Five Feuds: An Analysis of Homicides in Eastern Kentucky in the Late Nineteenth Century

Kentucky feuds are an example of market-based feuding, one of two major types of feuding. Compensation is not paid for a homicide in regions where a local market system is linked to the world system. Feuding kinship groups in Kentucky struggle to eliminate each other, whereas in regions where compensation is paid functional/equilibrium theories are used to explain the balance that seems to occur between kinship groups. The trouble case method is used to analyze five Kentucky feuds. Episodes or homicidal encounters are placed within feud sequences. Encounters include ambushes, gunfights, house attacks, encounter battles, and arranged battles. Although each feud differs greatly from the others, the structure of the Kentucky feud is delineated, [feuding, homicide, Kentucky feuds, Appalachia, war]     

Reputation as a common source of cooperation and violent conflict: The case of the noble feud in early modern Germany

Feuding was a near-universal phenomenon, and a classic topic of anthropology and sociology. This article focuses on feuding among nobles in early modern Germany. The German noble feud assumed characteristics that differentiated it from vendetta. It developed into a distinct institution in terms of its legal status, methods and social conditions. It presents a puzzle: most feuds punctuated ongoing relationships between people who were closely related and socially and economically interdependent. Nobles tended to feud against the very people from whose goodwill they had much to gain and from whose enmity much to lose. Examining it from an evolutionary perspective suggests an answer to a problem that traditional historical approaches have not convincingly explained. The article argues that the same dense web of ties that facilitated cooperation between nobles generated violent conflicts between them. Reputation played a crucial role in this environment. Feuds are best seen as mechanisms of costly signaling one's underlying qualities and commitment to aristocratic values.     

‘It's scientific!’ Play,parody, and the para-ethnographic in Southwest China

Play and games encourage persons to hold the world at a distance, while occasionally challenging its norms through parody, mimicry, and clowning, too. In this article, I offer new ethnography on drinking games among the Nuosu of Southwest China, who distribute penalty shots by injecting them directly into glasses with a syringe. While this revelry may evoke the recent Nuosu history of heroin (ab)use and HIV/AIDS, syringes are used in drinking games to parody the scientific writ large, which encompasses China's modern nation-building approach, rationality, technological progress, biomedicine, hygiene, urban life, industry, precise standardized measurements, and even the human sciences, including anthropology, ethnology, and ethno-history. Offering two case studies in which Nuosu ethno-historians gesture to the scientific and the para-ethnographic during drinking games, I show that – like ethnography – their play is meant to encourage everyone to stretch the bounds of the occasion by adopting a reflexive stance towards it.     

A precarious rite of passage in postreform China: heroin use among Nuosu youths on the move

This article employs the rite of passage concept to analyze why and how heroin use and a subsequent HIV/AIDS epidemic have taken hold among minority Nuosu (Yi) young men in Southwest China. It juxtaposes structural inequalities and sociocultural particularities in social suffering among Nuosu youths as they attempt to create meaningful lives in China's market reform era. Since the 1980s, young Nuosu have ventured out to Han-dominant cities in search of fun and opportunities. This movement has become a new foray into manhood and inadvertently set up their encounter with heroin and the subsequent introduction of HIV into their hometowns. The article is based on my 20-month ethnographic fieldwork in Limu, a mountainous Nuosu community in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, between 2002 and 2009.     

The priority dispute over the function of the lymphatic system and Glisson's ghost (the 18th-century Hunter-Monro Feud)

Basic Immunology has had only two significant public priority disputes. The first began in the late 1650s and concerned the recognition of the peripheral network of vessels which collects lymph throughout the body. The publication of this major anatomical discovery prompted a priority feud discussed in a previous paper. The subject of this essay is the second dispute which occurred a century later in the late 1750s. It focused on the function of the lymphatic system and precipitated a heated war of words between a young Scotch medical graduate (Alexander Monro) and a noted London anatomist (William Hunter). Their published charges and responses ranged from feigned respect to ad hominen invectives. But in retrospect, the priority claims of both were precluded by the observations and speculations of an Englishman (Francis Glisson) a full century before. The several editions of his work were unknown to Hunter and Monro at the inception of their feud.     

