The genomic landscape of contemporary western Remote Oceanians

The Vanuatu archipelago served as a gateway to Remote Oceania during one of the most extensive human migrations to uninhabited lands around 3,200 years ago. Ancient DNA studies suggest an initial settlement by East Asian-related peoples that was quickly followed by the arrival of Papuan-related populations, leading to a major population turnover. Yet, there is uncertainty over the population processes and the sociocultural factors that have shaped the genomic diversity of ni-Vanuatu, who present nowadays among the world's highest linguistic and cultural diversity. Here, we report genome-wide data for 1,433 contemporary ni-Vanuatu from 29 different islands, including 287 couples. We find that ni-Vanuatu derive their East Asian- and Papuan-related ancestry from the same source populations and descend from relatively synchronous admixture events that occurred around 1,700-2,300 years ago, indicating a peopling history common to all the archipelago. However, our analyses reveal that the Papuan population turnover was geographically uneven, and that the genetic contribution of Papuan-related peoples was male-biased. Furthermore, we detect Polynesian ancestry arriving around 600-1,000 years ago to South Vanuatu, and map its distribution to both Polynesian- and non-Polynesian-speaking islands. Lastly, we provide evidence for a tendency of spouses to carry similar genetic ancestry, when accounting for relatedness avoidance. The signal is not driven by strong genetic effects of specific loci or trait-associated variants, suggesting that it results instead from social assortative mating. Altogether, our findings provide insight into both the genetic history of ni-Vanuatu populations and how sociocultural processes have shaped the diversity of their genomes.

Interactionist Theories of Emotion

Classical and contemporary developments in the study of culture are examined for ways to conceptualize emotion(s) and to frame their study. The foundation of this approach is found in early social pragmatism and interactionism, both of which view the structuring of mind, self, and emotion as sociocultural processes. The same principles are found in contemporary arguments about emotions and subjectivity made by ‟constructionist” works in psychology and social science as well as in culture theory today. These approaches have given greater emphasis to the study of everyday beliefs of social actors, arguing that the entire domain of subjectivity is not (as commonly understood) devoid of social and cultural influence. Rather, subjectivity itself is “socially constructed.” In this way and in others, pragmatist social psychology and contemporary culture theory have both enlarged and changed the idea of subjectivity from something isolated and unique and purely individual to something shared and observable. Subjectivity’s continual formation and development take place in society in interaction with others. Accordingly, emotions and the ways they are experienced exist within socially and historically variable cultures, implying that people’s ideas about what emotions are and what they mean vary across cultures as well as within cultures.

THE NEW KINGDOM OF EGYPT AND THE EARLY STATE ORGANIZATIONS OF THE ARMENIAN HIGHLAND IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE II MILLENNIUM BC (BASED ON HISTORICAL SOURCES AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE)

The Ancient Near Eastern powerful states in the mid II millennium BC were not only directing and supervising the military-political, trading-economic, and sociocultural processes, but were also trying to obtain their dominance and control in the region. This was the reason that two conflicting groups gradually polarized in the region, where each state, despite its interests concerning the redistribution of spheres of influence in the ancient Near East, had to ally a more convenient political formation, given the current political situation and its capacities. As a result, the Hittite New Kingdom, Arzawa and Wilusa appeared to be in one of the groups, and the New Kingdom of Egypt, Kassite Babylonia and Mitanni were in the other one. The inter-state relations of these powers included both military-political and diplomatic rivalry, and a controlled system of well-organized transit trading and cultural relations. At the same time, each of the groups sought to urge other small early state organizations and tribal unions of the region to get involved in the alliance, contributing to the realization of prospective political plans with their capacities of raw materials, production of specific items and human resources. This was the situation also with the part of the early state organization of the Armenian Highland. Meanwhile, both the written sources and the archaeological excavations in general, testify the anti-Hittite orientation of the early state organizations of the Armenian Highland and their tending towards Egypt-Mitanni-Kassite Babylonia alliance.

