizing Abimelech’s dying, gendered fear as a point of departure, the present study undertakes a ‘masculinist’ reading of Judges 9.1-57, exploring the ways in which Abimelech’s anxiety regarding his status as a ‘true man’ are present in the narrative. Adopting a model of idealized Hebrew masculinity derived from David Clines’ seminal work on David and augmented by recent scholarship on masculinity readings and the Hebrew Bible, the analysis demonstrates that Abimelech is a ‘subordinate’ male desperately seeking to act as a ‘hegemonic’ male. Ultimately, however, Abimelech’s performance of idealized masculinity falls short as he fails in the categories of martial prowess, wise and persuasive speech, and peer to peer bonding.

The Mark of Cain and Embodying Inferiority

Although hereditary inferiority initially defines a status absent a corporeal effect, the figure of Cain provides a means by which the Jews’ subjection could be embodied. Medieval Christian theologians employ the marked and cursed figure of Cain in the invention of a divinely inflicted curse of bleeding that functions to humiliate and subordinate male Jewish bodies. The author demonstrates that Jacques de Vitry’s account of this disease in his Historia Orientalis very closely traces the logic of papal decretals referencing Cain and Jewish servitude. Following the objective of legal attempts to define and enforce Jewish inferiority, the discourse of Jewish bleeding, whether described as menstrual or hemorrhoidal in subsequent texts, seeks to embody inferiority by means of demeaning disease. The theological concept of servitus Judaeorum influences discourses of natural philosophy and medicine that represent materially inferior Jewish bodies through the force of shaming infirmity.

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS AND THEIR EFFECT ON RESOURCE USE BY MALE LITTLE BROWN SKINKS, SCINCELLA LATERALIS

The aggressive behaviors of adult male Little Brown Skinks, Scincella lateralis, and their effects on access to an important resource (a single retreat) were the subject of a study consisting of 10 laboratory trials in which the behavioral interactions between a pair of individuals was recorded. Analysis of these interactions made it possible to identify a dominant and a subordinate male in each trial; the male with the greater bulk was dominant in 9 of the 10 trials. Aggressive behaviors recorded include lunging, chasing, and biting; the dominant male performed lunging significantly more often than the subordinate male and was the only individual to exhibit chasing. The most common behavior recorded was avoidance which was shown almost exclusively by the subordinate male. Both dominant and subordinate males exhibited tail twitching which we hypothesize to be a sign of agitation. The two males spent significantly more time on opposite sides of the observation chamber than on the same side and almost never occupied the single retreat simultaneously because the subordinate male repeatedly moved to avoid the dominant male. The implications of these results on spacing patterns and resource use of Scincella lateralis in the wild are discussed.