IMPOSSIBLE GIFTS: BODIES, BUDDHISM AND BIOETHICS IN CONTEMPORARY SRI LANKA

The ethical concerns generated by transactions in human tissue touch on fundamental ideas of the body, society, and the nature of giving. These issues have generally been discussed using Euro-American terms of reference. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in Sri Lanka, this article describes the ways in which a distinctively Theravāda Buddhist notion of giving and charity has been linked to the development of strategies to encourage the donation of human tissue. Eye and blood donation are used as illustrations of the linkages that have been forged between religious duty, other-wordly aspirations, and nationalist sentiment in the development of national donation services. The key question which is then addressed is how these distinctive beliefs and values inform attempts to frame donations of sperm and ova which are now beginning to take place in Sri Lanka. In religious and cultural terms the candidacy of sperm and ova as gifts appears to be evaluated very differently. Explaining these differences opens up the possibility of a more thoroughgoing anthropological critique of bioethics and the manner of its diffusion both within and beyond the Euro-American context.     

Mating tactic dependent sperm transfer rates in Panorpa similis (Mecoptera; Panorpidae): a case of female control?

Abstract 1. Male Panorpa scorpionflies offer salivary masses as nuptial gifts during copulation. Previous studies have shown that there is usually a strong correlation between the number or size of salivary masses provided and copulation duration. As a result of constant sperm transfer rates, copulation duration is the most important determinant of male fitness in these species. 2. Differences in copulation durations for gift‐giving and non‐gift‐giving males of the Caucasian scorpionfly Panorpa similis have been shown to be much smaller on average than those observed in other Panorpa species. In this study, we therefore focus on the number of sperm transferred in copulations of P. similis both with and without salivary masses. 3. We find that although the average copulation duration in the presence of nuptial gifts is only twice as long as the average copulation duration without nuptial gifts, gift‐giving males transfer almost 11 times more sperm during copulations than non‐gift‐giving males. This is as a result of substantially higher sperm transfer rates (sperm/minute) in copulations in which nuptial gifts are present. 4. Implications of this finding for the interpretation of the mating system of P. similis and the question of which sex controls sperm transfer rates are discussed.     

Comparative evidence supports a role for reproductive allocation in the evolution of female ornament diversity

1. Sexually selected ornaments are highly variable, even among closely related species, and the ultimate causes of variation in ornament evolution are unclear, including in rare cases of female ornament expression. One hypothesis is that differences across species in female reproductive allocation may help to explain patterns of female ornament expression among insects with nuptial gifts. 2. Dance flies (Diptera: Empididae: Empidinae) vary considerably among species in the presence and extravagance of female ornaments, which probably evolved through female contests for mates. In most dance flies, adult females appear to acquire all their dietary protein from nuptial gifts provided by males during mating. The importance of nuptial feeding on egg development is not yet known. 3. To test the prediction that the presence of female ornaments reflects differences in the degree to which females rely on nuptial feeding for egg development, egg development was examined in wild females of two species, one ornamented and the other unornamented. An ageing technique based on cuticular bands was validated, which permitted a regression of egg size on adult age. 4. We found that egg development depended on mating status in the ornamented species alone, meaning the eggs of unmated females of the ornamented species did not develop. This contrast across species is consistent with expectations that females of different species vary in their dependence on nuptial gifts for egg development. 5. These findings provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that differences in reproductive allocation mediate the intensity of female contests for nuptial gifts.     

Women’s Preference for a Male Acquaintance Enhances Social Reward Processing of Material Goods in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Men, like the male of many animal species, use gifts to build satisfactory relationships with a desired woman. From the woman’s perspective, all gifts are not always equally rewarding; the reward value of a gift depends on two factors: (1) the giver and (2) the type of the gift (the gift’s social meaning). In this study, we investigated how these two factors interactively determine the reward value of a gift. Specifically, we examined how the neural processing for understanding a gift’s social meaning is modulated by preferences for the giver. We performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which a female participant was asked to judge a gift from a male she was acquainted with in real life. We examined the interactive effects between (1) the female participant’s attitude toward the male acquaintance (liked vs. uninteresting) and (2) the type of the gift (romantic [e.g., bouquet, earrings, and perfumes] vs. non-romantic [e.g., pencils, memo pad, and moneybox]). We found that preference for an acquaintance selectively modulated activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in response to romantic gifts, compared to non-romantic gifts. In contrast, if the woman was indifferent toward an acquaintance, no activity modulation was observed in this area for the same gifts. In addition, the ACC showed functional connectivity with the supplementary motor area/dorsal ACC (SMA/dACC), an area within the dorsal mediofrontal cortex, suggesting that it integrates action monitoring and emotional and cognitive processing in decision-making. These results suggest that attitude toward an opposite sex member has a modulatory role in recognizing the social meaning of material goods—preference for the member is a powerful modulator of social reward processing.     

