Adaptation and Natural Selection revisited

In Adaptation and Natural Selection, George C. Williams linked the distinction between group and individual adaptation with the distinction between group and individual selection. Williams’ Principle, as we will call it, says that adaptation at a level requires selection at that level. This is a necessary but not a sufficient condition; for example, group adaptation requires group selection, but the fact that group selection influences a trait’s evolution does not suffice for the resulting trait frequency to be a group adaptation. What more is required? In this paper, we describe an answer to this question that has been developed in multilevel selection theory. We also discuss an alternative framework for defining units of adaptation that violates Williams’ Principle.     

Milkmaid Bears and Savage Mates: The Cultural Exploitation of Real and Fictive White Bears from the Elizabethan Period to the Present

The paper considers the cultural exploitation of bears, especially white ones, from the late sixteenth century to the present, both in drama and literary fiction and in the bear pits, theatres, circuses, zoos, and natural habitats in which real biological bears have found themselves mythologized and marketed. Beginning and ending with Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson’s art project nanoq: flat out and bluesome (2006), the argument explores the use and abuse of fictive and real white bears in the changing contexts of Elizabethan and Jacobean politics and performance history, eighteenth and nineteenth century colonialism, and present day anxieties about habitat degradation and global warming, and also in the light of the perennial and “almost inescapable anthropomorphism” which, as Snæbjörnsdóttir and Wilson point out, causes us to see the bear as “a potent symbol” rather than a creature with its own life experience and autonomy. In addition to nanoq: flat out and bluesome, which attempts to break its audience out of that mind-set by confronting them with the mortal remains and individual histories of 34 taxidermic bears, the paper discusses George Peele’s The Old Wives Tale (c. 1594), the anonymous 1590s play Mucedorus, Ben Jonson’s masque Oberon, the Fairy Prince (1611), Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1760), Robert Bage’s Jacobin novel Hermsprong (1796), James Hogg’s novella The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon (1834), Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (1995), Yoko Tawada’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2016), and Martin Rowe’s The Polar Bear in the Zoo (2013).     

Mind, memory and history: How classifications are shaped by and through time, and some consequences

Understanding the history of systematics bears on contemporary issues such as the distinction between classifications and systems, the belief that ‘natural’ classifications reflect the progressive refinement of our ideas of relationships, and the dubious reputation acquired by systematics. Here I emphasize the extent to which ‘mind’ shapes classifications. I show that groups in biological classifications often have six or fewer members, in line with the number of things that humans can conveniently memorize together. Concerns about memorization are evident in the work of systematists like Tournefort, Linnaeus, and Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, and the whole hierarchy of George Bentham's and J. D. Hooker's great Genera plantarum is structured by such concerns. An analytical element in Jussieu's work was emphasized by Cuvier and others, and the hierarchy of their classifications reflects more directly aspects of nature as they understood it, although concerns about memorisation remain evident. Linking an understanding of what classifications can represent to the ideas the makers of classifications had about nature makes it clear that classifications are rarely rigid class hierarchies, but are often more like systems. Historically, the synthetic approach, discussed here, tends to lead to systems, the analytical approach, to ‘classifications’. We must remember that systematists’ work is evaluated by other scientists, and by society at large. The confusion evident in systematics simply confirmed the negative perceptions that many people in the nineteenth century had of naturalists, botanists and zoologists, perceptions that persist today. Zoologica Scripta itself, and the Journal of Natural History, which under this title is about the same age, reflect part of this history. I conclude by emphasizing (1) if systems or classifications in the nineteenth century reflect ‘nature’, it is a nature very different from that we understand today, and (2) the extent and the persistence of the opposition between the synthetic and anaytical approaches.     

