Of fear and friendship: Amazonian sociality beyond kinship and affinity

The article explores the nature of sociality and alterity in indigenous Amazonia. If native Amazonian sociality is all about predatory affinity or, alternatively, convivial consanguinity, why do native Amazonians constantly strive to establish social relationships with people with whom they are related neither as kin nor as affines? The comparative analysis of intertribal trading partnerships, shamanic networks, and mystical associations allows the author to examine the mechanisms by which hostile or potentially hostile relations between strangers – non-relatives – are transformed into relations of amicability. Special emphasis is placed on the role played by 'trust' and 'spaces of trust' in the creation of non-kin-based social networks. In brief the article analyses the little-studied issue of 'friendship', viewing it as an alternative to kinship and affinity in the construction of Amerindian societies and multi-ethnic polities.     

Land tenure and transfer in Chimbu,Papua New Guinea: 1958–1984—A study in continuity and change,accommodation and opportunism

A long-term study of land tenure, land transfer, and succession in one subclan of the Chimbu in the Papua New Guinea highlands takes up the relations between the agricultural cycle, family, and population growth in a period of rapid commercialization and cash cropping. Over a generation, land was held and allocated within families, among families within the subclan, and to kin and affines in neighboring groups. The land tenure, ownership, and use system allows for a very great deal of individual movement and land gifts, temporary or long-term, by land owner to kin and friends. Despite an agnatic ideology, individuals and local groups opportunistically accommodate to land needs. As cultivation becomes more intensive and semi-permanent, there appears to be a progression from fluidity of land rights in the clan or subclan to anchoring of rights and boundaries to individuals and families. It is suggested that this characterizes Chimbu land tenure; it is not a postcolonial phenomenon.     

Family counts: deciding when to murder among the Icelandic Vikings

In small scale societies, lethal attacks on another individual usually invite revenge by the victim's family. We might expect those who perpetrate such attacks to do so only when their own support network (mainly family) is larger than that of the potential victim so as to minimise the risk of retaliation. Using data from Icelandic family sagas, we show that this prediction holds whether we consider biological kin or affinal kin (in-laws): on average, killers had twice as many relatives as their victims. These findings reinforce the importance of kin as a source of implicit protection even when they are not physically present. The results also support Hughes' (1988) claim that affines are biological kin because of the shared genetic interests they have in the offspring generation.     

Individuals and groups in evolution: Darwinian pluralism and the multilevel selection debate

Outlined here is an updated review of the long-standing ‘kin selection vs group selection’ debate. Group selection is a highly contentious concept, scientifically and philosophically. In 2012, Dawkins’ attack against Wilson’s latest book about eusociality concentrated all the attention on group selection and its mutual exclusivity with respect to inclusive fitness theory. Both opponents seem to be wrong, facing the general consensus in the field, which favours a pluralistic approach. Historically, despite some misunderstandings in current literature, such a perspective is clearly rooted in Darwin’s writings, which suggested a plurality of levels of selection and a general view that we propose to call ‘imperfect selfishness’. Today, the mathematically updated hypothesis of group selection has little to do with earlier versions of ‘group selection’. It does not imply ontologically unmanageable notions of ‘groups’. We propose here population structure as the main criterion of compatibility between kin selection and group selection. The latter is now evidently a pattern among others within a more general ‘multilevel selection’ theory. Different explanations and patterns are not mutually exclusive. Such a Darwinian pluralism is not a piece of the past, but a path into the future. A challenge in philosophy of biology will be to figure out the logical structure of this emerging pluralistic theory of evolution in such contentious debates.     