Resource availability,mating opportunity and sexual selection intensity influence the expression of male alternative reproductive tactics

The expression of alternative reproductive tactics can be plastic and occur simultaneously depending on cues that vary spatially or temporally. For example, variation in resources and sexual selection intensity is expected to influence the pay‐off of each tactic and shape the decision of which tactic to employ. Males of the nuptial gift‐giving spider Pisaura mirabilis can adopt three tactics: offering a genuine prey gift, a ‘worthless’ non‐nutritious gift or no gift. We hypothesized that resources and/or male body condition, and mating opportunity and sexual selection intensity, vary over the course of the mating season to shape the co‐existence of alternative traits. We measured these variables in the field over two seasons, to investigate the predictions that as the mating season progresses, (i) males become more likely to employ a gift‐giving tactic, and (ii) the likelihood of switching from worthless to genuine gifts increases. Prey availability increased over the season and co‐varied with the propensity of males to employ the gift‐giving tactic, but we found no support for condition‐dependent gift giving. Males responded to an increase in female availability by increasing their mating effort (gift production). Furthermore, the frequency of genuine gift use increased with sexual selection intensity, consistent with the assumption that sperm competition intensity increases with time. Our results suggest that the frequency of alternative tactics is shaped by seasonal changes in ecological factors and sexual selection. This leads to relaxed selection for the gift‐giving tactic early in the season when females are less choosy and resources more scarce, and increased selection for genuine gifts later in the season driven by mating opportunity and risk of sperm competition.     

An invasion of cheats; the evolution of worthless nuptial gifts

Nuptial gifts are food items or inedible tokens that are transferred to females during courtship or copulation . Tokens are of no direct value to females, and it is unknown why females require such worthless gifts as a precondition of mating. One hypothesis is that token giving arose in species that gave nutritious gifts and males exploited female preferences for nutritional gifts by substituting more easily obtainable but worthless items. An invasion of such behavior would require that females accept the substitute gift and copulate for a period of time similar to that with genuine gifts. We show that both these prerequisites are met in the dance fly Rhamphomyia sulcata, in which females normally accept a nutritious gift. We removed the gift from copulating pairs and replaced it with either a large or small prey item or inedible token. We found that although pairs copulated longest with a large genuine gift, the tokens resulted in copula durations equivalent to those with a small genuine gift. We also observed that males that returned to the lek with tokens re-paired successfully. These findings suggest that female behavior in genuine gift-giving species is susceptible to the invasion of male cheating on reproductive investment.     

On heterochrony: birthday gifts to Stalin, 1949

Gift relations have been traditionally theorized as antinomial to modernity or, within modernity, in the spheres of the personal relations and ideologies of altruism which dwell on the contrast with commodity and often cast themselves as residual, 'traditional' domains. This article explores claims to modernity that were made by public gift-giving to a modern head of state. It examines birthday gifts to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that he received from both his Soviet subjects and international leaders and movements and that were put on public display in 1949-53 in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. This article interprets gift-giving to Stalin as a dramatic example of socialist intervention in the modernist temporality, and it theorizes the notions of time that were culturally constructed through the socialist state gift economy. This article reflects part of an ongoing research project on gift-giving to Soviet leaders. It is based on fieldwork, oral-historical and archival research with designers, artisans, and ordinary citizens who were involved in the production of the gift items, as well as with curators and other specialists involved in this exhibition and in preservation of these gifts in different Russian state museums.     