Collective rhythm as an emergent property during human social coordination

The literature on social interactions has shown that participants coordinate not only at the behavioral but also at the physiological and neural levels, and that this coordination gives a temporal structure to the individual and to the social dynamics. However, it has not been fully explored whether such temporal patterns emerge during interpersonal coordination beyond dyads, whether this phenomenon arises from complex cognitive mechanisms or from relatively simple rules of behavior, or the sociocultural processes that underlie this phenomenon. We review the evidence for the existence of group-level rhythmic patterns that result from social interactions and argue that, by imposing a temporal structure at the individual and interaction levels, interpersonal coordination in groups leads to temporal regularities that cannot be predicted from the individual periodicities: a collective rhythm. Moreover, we use this interpretation of the literature to discuss how taking into account the sociocultural niche in which individuals develop can help explain the seemingly divergent results that have been reported on the social influences and consequences of interpersonal coordination. We make recommendations on further research to test these arguments and their relationship to the feeling of belonging and assimilation experienced during group dynamics.

On the Implementation of International Law in the Constitutional Legal System of Russia: Theory and Practice

Implementation of international law at the national level continues to be an actual direction for both theoretical and practical studies. Within the framework of the processes of globalization and integration, this issue is of particular importance. This article examines the theoretical aspects of the implementation of International Law in the constitutional legal system, as well as the features of the practice of making decisions by the European Court of Human Rights in modern conditions. The influence of sociocultural processes taking place in Western European countries on the interaction of national and international legal order. The purpose of the work is to analyze the theoretical and practical aspects of the implementation of International Law in the national legal system within the framework of integration processes that have a direct impact to the main spheres of society. In the course of the research have been used: formal logical and technical-legal methods. The authors made a number of conclusions about the modern mechanism of interaction between the national and international legal order.

Formation and Development Determinants of the City Commemorative Culture

Based on historical-genetic and comparative research methods, the article reveals the determinants of formation and development of the city commemorative culture. This issue is relevant because of the increasing influence of the memory of the past on modern sociocultural processes. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the study of poorly studied issues of the impact of commemorative culture on the development of culture in general; the opportunities of regulating the nature and distribution of memorial forms; the factors determining the formation of the city commemorative culture in the context of the historical and sociocultural dynamics of applicable societies of the civilizations of the past and present. The article uses an integrated approach, which determines the interdisciplinary nature of scientific research, allowing analyzing the aspects of the origin, interpretation of the features of the history and existence of monuments in different cultures. There are provided examples of commemoration practices in the post-Soviet countries, including the Republic of Belarus. The article concludes that the content of commemorative culture is determined primarily by religious traditions and state priorities. The creation of monuments and places of memory is used as an agitation and manipulative resource making an emotional impact; as an ideological tool shaping the perception of history in accordance with the state ideology. Commemorative practices take on special significance during the formation of nations, influencing the subject’s identification with the nation, and the awareness of national solidity. In this case, the monument represents a universal form of embodying and conveying the national idea.

Different Meanings of Proper Nutrition: The Sociopolitical Dynamics of the Relationship between Body and State in the 1970s and 2010s Poland

In this article, we comparatively analyze expert discourses and lay attitudes to healthy eating in socialist and contemporary Poland. The investigation makes apparent significant changes that have occurred in between these two periods. From legitimate and peremptory knowledge with an unchangeable and universal character, dietary guidance evolved into being much less authoritative in nature, facilitating various alternative ways of thinking and debate. The recipients of nutritional advice have also changed: from subordinated citizens and only passive objects of experts’ actions to the self-governing neoliberal subjects, which are active agents of their own choices and are individually responsible for their well-being. During socialist times, proper eating, in line with dietitian’s recommendations, was of secondary importance as Polish citizens were primarily motivated by the need to procure food of adequate quality and in sufficient quantity. Nowadays, under free-market economics and changing lifestyles, eating healthily is an issue of fundamental concern for many people. This analysis reveals that the production of nutritional knowledge is tightly related to sociopolitical contexts and that changing food attitudes are both influenced by post-socialist transformations as well as broader sociocultural processes.