Kin recognition and the 'armpit effect': evidence of self-referent phenotype matching

In species with multiple paternity or maternity, animals may best assess their relatedness to unfamiliar conspecifics by comparing their own phenotype(s) with those of unidentified individuals. Yet whether animals can recognize kin through self-matching is controversial. Because golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) mate multiply and can produce multiply sired litters, they were tested for their ability to use self-matching for kin recognition. Hamsters that were reared only with non-kin since birth responded differentially to odours of unfamiliar relatives and non-relatives. Postnatal association with kin was not necessary for this discrimination. Prenatal learning was unlikely because of delayed production and perception of social odours. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that a vertebrate can use its own phenotype for kin-recognition purposes without prior experience with kin. By using itself as a referent, rather than its siblings or parents, a golden hamster may be better able to direct nepotism towards the most appropriate individuals. Kin discrimination via self-inspection may be especially important in nepotistic contexts (to identify most closely related conspecifics), whereas inclusion of the phenotypes of close kin as referents may be favoured in mate-choice contexts (to identify all related individuals).     

Syncretic Persons: Sociality,Agency and Personhood in Recent Charismatic Ritual Practices among North Mekeo (PNG)

This paper explores the syncretic accommodations made by North Mekeo (PNG) villagers arising from recent historical encounters with Catholic (Sacred Heart) missionaries over issues of ritual authenticity and effectiveness, personhood, and agency in a wider field of Christian evangelism and globalisation. Through a careful examination and comparison of pre‐existing ritual notions and practices (e.g., sorcery techniques, mortuary ritual performance, gender rituals) and the recent trends of commodification and enthusiastic Catholic charismatic performance, what might appear to be incongruous religious beliefs and practices are shown to possess numerous remarkably compatible similarities at the level of explicit cultural categorisation and ritual enactment. In accord with long‐standing anthropological arguments, recent North Mekeo syncretism thus consists of an integrated, albeit transformed rather than ‘confused’, mixing of indigenous and exogenous religious elements. Further, in this analysis of recent Melanesian religious change syncretism implies a novel conceptual convergence between syncretic processes and the dynamics of personhood, sociality and agency as construed in the framework of the ‘new Melanesian ethnography’.     

Fitness effects of group merging in a social insect

Animal social groups often consist of non-relatives, a condition that arises in many cases because of group merging. Although indirect fitness contributions are reduced in such groups compared with those in groups composed of close kin, the genetic-heterogeneity hypothesis suggests that these groups may benefit from increased intracolony genetic variation, which may boost group performance through increased task efficiency or parasite resistance. We confirm one prediction of the task-efficiency explanation by demonstrating a genetic basis for task thresholds of socially important behaviours in eastern tent caterpillars. However, we found no evidence that the expanded range of task thresholds in mixed colonies translates into improved individual or colony performance in the field. By contrast, increased group size, a less commonly considered correlate of group mixing, was found to enhance individual fitness through its effects on larval growth. We conclude that fitness benefits offsetting the dilution of relatedness in heterogeneous social groups may often stem from augmented group size rather than increased genotypic diversity.     

Kin and kinship psychology both influence cooperative coordination in Yasawa,Fiji

Genes shared through common ancestry are among the oldest social bonds. Despite these ancient roots, humans often co-opt the psychology of genetic relatedness and extend it to genetically unrelated others through culturally-acquired kinship systems. We investigate how genealogical relatedness and kinship norms might mutually support or oppose each other within a known kin network in Yasawa, Fiji. Yasawans' reliance on intensive, kin-based cooperation for daily life makes Yasawan kinship an interesting test case to compare the effects of genealogy and kinship norms. Confirming qualitative ethnographic claims, we find that Yasawan kin terms can be described in two dimensions of respect/closeness and joking/authority. Individual players use different strategies for genealogical relatives and non-relatives by making economic game choices that are increasingly beneficial to partners who share a higher percentage of genes through common ancestry. However, pairs of players are most successful in coordinating their game choices despite conflicting self-interests based upon kinship norms relevant to hierarchy. Thus, while genealogical relatedness may boost generosity, the extra behavioral structuring from kinship norms facilitates more productive but difficult coordinated action even when communication is not possible.     

Behavioural ecology: promiscuous fathers sire young that recognize true family

Most theories of kin selection assume that animals are able to distinguish relatives from non-relatives. This is especially difficult in situations where mixed parentage precludes that relatedness is recognised by familiarity. Recent work shows that, within the same brood, young bluegill sunfish that are fathered by cuckolders--but not those sired by parental males--pick out their relatives using self-referent phenotype matching and not familiarity.     