Historicising the Cosmogony: Naming the Asala Perahara in Buddhist Sri Lanka

This article offers a novel interpretation of Sri Lanka's great ceremonial procession for the Buddha, the Asala Perahara. By conceptualizing the name, ‘Asala’ as a chronotope (Bakhtin 1981), and giving emphasis to its authorisation by Buddhist monks, the interpretation reveals that this ritual commemorates the origins of Buddhism in relation to the island of Sri Lanka, thus constituting it as a unique ‘quality space’ (Fernandez 1986) for its Buddhist inhabitants. The interpretation demonstrates that the distinction between mythic time and everyday time, as espoused by Lévi-Strauss (1972) is not only arbitrary, but spurious in this context. Furthermore, contra Seneviratne (1978), it shows that far from being an anachronism in contemporary society, the Asala Perahara in fact enacts its cosmic premise and is politically powerful precisely because it defines reality in religious terms.     

Taxonomic attribution of the La Grive hominoid teeth

The two hominoid teeth—a central upper incisor (NMB G.a.9.) and an upper molar (FSL 213981)—from the Middle Miocene site of La Grive‐Saint‐Alban (France) have been traditionally attributed to Dryopithecus fontani (Hominidae: Dryopithecinae). However, during the last decade discoveries in the Vallès‐Penedès Basin (Spain) have shown that several hominoid genera were present in Western Europe during the late Middle Miocene. As a result, the attribution of the dryopithecine teeth from La Grive is not as straightforward as previously thought. In fact, similarities with the upper incisor of Pierolapithecus have led to suggestions that either the latter taxon is present at La Grive, or that it is a junior synonym of Dryopithecus. Here, we re‐describe the La Grive teeth and critically revise their taxonomic assignment based on metrical and morphological comparisons with other Middle to Late Miocene hominoids from Europe and Turkey, with particular emphasis on those from the Vallès‐Penedès Basin. Our results suggest that the I¹ differs in several respects from those of Pierolapithecus and Hispanopithecus, so that an attribution to either Dryopithecus or Anoiapithecus (for which this tooth is unknown) seems more likely. The molar, in turn, most likely corresponds to the M¹ of a female individual. Compared to other Middle Miocene taxa, its occlusal morphology enables its distinction from Pierolapithecus, whereas relative crown height agrees well with Dryopithecus. Therefore, based on available evidence, we support the traditional attribution of the La Grive hominoid to D. fontani. Am J Phys Anthropol 151:558–565, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Aspects of the semantics of emotions and feelings in Dalabon (South‐Western Arnhem Land,Australia)

This article describes two of the principal roots allowing the expression of emotions and feelings in Dalabon, an endangered language of South‐Western Arnhem Land. The first root, kangu, ‘belly’, is depicted linguistically as the location of emotions induced by interpersonal relationships. The belly is thus presented as the locus of good and bad moods generally and of conflict more specifically. Furthermore, the material properties of the belly—its fluidity in particular—impact on one’s temper and ability to deal with others in an ideologically prescribed manner. Speakers describe ritual manipulations undertaken on the belly of young infants in order to shape their temper. Kangu‐no may thus be described as a malleable interface between the person and the outside world, principally other people. The second root, yolh, may at first sight translate as ‘feelings’, either good or bad, but also means ‘appetite’, ‘drive’, ‘pep’. Yolh‐no is associated with the most intimate part of the person, one’s own aspirations that are independent of interactions with others. Although yolh‐no connotes the core self and kangu‐no, the belly, connotes relatedness to others, they are conceived as physiologically connected, so that material properties of the belly impact on the self. Thus, the semantic analysis of Dalabon, along with related anthropological observations, unveils an explicit conceptual and cultural attention to the distinction between emotions and feelings (as respectively defined in the article) and to the autonomy of the person within a constraining social framework. The article shows how this concern echoes and challenges both anthropological and philosophical considerations.     

Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question

This article addresses the ways in which Turkish nationalism has perceived the Kurdish question. It is shown that both Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question have passed through some paradigmatic moments in the twentieth century. This, I argue, has shaped the way that the Kurdish question has been perceived by Turkish nationalism. While the Kurdish question had been seen by Turkish nationalism mostly in terms of a fatal rivalry between the backward, pre-modern and tribal past and the prosperous present in the first half of the century, it was perceived in terms of a tension between the peripheral economy and national market in the fifties and sixties. In the 1970s, the Kurdish unrest was believed to be a product of communist incitement. Despite this impurity in perception, one thing has remained nearly unchanged for Turkish nationalism: Kurds could become Turkish. In other words, Turkish nationalism of the republican era has principally perceived Kurds as future-Turks. However, the signs in circulation at present indicate that the confidence of Turkish nationalism as to Kurds’ potential of becoming Turkish is not as firm as it used to be. At present, Turkish nationalism seems to be getting prepared to abandon its contention that Kurds are future-Turks.     

The discovery of Antillean algal taxa described by Duchassaing in 1850

This note is to call attention to a number of marine algal taxa from the Antilles that were described by Placide Duchassaing in his 1850 work Animaux radiaires des Antilles. The mid‐19^th century was a period when the distinction between marine invertebrates and some calcified benthic marine algae was still not always clear. The names of these algal taxa were validated, although no figures or details on their specific provenance were provided, other than they were from Duchassaing's collections from the Antilles. Duchassaing assigned his new algal species to the following genera: Galaxaura, Amphiroa, Jania, Melobesia and Nullipora. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Study of Molecular Karyotypes in Amoeboaphelidium protococcarum,the Endotrophic Parasite of Chlorophycean alga Scenedesmus

On the basis of the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) technique, molecular karyotypes in Amoeboaphelidium protococcarum (the endotrophic parasite of chlorophycean algae, which combines protozoon- and fungus-type characters) were determined. Molecular karyotypes in the strains X1, X5, and X31, which differ in the host range and originate from Western, Central, and Eastern Euro-Asia respectively, demonstrate the intrageneric polymorphism—from 7 to 13 chDNA bands—with the estimated molecular size of 0.3–2.2 Mb were resolved, and the genome size was determined to be between 7.4 and 10.2 Mb. The molecular karyotype pattern in A. protococcarum is different from that in Protozoa. The low-grade distinction in molecular karyotypes between X1 and X5, on one hand, and high-grade distinction between X1/X5 and X31, on the other hand, makes it possible to place X31 in a separate taxon. Received: 24 June 1996 / Accepted: 1 August 1996     

A comparison of individual distinctiveness in three vocalizations of the dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula)

Individual specificity can be found in the vocalizations of many avian and mammalian species. However, it is often difficult to determine whether these vocal cues to identity rise from “unselected” individual differences in vocal morphology or whether they have been accentuated by selection for the purposes of advertising caller identity. By comparing the level of acoustic individuality of different vocalizations within the repertoire of a single species, it is possible to ascertain whether selection for individual recognition has modified the vocal cues to identity in particular contexts. We used discriminant function analyses to determine the level of accuracy with which calls could be classified to the correct individual caller, for three dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) vocalizations: contact, snake, and isolation calls. These calls were similar in acoustic structure but divergent in context and function. We found that all three call types showed individual specificity but levels varied with call type (increasing from snake to contact to isolation call). The individual distinctiveness of each call type appeared to be directly related to the degree of benefit that signalers were likely to accrue from advertising their identity within that call context. We conclude that dwarf mongoose signalers have undergone selection to facilitate vocal individual recognition, particularly in relation to the species’ isolation call.     

Patrick Matthew's law of natural selection

Patrick Matthew is the little‐known first originator of macroevolution by natural selection. I review his ideas, and introduce some previously unnoticed writings (catalogued at a new website: http://smarturl.it/patrickmatthew ) that clarify how they differ from Darwin's and Wallace's. Matthew's formulation emphasized natural selection as an axiomatic ‘law’ rather than a ‘theory’, a distinction that could still be of use to us today. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, ●● , ●●–●●.     