Ambivalence and Compromise in Human Nature

Triangulating to human nature generally is accomplished by finding analogies with nonhuman primates, by searching for overt behaviors that are universal, by identification of emotions that can be correlated with physiological responses or brain rewards, or by use of appropriate selection scenarios. An additional method is proposed, which focuses on universally occurring psychological ambivalences as manifestations of competing tendencies in human nature. Ethnographic exemplification concentrates on subsistence crises relevant to reproductive success, and dilemmas associated with feuding assassinations. It is argued that universal psychological ambivalences and the universal decision dilemmas these produce may be a better key to human nature than are universal patterns of observed behavior. It is suggested also that an ambivalence approach can assist us in arriving at a more specific treatment of human behavioral lability, one that can be usefully tied to the decision approaches employed by anthropologists.     

Patriliny Among the Gusii and the Luo of Kenya

The Nilotic Luo of Kenya, in contrast to the Nuer, experienced considerable land scarcity. They responded with increasing hostility as much to their affines as to the colonial power which had enclosed land. Exclusive local patrilineages emerged, expressing themselves in collective feuding, litigation, and ritual toward immediate ancestors. A similar process seems to have occurred among the sociologically similar neighboring Bantu-speaking Gusii .     

Two sexes,one genome: the evolutionary dynamics of intralocus sexual conflict

As the evolutionary interests of males and females are frequently divergent, a trait value that is optimal for the fitness of one sex is often not optimal for the other. A shared genome also means that the same genes may underlie the same trait in both sexes. This can give rise to a form of sexual antagonism, known as intralocus sexual conflict (IASC). Here, a tug‐of‐war over allelic expression can occur, preventing the sexes from reaching optimal trait values, thereby causing sex‐specific reductions in fitness. For some traits, it appears that IASC can be resolved via sex‐specific regulation of genes that subsequently permits sexual dimorphism; however, it seems that whole‐genome resolution may be impossible, due to the genetic architecture of certain traits, and possibly due to the changing dynamics of selection. In this review, we explore the evolutionary mechanisms of, and barriers to, IASC resolution. We also address the broader consequences of this evolutionary feud, the possible interactions between intra‐ and interlocus sexual conflict (IRSC: a form of sexual antagonism involving different loci in each sex), and draw attention to issues that arise from using proxies as measurements of conflict. In particular, it is clear that the sex‐specific fitness consequences of sexual dimorphism require characterization before making assumptions concerning how this relates to IASC. Although empirical data have shown consistent evidence of the fitness effects of IASC, it is essential that we identify the alleles mediating these effects in order to show IASC in its true sense, which is a “conflict over shared genes.”     

Behavioral contingency analysis

This paper presents a formal symbolic language, with its own specialized vocabulary and grammar, for codifying any behavioral contingency, including the complex multiparty contingencies encountered in law, economics, business, public affairs, sociology, education, and psychotherapy. This language specifies the "if, then" and temporal relationships between acts and their consequences for the parties involved. It provides for the notation of the probabilities, magnitudes, positive or negative valences, or time delays of the consequences for the parties, and for the parties that would perceive, misperceive, not perceive, predict, mispredict, or not predict events. The language's fractal-like hierarchical and recursive grammar provides for the flexible combination and permutation of the modifiers of the language's four nouns: acts, consequences, time intervals, and agents of acts; and its four verbs: consequate, prevent, perceive, and predict-thereby giving the language the ability to describe and codify various nuances of such complex contingencies as fraud, betting, blackmail, various types of games, theft, crime and punishment, contracts, family dynamics, racing, competition, mutual deterrence, feuding, bargaining, deception, borrowing, insurance, elections, global warming, tipping for service, vigilance, sexual overtures, decision making, and mistaken identity. Applications to the management of practical situations and techniques for doing so, as well as applications in current behavior analysis research and neuroscience, are discussed.     

On "Indian Justice"

Abstract

In 1908 a Mescalero Apache who had killed a white man was tracked down and killed by an all-Mescalero posse. The crime of the fugitive and the behavior of his pursuers do not reflect some crossculturally inexplicable, specificaliy “Indian justice”, as various published comments have suggested. The Indian justice involved has to do with the precautions taken by the Indian leaders to discourage the development of an intra-community feud on the basis of the execution.     