Fitness consequences of spousal relatedness in 46 small-scale societies

Social norms that regulate reproductive and marital decisions generate impressive cross-cultural variation in the prevalence of kin marriages. In some societies, marriages among kin are the norm and this inbreeding creates intensive kinship networks concentrated within communities. In others, especially forager societies, most marriages are between more genealogically and geographically distant individuals, which generates a larger number of kin and affines of lesser relatedness in more extensive kinship networks spread out over multiple communities. Here, we investigate the fitness consequence of kin marriages across a sample of 46 small-scale societies (12 439 marriages). Results show that some non-forager societies (including horticulturalists, agriculturalists and pastoralists), but not foragers, have intensive kinship societies where fitness outcomes (measured as the number of surviving children in genealogies) peak at commonly high levels of spousal relatedness. By contrast, the extensive kinship systems of foragers have worse fitness outcomes at high levels of spousal relatedness. Overall, societies with greater levels of inbreeding showed a more positive relationship between fitness and spousal relatedness.     

Individuality,kin similarity and experimental playback of contact calls in cooperatively breeding riflemen

Riflemen/tītipounamu (Acanthisitta chloris) are kin-based cooperatively breeding birds, which appear able to recognise their relatives. Here, we investigate the potential for vocalisations to act as recognition cues in riflemen. We identified an appropriate contact call and recorded it at the nest from 19 adult riflemen. Measurements of call characteristics were individually repeatable. In addition, call similarity was significantly correlated with relatedness among all birds and among males. Thus, in principle, these contact calls contain sufficient information for individual recognition of familiar kin, and some assessment of relatedness between unfamiliar birds. To test whether riflemen responded differently to calls of kin, we broadcast calls of relatives and non-relatives as separate treatments in a playback experiment. Focal birds rarely responded aggressively or affiliatively, and their tendency to do so was unrelated to treatment. We conclude that zip calls are suitable kin recognition cues, but whether they are used as such remains unknown.     

Kin discrimination in sticklebacks is mediated by social learning rather than innate recognition

Theory predicts several advantages for animals to recognize kin. These include inbreeding avoidance and an increase in inclusive fitness. In shoaling species, kin recognition may lead to an increased amount of altruism among shoal members. Adult, non‐reproductive three‐spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, prefer to shoal with kin. This preference was shown for familiar as well as for unfamiliar individuals. However, whether it is based on learned cues of familiar individuals or on innate mechanisms like self‐referent phenotype matching or ‘true’ kin recognition through recognition alleles remains unknown. In our experiments, juvenile fish were given the choice between shoals that differed in relatedness and familiarity. The number of testfish who joined each group indicated that sticklebacks prefer to shoal with familiar kin when the alternative shoal was composed of unfamiliar non‐kin. When one shoal consisted of familiar kin while the second consisted of familiar non‐kin testfish did not show any preference. Kin recognition in sticklebacks is thus most likely mediated by social learning.     

A guide into glycosciences: How chemistry,biochemistry and biology cooperate to crack the sugar code

BackgroundThe most demanding challenge in research on molecular aspects within the flow of biological information is posed by the complex carbohydrates (glycan part of cellular glycoconjugates). How the ‘message’ encoded in carbohydrate ‘letters’ is ‘read’ and ‘translated’ can only be unraveled by interdisciplinary efforts.Scope of reviewThis review provides a didactic step-by-step survey of the concept of the sugar code and the way strategic combination of experimental approaches characterizes structure–function relationships, with resources for teaching.Major conclusionsThe unsurpassed coding capacity of glycans is an ideal platform for generating a broad range of molecular ‘messages’. Structural and functional analyses of complex carbohydrates have been made possible by advances in chemical synthesis, rendering production of oligosaccharides, glycoclusters and neoglycoconjugates possible. This availability facilitates to test the glycans as ligands for natural sugar receptors (lectins). Their interaction is a means to turn sugar-encoded information into cellular effects. Glycan/lectin structures and their spatial modes of presentation underlie the exquisite specificity of the endogenous lectins in counterreceptor selection, that is, to home in on certain cellular glycoproteins or glycolipids.General significanceUnderstanding how sugar-encoded ‘messages’ are ‘read’ and ‘translated’ by lectins provides insights into fundamental mechanisms of life, with potential for medical applications.     