Host-plant-mediated interaction between populations of a true omnivore and its herbivorous prey

Western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), are competitors with twospotted spider mites, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), for plant resources and potential predators on spider mites when the opportunity arises. Which interaction predominates may depend on relative population densities and individual species’ responses to the plants on which they co‐occur. We examined interactions between populations of thrips and spider mites on several cultivars of two bedding plants: impatiens (Impatiens wallerana Hook.f) cultivars ‘Impulse Orange’ and ‘Cajun Carmine’, and ivy geranium [Pelargonium peltatum (L.) L’Her ex Aiton] cultivars ‘Sybil Holmes’ and ‘Amethyst 96’. Four combinations of thrips and mite numbers were studied: thrips alone, mites alone, and two densities of thrips and mites together. We compared population numbers after 4 weeks. Overall, mite numbers increased more rapidly than thrips did, but both species increased more rapidly on impatiens than on ivy geraniums. Between impatiens cultivars, thrips and mites increased more slowly on ‘Cajun Carmine’ (i.e., it was more resistant) than on ‘Impulse Orange’. On ivy geraniums, spider mites increased more slowly on ‘Sybil Holmes’ than on ‘Amethyst 96’ but the reverse was the case for thrips. Regardless of plant species or cultivar, thrips had a strong negative effect on spider mites whenever they co‐occurred, suppressing mite population growth by around 50% compared to when mites were alone. However, the effect of spider mites on western flower thrips depended on the quality of the plant species. On impatiens, thrips co‐occurring with spider mites increased slightly more than thrips alone did, while on ivy geranium mites had a small negative effect on thrips. Contrary to expectations, thrips had a larger negative impact on spider mites on plants that were more susceptible to thrips than they did on plants more resistant to thrips. We suggest that host plants mediate the interaction between an omnivore and its herbivorous prey not only by altering individual diet choice but by changing the relative population dynamics of each species.     

The Problem of the "Formative" Elements of Consciousness in the Activity Theory of the Mind

The problem of the structure and psychological mechanisms of consciousness has a rich history, to which M. M. Bakhtin, G. G. Shpet, L. S. Vygotsky, and, later, A. N. Leont'ev and S. L. Rubinshtein all made significant contributions. It is our purpose in the present article to discuss only one aspect of this problem: the structure of individual consciousness. Pursuing the line of research delineated by Vygotsky, Leont'ev (1977) posed some cardinal questions: Of what is consciousness composed? How does it arise? What are its components? He called the latter the "formative elements" of consciousness. According to Leont'ev, there are three such "forming" elements: the sensory fabric of perception (or of an image), meaning, and sense. The inclusion of the sensory fabric in the structure of consciousness along with ostensive meaning and sense was a definite step forward along the path toward the ontologization of conceptions of consciousness.¹ But I think that individual consciousness construed in this way is still insufficiently ontological. Leont'ev's three "formative elements" do not completely account for the connection between consciousness and being (see M. M. Bakhtin, for whom consciousness "participates" in being and is essential for life). One might even reproach Leont'ev for a certain inconsistency: activity, although it is the source of consciousness, is itself not one of its "formative elements." Of course, he could answer this reproach by saying that the "formative elements" are structural elements, constituents, not generative elements. However, it seems to me that the distinction between constitutive and generative is very, very relative in any analysis of living consciousness, which is continually in the process of being constructed.     

Dead as a dodo: the fortuitous rise to fame of an extinction icon

Today, the Dodo is the most famous species known to have been driven to extinction through human activity. However, it disappeared over a century before Cuvier demonstrated the reality of extinction, and was only one of a huge number of species that died out following early European expansion around the globe. Unlike many other now-extinct Mascarene species, the Dodo's decline and disappearance was not documented by contemporary observers. Repeated settlement changes on Mauritius during the seventeenth century led to protracted ‘cultural amnesia’ over its very existence, and it was widely regarded as mythical by European scientists into the nineteenth century. A series of scientific and socio-cultural hurdles, which all had to be overcome before a given species could be widely appreciated by the general public as an icon of human-caused extinction, are identified and assessed in order to understand how the Dodo returned from scientific death and achieved its tremendous posthumous celebrity. This review indicates that although some ecological and evolutionary factors may have given the Dodo an increased chance of becoming famous, these factors are offset by a much greater series of serendipitous events, emphasising the importance of contingence and the fundamental lack of inevitability in historical processes.