Microalgae biofuels: A critical review of issues, problems and the way forward

Culturing of microalgae as an alternative feedstock for biofuel production has received a lot of attention in recent years due to their fast growth rate and ability to accumulate high quantity of lipid and carbohydrate inside their cells for biodiesel and bioethanol production, respectively. In addition, this superior feedstock offers several environmental benefits, such as effective land utilization, CO(2) sequestration, self-purification if coupled with wastewater treatment and does not trigger food versus fuel feud. Despite having all these 'theoretical' advantages, review on problems and issues related to energy balance in microalgae biofuel are not clearly addressed until now. Base on the maturity of current technology, the true potential of microalgae biofuel towards energy security and its feasibility for commercialization are still questionable. Thus, this review is aimed to depict the practical problems that are facing the microalgae biofuel industry, covering upstream to downstream activities by accessing the latest research reports and critical data analysis. Apart from that, several interlink solutions to the problems will be suggested with the purpose to bring current microalgae biofuel research into a new dimension and consequently, to revolutionize the entire microalgae biofuel industry towards long-term sustainability.     

Genotyping faeces links individuals to their diet

The detection of individual variation in foraging behaviour within wild mammal populations requires large sample sizes and relies on the multifold re-sampling of individuals. However, limits for observational studies are posed by the rarity and nocturnal or otherwise elusive habits of many mammals. We propose that the detection of foraging variation within populations of mammals may be facilitated if conventional diet analysis from faeces is combined with DNA-based individual identification methods using "genetic fingerprinting" from faeces. We applied our approach to a coyote ( Canis latrans ) population, and showed how individuals may vary from one another in their diet profiles. Two main groups of coyotes were distinguished on the basis of their relative use of small mammals and "other vertebrates" as primary food sources, and these two groups were further subdivided on the basis of their relative use of "other vertebrates" and fruit as secondary food sources. We show that, unless a faecal sampling scheme is used that maximizes the number of different individuals included in a survey, individual foraging variation that is left unaccounted for may result in downwardly biased faecal diet diversity estimates. Our approach allows the re-sampling of individuals over time and space, and thus may be generally useful for the testing of optimal foraging theory hypotheses in mammals and also has conservation applications.     

The problem of transition from the chemical to the biological evolution: some possible solutions

On the basis of evidence that several low-molecular-weight substances as well as enzymes are compartmentalised within the so-called soluble phase of the cell, and other considerations, it is argued that DNA may not contain information for certain types of organisation found in living cells. It may be necessary for a cell to possess the "non-DNA-controlled" organisation for performance of its minimum functions; such organisation would then also serve as a "template" for its appearance in the daughter cell. The problem of transition from chemical to biological evolution (that is, the formation of the "first cell") may be essentially the problem of emergence of such intracellular organisation for which information may not reside in DNA. Two possible mechanisms through which this may have happened are stated.     

Adipose tissue,the immune system and exercise fatigue: how activated lymphocytes compete for lipids

Adipose depots that contain lymph nodes, and probably intermuscular fat in skeletal and cardiac muscle, are specialized to provision adjacent tissue in a paracrine mode. Perinodal adipocytes respond selectively to various cytokines and incorporate proportionately more polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lipolysis in the adipocytes of node-containing depots can be stimulated via inflammation of the enclosed lymph nodes. Repeated immune stimulation elicits properties characteristic of perinodal adipocytes in those elsewhere in the same depot, and hours later in other node-containing depots, but not in nodeless depots. Such site-specific properties of adipose tissue enable partitioning of dietary and metabolic supplies of fatty acids between competing tissues. Local interactions emancipate the peripheral immune system from competing with other tissues for lipids during immune responses, and may be especially important during periods of high demand, such as strenuous exercise. Biopsies of subcutaneous adipose tissue from sites remote from lymph nodes do not adequately represent the composition of fatty acids available to the immune system in situ, and perhaps that supplied to other tissues. Intermuscular fat in skeletal and cardiac muscle may also indicate paracrine relationships between adipocytes and "end-user" tissues. The concept of paracrine interactions between certain adipocytes and "user" tissue may account for the widespread contiguity between these tissues in vivo.     

吉林省朝鲜族体质特征

从413人朝鲜族(男236人,女177人)268人吉林省汉族(男170人,女98人)的头面部体征的分析,作者认为朝鲜族与吉林省汉族体征之差别主要表现在前者具有比后者更宽而扁平的面形。两者在头面部特征上与蒙古族、满族、以及东北三省的汉族同属一个体质类型。他们体征的形成主要受到来自古代华北居民的影响。     

Novel chloroplasts and unusual cellular ultrastructure in the "resurrection" plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia Welw. (Myrothamnaceae)

The vacuoles of three "resurrection" plants, Myrothamnus flabellifolia, Anastatica hierochuntica and Selaginella dregei were found to contain large quantities of osmiophilic material which may be part of the "resurrection" mechanism. Myrothamnus differed from the others by having mitochondria, and possibly plastids, which are separated from the remainder of the cytoplasm by sheaths or membranes during desiccation. Upon "resurrection" these barriers appear to be perforated and explain in part the faster rate of "resurrection" in Myrothamnus than in other "resurrection" plants. The chloroplasts of Myrothamnus are remarkable in that they possess "staircase" granum stacks of a type not previously described in any other plant tissue.     