The Social Life of Death on Delhi's Streets: Unclaimed Souls,Pollutive Bodies,Dead Kin and the Kinless Dead

ABSTRACT

How does the status of ‘street children’ in life inflect the narrative representation of their deaths? Street-dwelling children's interactions with death in North India reveal much about how their identities are produced in public domains. In this paper, I examine several instances of ‘homeless child’ death to illuminate the place of such subjects in society and urban space, and to interrogate the degree to which they can be rendered ‘recognizable’ or ‘grievable’, in Butler's (2010) terminology. In particular, I explore the presence or absence of kin in the ways that child death is narrated. I also explore the related question of how living ‘vagabond (aawara) children’ situate their status in narratives of death and loss. I conclude with discussions of how children negotiate their orientations towards death through ghost narratives, and of the space-, economy- and age-bound assignment of pollutive tasks once reserved for low castes to street-dwelling children.     

Kin selection in den sharing develops under limited availability of tree hollows for a forest marsupial

Animal social behaviour is not static with regard to environmental change. Flexibility in cooperative resource use may be an important response to resource decline, mediating the impacts of resource availability on fitness and demography. In forest ecosystems, hollow trees are key den resources for many species, but are declining worldwide owing to forestry. Altered patterns of den sharing may mediate the effects of the decline of this resource. We studied den-sharing interactions among hollow-dependent Australian mountain brushtail possums to investigate how spatial variation in hollow tree availability affects resource sharing and kin selection. Under reduced den availability, individuals used fewer dens and shared them less often. This suggests increased territoriality in the presence of resource competition. Further, there was a switch from kin avoidance to kin preference with decreasing hollow tree availability. This was driven primarily by a change in den sharing among siblings. The inclusive fitness benefits of den sharing with kin are likely to increase under resource-limiting conditions, but are potentially outweighed by the benefits of associating with non-relatives (avoidance of inbreeding or pathogen transmission) where dens are abundant. We discuss how predictions from social evolutionary theory can contribute to understanding animal responses to landscape change.     

Behavioural Phenotypes and the Structure of Human Cognition

Human cognitive uniqueness is often defined in terms of cognitive abilities such as introspection, imitation and cooperativeness. However, little is known about how those traits vary in populations or correlate across individuals. Here we test whether those three cognitive domains are correlated manifestations of an underlying factor, analogous to the psychometric ‘g’ factor, or independent ‘behavioural phenotypes’, analogous to the ‘Big-Five’ personality components. We selected eight variables measuring introspection and extraversion, verbal and physical imitation, cooperation and punishment, and evaluated their individual variability, domain-consistency and sub-structuring in a sample of 84 individuals. Results show high variation and limited clustering into three independent ‘behavioural phenotypes’ of introspection, imitation and cooperation. Only one significant correlation was identified (between two measures of extraversion), while other within-domain measures (introspection vs. extraversion, verbal vs. physical imitation, and cooperation vs. punishment) were not associated. Finally, no between-domain association was identified either through correlations or factor analysis. Overall, the results do not lend support to the hypothesis of a general ‘behavioural phenotype’ underlying individual behaviour. The independence of behaviours of introspection, imitation and cooperation may be the reason why individuals are able to adopt different behavioural strategies (combinations of behavioural phenotypes) and play distinct roles in the maintenance of human distinctive features such as hyper-cooperation and cumulative culture.     