The dodo was (perverse distinction) Immortalized by his extinction     

EQUALITY AND THE TREATMENT‐ENHANCEMENT DISTINCTION

In From Chance to Choice, Allen Buchanan, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler propose a new way of defending the moral significance of the distinction between genetic treatments and enhancements. They develop what they call a ‘normal function model’ of equality of opportunity and argue that it offers a ‘limited’ defence of this distinction. In this article, I critically assess their model and the support it (allegedly) provides for the treatment‐enhancement distinction. First, I argue that there is a troubling tension in the normal function model. Secondly, I argue that neither of the rationales invoked by Buchanan et al. really serves to justify this model or the results they seek to derive from it with respect to the significance of the distinction between treatments and enhancements.     

Science and Sentiment: Grinnell’s Fact-Based Philosophy of Biodiversity Conservation

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the biologist Joseph Grinnell made a distinction between science and sentiment for producing fact-based generalizations on how to conserve biodiversity. We are inspired by Grinnellian science, which successfully produced a century-long impact on studying and conserving biodiversity that runs orthogonal to some familiar philosophical distinctions such as fact versus value, emotion versus reason and basic versus applied science. According to Grinnell, unlike sentiment-based generalizations, a fact-based generalization traces its diverse commitments and thus becomes tractable for its audience. We argue that foregrounding tractability better explains Grinnell’s practice in the context of his time as well as in the context of current discourse among scientists over the political “biases” of biodiversity research and its problem of “reproducibility.”     

Implications of 19th century landscape patterns for the recovery of Fagus crenata forests

Questions: What is the effect of the 19th century (pre‐industrialization) landscape pattern on the recovery of climax forests in cool‐temperate mountain areas dominated by Fagus crenata (Japanese beech)? Location: Secondary forests on Mt. Daisen, western Japan. Methods: Vegetation patterns before and after industrialization were obtained from maps drawn in 1898 and 1979. Tree measurements were made in 12 plots in 1997. Correlation between current Fagus crenata dominance and forest edge in the 19th century was analysed using an S‐shaped regression curve. Fagus juvenile density was counted in the plots, and distances from each plot to the five nearest mother trees were measured to determine the dispersal kernel. Results: Secondary grassland covered a substantial area in 1898, whereas forest covered most of the area in 1997. Fagus was dominant in places in the interior forest 100 years ago, and mature Fagus trees were absent in secondary forests that had been grasslands in 1898. The expected number of juveniles decreased to one individual per 100 m² at 43.5 m from the mother tree. Conclusions: The pre‐industrialization landscape greatly affected recovery of Fagus forest. Forests found on the 1898 vegetation map might have acted as refugia for Fagus. The limited dispersal ability of Fagus suggests that it would take many generations (several hundred years) for Fagus forests to recover at the centre of what had been grasslands in the 19th century.     

Celebrating and Advocating the Personalisation of the World: A Reply to Don Gardner

In replying to a critique of my book Transcendent Individual: Towards a Literary and Liberal Anthropology (TAJA 2000, 11(1):59–77), I argue in this piece that a genuinely nuanced appreciation of the tension between the culturo‐symbolic forms of social life on the one hand and, on the other, the individual energies which animate the forms and afford them purpose and content, means more than merely paying lip service (á la Giddens or Bourdieu) to a notion of agency. The individual can be seen to be more than a conduit by which impersonal social structures reproduce in time. Indeed, it is the ‘personalisation of the world’—the way in which the individual makes environments personal to him or her (in terms of what they are and what they mean)—which provides social life with its logic(s), character(s) and cause(s). What is called for is an aesthetic appreciation both of the way individual consciousness works and of the way this is best represented in literary‐cum‐poetic forms. Placing the conscious individual at the centre of social theory is, however, an ethical and pedagogic matter as well as a methodological one. Celebrating the personalisation of the world is a route not only to understanding human interaction in socio‐cultural milieux but also to advocating liberal milieux where the human remains sovereign.