Nodulation of Soybean by a Transposon-Mutant of Rhizobium fredii USDA257 Is Subject to Competitive Nodulation Blocking by Other Rhizobia

Rhizobium fredii USDA257 fails to nodulate the improved soybean [Glycine max (L.)Merr.] cultivar McCall in plastic growth pouches. Mutant 257DH4, which was derived from USDA257 by transposon mutagenesis, forms nitrogen fixing nodules under these conditions. If USDA257 is present in inocula containing the mutant, most infections are arrested prior to organization of the nodule meristem, and nodule number is reduced by 95%. The improved cultivars Essex, Harosoy, Hodgson 78, and Viçoja, as well as a supernodulating mutant of Williams, respond like McCall to inoculation with such mixtures of bacteria. Nodulation blocking on McCall can be elicited by rhizobia other than USDA257, provided that they meet two criteria: Blocking strains must themselves be able to induce cortical cells of McCall to divide, and such divisions must proceed to the stage of nodule meristem formation. Nodulation by the mutant remains sensitive to a challenge inoculation with USDA257 for only the first 6 to 12 hours after inoculation. Nodulation blocking involving mutant 257DH4 thus appears to be a rapid, generalized process.     

The financial cost of status signaling: Expansive postural displays are associated with a reduction in the receipt of altruistic donations

Models of human altruism suggest that decisions to help are influenced by assessments of both potential recipients' need state and their competence, as high need increases the value of gifts received, and competent recipients can most effectively use and repay gifts. Need and competence are often inversely related, however, raising the question of how altruists weigh these competing sources of information. We examined the impact of a nonverbal display (expansive posture) that, by signaling high status, simultaneously cues both low need and high competence, on actual altruistic behaviors: donations of financial aid to needy individuals. Across three studies using ecologically valid data drawn from a micro-lending charity website, men who displayed expansive posture while requesting aid faced a substantial reduction in the amount of aid they received; this effect held controlling for a range of relevant covariates. These findings demonstrate that: (a) altruists bias their giving toward those in greater need rather those who may be more competent, and (b) subtle nonverbal cues of status influence altruistic decision-making.     

Collective Philanthropy: Describing and Modeling the Ecology of Giving

Reflective of income and wealth distributions, philanthropic gifting appears to follow an approximate power-law size distribution as measured by the size of gifts received by individual institutions. We explore the ecology of gifting by analysing data sets of individual gifts for a diverse group of institutions dedicated to education, medicine, art, public support, and religion. We find that the detailed forms of gift-size distributions differ across but are relatively constant within charity categories. We construct a model for how a donor''s income affects their giving preferences in different charity categories, offering a mechanistic explanation for variations in institutional gift-size distributions. We discuss how knowledge of gift-sized distributions may be used to assess an institution''s gift-giving profile, to help set fundraising goals, and to design an institution-specific giving pyramid.     

Sexual selection in the gift-giving dance fly, Rhamphomyia sulcata, favors small males carrying small gifts

In some species of insects males transfer a gift to females during courtship or copulation. In the dance flies these nuptial gifts vary from nutritious prey items to inedible tokens such as a leaf, stone, or silk balloon. Nuptial gifts in dance flies are presumed to increase male mating success. We examined the strength and form of sexual selection on male Rhamphomyia sulcata, an empidid in which males provide females with a nutritious prey item as a nuptial gift. We found that whereas large males carried large gifts, neither large males nor gifts were targets of sexual selection. Indeed, correlational selection analysis and nonparametric examination of the fitness surfaces revealed that small males carrying small gifts were the most successful. Males may be more maneuverable or flight efficient with small gifts, or small males with large gifts may be unable to carry both a large gift and a female in the paired descent flight. These results suggest carrying constraints may be an important factor in determining selection on nuptial gift size. The largest target of sexual selection was old males. Old males were also paired with the largest and most fecund females, highlighting the role mate quality can further contribute to selection on males. Correlational selection analysis also revealed selection for an increase in covariance between male wing length and body size, and for an increase in slope between these traits. Males who deviate away from the optimal phenotypic relationship for two tightly related morphological traits, such as tibia and wing length, may have overall reduced performance. These findings highlight the role correlational sexual selection can play in optimizing nonsexual male morphology and scaling relationships. This study questions the role of the nuptial gift in dance flies as a resource for females.     

Studies of the courtship behaviour of the Redshank Tringatotanus

Ground chases are a feature of early breeding season display in the Redshank. Chases usually involve males chasing females in an attempt to copulate. Fights which occur are usually between male and female and not between two males as recorded in most previous literature. On occasions, females will chase interloping males and fight. Chases may give rise to the wing-lifting, pre-copulatory ceremony as may the scraping ceremony which serves to attract a female to a scrape. Ground chases occur most frequently at the end of the first week of April and again at the beginning of the third week. The two peaks in activity coincide with similar peaks in the occurrence of display flights and correspond with two physiologically different groups within the population, early and late breeders. Chases occur most frequently around mid-day.
Scraping takes place mainly in the early breeding season and a single male may produce up to 20 scrapes at this time; later, after egg laying has begun, only a single nest scrape may be produced. The female selects the scrape. Successful copulation does not normally occur until the third week of April and this invariably follows the wing-lifting ceremony.     