Three-generation family conflict

Under what circumstances will a vertebrate grandparent be selected to ‘spoil’ its grandchild in defiance of the wishes of the child's parent? To answer this question (the ‘doting grandparent problem’) a mathematical model of conflict and coalition in an animal society, some or all of whose members may possess imperfect information about potential costs and benefits of acts affecting themselves and their kin, is applied to interactions within extended families in diploid, outbreeding species. The model predicts that natural selection will not favour grandparent-grandchild alliances against the parent unless direct costs and benefits of behavioural acts over which conflict may occur are sufficiently broad in impact to affect at least three different kin categories simultaneously.     

The problem of peers in Vietnamese interaction

In Vietnamese, address (second‐person reference) is typically accomplished by the use of a kin term regardless of whether the talk's recipient is a genealogical relative or not. All Vietnamese kin terms encode a specification of either relative age or relative generation of participants, and there are no reciprocal terms akin to English ‘brother’ or ‘sister’; rather, a speaker must select between terms such as ‘older brother’ (anh) or ‘younger sibling’ (em). Since generation is normatively associated with a difference in age, the result is a ubiquitous indexing of age and status hierarchies in all acts of address. This results in a problem for peers. How, in such a system, should they address one another (and also self‐refer)? In this article, we describe the various practices that speakers use to subvert the system and thus avoid indexing differences of age or station. Specifically, we describe four practices: (1) the use of true pronouns in address and self‐reference; (2) the use of proper names in address and self‐reference; (3) the use of kin terms in address and pronouns in self‐reference; and (4) the ironic use of kin terms in address. We conclude that the Vietnamese system well illustrates what is likely a universal tension between hierarchy and equality in acts of address and self‐reference, by showing how speakers deconstruct the vector of age and indicate that they consider one another peers. We further suggest that although the literature in this area has focused on the ways in which languages convey differences of status and rank, social order is built as much upon relations of parity and sameness – on identification of the other as neither higher nor lower than me – as it is upon relations of hierarchy.     

Land Tenure and Naming Systems in Aboriginal Australia

Naming systems play a prominent role in discussions of land tenure by Aboriginal people. Reference to one area of land and its owners is most commonly in terms of name ‘X’, whereas reference to another area of land and its owners is most commonly made in terms of name ‘Y’. Much of the analytical literature examines how these names refer to groups of people. There is considerable dispute as to whether the reference of these names suffices to determine disjoint groupings of owners that can be described by the term ‘clan’. This paper proposes that the analysis of linkages between names and areas of land should have priority over the analysis of linkages between names and groups of people. The evidence shows that the attachment of names to areas of land is more stable and consistent than their attachment to groups of people. There are differences in the ways that names attach to the landscape, and these differences are significant—they determine whether or not more than one name from the same system may be attached to an area of land. This paper focuses on two areas of Australia: the northern Kakadu‐Oenpelli area and the Timber Creek area (both in the Northern Territory). It shows that naming systems identify disjunctive areas of land as the targets for claims of primary ownership in both areas. These disjunctive areas may reasonably be described with the translation term ‘estates’. In the northern Kakadu‐Oenpelli area, corresponding to these estates, there are disjunctive groupings of owners, which may be termed ‘clans’. However, groupings of owners are not clearly disjunctive in the Timber Creek area, and there is little motivation for using the term ‘clan’. This paper proposes that this difference reflects a general pattern in Aboriginal Australia, with naming systems stably and consistently identifying ‘estates’ across much of the continent. They do not identify ‘clans’ with equivalent stability and consistency.     

Gifting as Governance: NGO Service Projects and Disciplinary Power in Rural Migrant Settlements in China

ABSTRACT

In contemporary China, migrant workers have gathered in urban villages and formed communities of their own. The regulative power of the state has not fully penetrated these enclaves, thus creating opportunities for NGOs to shoulder many of the ongoing welfare responsibilities. The primary goal of this study was to explore how NGO service projects can generate a new type of disciplinary power through give-and-take practices. I argue that service projects allow the givers to transform their economic power and social resources into political power, through which social inequality is obscured, legitimised, and translated into the delivery of ‘love’, ‘caring’ and ‘compassion’. Such political power also delivers middle-class values and lifestyles to rural migrants, who feel obligated to transform their subjectivities in order to reciprocate.