Russians of the neighboring countries in the post-Soviet period: geodemographic, ethno-social, sociocultural aspects

The following review article analyzes an array of scientific studies dedicated to the Russian population of the neighboring countries. This article considers the works dealing with quantitative, spatial, and settlement dynamics of Russian communities; scale and direction of migration; shifts in indicators of natural reproduction and sex-age structure. Analysis of the scientific literature shows a widespread trend of depopulation, reduction in geography, a noticeable gender imbalance and increase in the average age among Russians across the entire near abroad. But there are also significant cross-country differences in these trends. This article also identifies main directions of research on the ethno-social dynamics of the Russian population, including analysis of the problems of its ethnic self-identification and interethnic marriage, the related assimilation processes, which, depending on the country and region, could contribute to both replenishment of Russian communities, or growth of their demographic losses. The studies dedicated to sociocultural processes, to position of the Russian language and Russian culture in the post-Soviet space, show multidirectional nature of the changes. A significant reduction in the scale of Russian-language education and other spheres of sociocultural infrastructure was combined in the post-Soviet space with dominance of the Russian-speaking Internet and keeping Russian as the language of interethnic communication. The scientific literature also reveal significant differences in the strategies of the Russian people themselves, in some regions of the neighboring countries they are predominantly focused on complex socio-cultural integration, in the others — on preservation of their cultural and linguistic specifics.

Power as a Factor of Educational and Sociocultural Processes

The article is devoted to the analysis of the interaction of power and education. The authors disclose the presentation of meta-structures formed at the crossroads of education with other areas of social life. It is shown that the socio-educational movement, expressing the interests of society in interaction with the authorities, does not cover the whole variety of deep objective processes. The necessity of acquisition and transfer of experience from person to person, from generation to generation, becomes the most important vector of the process and contributes to the integration of various areas of social life. The purpose is to investigate the structure and functions of power in the context of educational and socio-cultural processes, to identify the most important trends in the evolution of power in education, to disclose the specifics of power relations, their role in the functioning and development of the society.

Process taxonomies and copan:CORE modelling framework for studying human-Earth system interaction dynamics in the Anthropocene

<div> <p>Analysis of Earth system dynamics in the Anthropocene requires explicitly taking into account the increasing magnitude of processes operating in human societies, their cultures, economies and technosphere and their growing feedback entanglement with those in the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet. However, current state-of-the-art Earth system models do not represent dynamic human societies and their feedback interactions with the biogeophysical Earth system and macroeconomic integrated assessment models typically do so only with limited scope. This paper (i) proposes design principles for constructing world–Earth models (WEMs) for Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene, i.e., models of social (world)–ecological (Earth) coevolution on up to planetary scales, and (ii) presents the copan:CORE open simulation modeling framework for developing, composing and analyzing such WEMs based on the proposed principles. The framework provides a modular structure to flexibly construct and study WEMs. These can contain biophysical (e.g., carbon cycle dynamics), socio-metabolic or economic (e.g., economic growth or energy system changes), and sociocultural processes (e.g., voting on climate policies or changing social norms) and their feedback interactions, and they are based on elementary entity types, e.g., grid cells and social systems. Thereby, copan:CORE enables the epistemic flexibility needed for contributions towards Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene given the large diversity of competing theories and methodologies used for describing socio-metabolic or economic and sociocultural processes in the Earth system by various fields and schools of thought. To illustrate the capabilities of the framework, we present an exemplary and highly stylized WEM implemented in copan:CORE that illustrates how endogenizing sociocultural processes and feedbacks such as voting on climate policies based on socially learned environmental awareness could fundamentally change macroscopic model outcomes.</p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p>Donges, J.F. et al.: Taxonomies for structuring models for World-Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene: subsystems, their interactions and social-ecological feedback loops, Earth Syst. Dynam. Disc., in review (2021), DOI: 10.5194/esd-2018-27.</p> <p>Donges, J. F. and Heitzig,et al..: Earth system modeling with endogenous and dynamic human societies: the copan:CORE open World–Earth modeling framework, Earth Syst. Dynam., 11, 395–413, 2020.</p> </div>