Direct and indirect effects of n-species competition

Summary A measure of net interspecific competition is proposed which incorporates both direct and indirect effects between each species pair in a community. Indirect effects of one species on another may be mediated through other species in the community such that changes in the first species induce changes in other species which in turn directly affect the second species. Even in a competitive community these indirect effects are not necessarily always of a competitive nature and may sometimes actually act to oppose the effects of direct competition. Species pairs which are strong competitors in isolation may exhibit little net competition or even appear mutualistic depending on the other species present in the community.An expression for the net competitive effects between species pairs is derived in terms of the elements of the -matrix representation of the direct competitive effects. Examples calculated from the literature suggest that indirect competitive effects may often act to counterbalance direct competition between otherwise strong competitors in natural communities.     

The natural selection of altruistic traits

Proponents of the standard evolutionary biology paradigm explain human “altruism” in terms of either nepotism or strict reciprocity. On that basis our underlying nature is reduced to a function of inclusive fitness: human nature has to be totally selfish or nepotistic. Proposed here are three possible paths to giving costly aid to nonrelatives, paths that are controversial because they involve assumed pleiotropic effects or group selection. One path is pleiotropic subsidies that help to extend nepotistic helping behavior from close family to nonrelatives. Another is “warfare”—if and only if warfare recurred in the Paleolithic. The third and most plausible hypothesis is based on the morally based egalitarian syndrome of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, which reduced phenotypic variation at the within-group level, increased it at the between-group level, and drastically curtailed the advantages of free riders. In an analysis consistent with the fundamental tenets of evolutionary biology, these three paths are evaluated as explanations for the evolutionary development of a rather complicated human social nature. This paper (in a series of drafts) has profited from comments by Michael Boehm, Donald T. Campbell, Bruce Knauft, Jane Lancaster, Martin Muller, Peter J. Richerson, Gary Seaman, Craig Stanford, George Williams, Edward O. Wilson, David Sloan Wilson, and two reviewers for Human Nature. Christopher Boehm is a professor of anthropology and the director of the Jane Goodall Research Center, University of Southern California. His research interests in political anthropology concern egalitarianism, feuding, warfare, and conflict resolution (humans and chimpanzees). In biosocial anthropology he is interested in altruism, group selection, and decisions.     

Susceptibility of influenza A viruses to amantadine is influenced by the gene coding for M protein.

Influenza A virus recombinants derived from "resistant" and "sensitive" parental viruses were examined for susceptibility to inhibition by amantadine. Correlation of gene constellation and amantadine susceptibility revealed that the gene coding for M protein influences sensitivity or resistance to amantadine. All recombinants which derived an M protein from an amantadine-resistant parent were found to be resistant to amantadine. All amantadine-sensitive recombinants derived an M gene from the amantadine-sensitive parent. However, a few amantadine-resistant recombinants which derived an M gene from the sensitive parent were also isolated, suggesting that the expression of amantadine sensitivity in these recombinants may be influenced by other genes.     

Anonymity and specificity in the chemical communication signals of social insects

Summary The chemical communication signals of social insects, like many other insect semiochemicals, are complex mixtures that exhibit considerable variation in molecular composition and in the relative proportions of components. We propose that this variation is often functional, identifying individuals and groups on a variety of organizational levels and making possible a variety of adaptive discriminatory behaviors. Signals may be characterized as anonymous which are uniform throughout a group or organizational level, identifying the signaller as a member of the group but not distinguishing it from other members. Specific signals vary, and identify the signaller as an individual or member of a particular subgroup. These terms are relative; a given semiochemical may be anonymous in one context and specific in another. Specificity may be derived from the biosynthetic noise in an anonymous signal by a process of chemical ritualization. Mechanisms for recognizing both anonymous and specific signals depend on their predictability; recognition of predictable signals may be encoded in a closed developmental program, while those that are unpredictable must be learned. These categories may be usefully applied to a broad range of interactions among social insects, including sexual communication, community structure, and nestmate and kin recognition.