Gifts that Recalibrate Relationships: Marriage Prestations in an Arab Liberation Movement

ABSTRACT

Enduring scholarly interest in the social relations of gift exchange has, following Mauss, emphasised how gifts make relationships. Where gifts break relationships, their ethnographic distinctiveness has reinforced the wider notion that gifts are good at making relations. This article examines gifts which, without the empirical distinctiveness of gifts that break relationships, both make and break relationships. Speakers of the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic in north-west Africa give post-marital gifts from the bride’s to groom’s party; these gifts became highlighted amongst Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, on whom the article focuses. In addition to performing reciprocity, boosting the giver’s honour and making new affinal relations, these post-marital gifts also break the relationship between the bride’s family and the bride. The article argues that gifts’ potential to recalibrate relationships through both making and breaking relationships can be helpfully incorporated into wider thinking about gifts, alongside other distinctions amongst gifts and gift relations.     

Biogeography and taxonomy of extinct and endangered monk seals illuminated by ancient DNA and skull morphology

Extinctions and declines of large marine vertebrates have major ecological impacts and are of critical concern in marine environments. The Caribbean monk seal, Monachus tropicalis, last definitively reported in 1952, was one of the few marine mammal species to become extinct in historical times. Despite its importance for understanding the evolutionary biogeography of southern phocids, the relationships of M. tropicalis to the two living species of critically endangered monk seals have not been resolved. In this study we present the first molecular data for M. tropicalis, derived from museum skins. Phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome b sequences indicates that M. tropicalis was more closely related to the Hawaiian rather than the Mediterranean monk seal. Divergence time estimation implicates the formation of the Panamanian Isthmus in the speciation of Caribbean and Hawaiian monk seals. Molecular, morphological and temporal divergence between the Mediterranean and “New World monk seals” (Hawaiian and Caribbean) is profound, equivalent to or greater than between sister genera of phocids. As a result, we classify the Caribbean and Hawaiian monk seals together in a newly erected genus, Neomonachus. The two genera of extant monk seals (Monachus and Neomonachus) represent old evolutionary lineages each represented by a single critically endangered species, both warranting continuing and concerted conservation attention and investment if they are to avoid the fate of their Caribbean relative.     

FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE OF GRASPING CERCI AND NUPTIAL FOOD GIFTS IN PROMOTING EJACULATE TRANSFER IN KATYDIDS

The function of nuptial gifts has generated longstanding debate. Nuptial gifts consumed during ejaculate transfer may allow males to transfer more ejaculate than is optimal for females. However, gifts may simultaneously represent male investment in offspring. Evolutionary loss of nuptial gifts can help elucidate pressures driving their evolution. In most katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), males transfer a spermatophore comprising two parts: the ejaculate‐containing ampulla and the spermatophylax—a gelatinous gift that females eat during ejaculate transfer. Many species, however, have reduced or no spermatophylaces and many have prolonged copulation. Across 44 katydid species, we tested whether spermatophylaces and prolonged copulation following spermatophore transfer are alternative adaptations to protect the ejaculate. We also tested whether prolonged copulation was associated with (i) male cercal adaptations, helping prevent female disengagement, and (ii) female resistance behavior. As predicted, prolonged copulation following (but not before) spermatophore transfer was associated with reduced nuptial gifts, differences in the functional morphology of male cerci, and behavioral resistance by females during copulation. Furthermore, longer copulation following spermatophore transfer was associated with larger ejaculates, across species with reduced nuptial gifts. Our results demonstrate that nuptial gifts and the use of grasping cerci to prolong ejaculate transfer are functionally equivalent.     

The Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus: status,biology, threats,and conservation priorities

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Nuptial Feeding in Insects: Theoretical Models of Male and Female Interests

We present a series of prospective models of nuptial feeding, mainly for insects. The models examine various optimal male and female strategies, but do not include any element of mate choice in which the female chooses males in relation to the gift he provides. We find that the female should use the gift to enhance egg size and/or clutch size when gifts represent a relatively large component of the energy resources for the gametes, or when the gift occurs at a relatively late stage in her reproductive cycle. However, if the female receives a single, relatively small gift during her reproductive cycle, she should show a reduced gametic output at the next oviposition. A literature survey revealed several studies that show increases in egg and clutch sizes following gift donation, but we found no instances in which there was a reduction in gametic output. We also find that if gifts are infrequent, there can be significant sexual conflict over the pattern of allocation of donated resources to future offspring. Male interests will generally be best served by a more immediate use of the resources than will be optimal for the female. This may result in selection for male ability to influence vitellogenesis and/or oviposition. Evidence is available which shows that male-derived substances influence female physiology; this might reflect an outcome towards male interests as a result of an arms race in sexual conflict. Some studies have demonstrated an effect of gift donation on survivorship. We examine models in which gift donation reduces male survival but increases female survival. These suggest that gift donation is most likely to evolve when (1) giving a gift has little effect on male, but a significant effect on female survival, (2) when the male is more likely to father eggs in a later batch, rather than the next batch, and (3) when random mortality is high.     

Estimating the carrying capacity of French Frigate Shoals for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal using Ecopath with Ecosim

The carrying capacity of the French Frigate Shoals (FFS) region for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal was appraised using an updated version of the original FFS Ecopath model ( Polovina 1984 ). Model parameters were updated using recent literature, and data from surveys of the seal population and its bottom‐associated prey. Together they produced a static mass balance model for 1998 when the prey surveys began. The Ecopath‐estimated monk seal biomass was 0.0045 t/km², which was in close agreement with the biomass calculated from monk seal field beach counts (0.0046 t/km²). Model simulations through time were done in Ecosim using the Ecopath balanced model and included fisheries data time series from 1998 to 2008. Monk seal biomass declined concurrently with decreases in benthic bottomfish biomass, which were influenced by large‐scale changes in the environment of the North Pacific. This model scenario was extended from 2010, when the last permitted fishery in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands was closed, through to 2040, assuming a constant environmental signal. Model results for this time period did not show a recovery of monk seals that exceeded the initial 1998 model biomass levels, highlighting the importance of including environmental variability in estimates of monk seals recovery at FFS.     

Bloom's syndrome

D1Z2 is a highly polymorphic DNA locus composed of a tandem of repetitive units. Its molecular constitution has been examined in 61 clonal cell lines selected at random from two lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs), each of which had been proliferating in vitro for several hundred days. Thirty-three of the cells were selected from an LCL derived from the blood of a person with Bloom's syndrome (BS), and the others from a normal person. A total of 20 distinctive band alterations in D1Z2 were observed, all in BS cells: appearance of a novel band(s); disappearance of a band(s), or alterations in the intensity of a band(s). Unequal sister-chromatid exchange giving rise to intra-locus mutation is considered the most plausible explanation for the accumulation of the changes detected.This paper is dedicated to Ulrich Wolf on his 60th birthday and acknowledges his important contributions to human biology     

Is diversification in male reproductive traits driven by evolutionary trade-offs between weapons and nuptial gifts?

Many male animals have evolved exaggerated traits that they use in combat with rival males to gain access to females and secure their reproductive success. But some male animals invest in nuptial gifts that gains them access to females. Both these reproductive strategies are costly in that resources are needed to produce the weapon or nuptial gift. In closely related species where both weapons and nuptial gifts are present, little is known about the potential evolutionary trade-off faced by males that have these traits. In this study, we use dobsonflies (order Megaloptera, family Corydalidae, subfamily Corydalinae) to examine the presence and absence of enlarged male weapons versus nuptial gifts within and among species. Many dobsonfly species are sexually dimorphic, and males possess extremely enlarged mandibles that they use in battles, whereas in other species, males produce large nuptial gifts that increase female fecundity. In our study, we show that male accessory gland size strongly correlates with nuptial gift size and that when male weapons are large, nuptial gifts are small and vice versa. We mapped weapons and nuptial gifts onto a phylogeny we constructed of 57 species of dobsonflies. Our among-species comparison shows that large nuptial gift production evolved in many species of dobsonfly but is absent from those with exaggerated weapons. This pattern supports the potential explanation that the trade-off in resource allocation between weapons and nuptial gifts is important in driving the diversity of male mating strategies seen in the dobsonflies, whereas reduced male–male competition in the species producing large spermatophores could be an alternative explanation on their loss of male weapons. Our results shed new light on the evolutionary interplay of multiple sexually selected traits in animals.