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Taking its cue from the Islamic Ecological Paradigm, deeply rooted in Islamic religious traditions, which emerged more than 1400 years ago, this paper reimagines the human-nonhuman relationship against the backdrop of the arguably assumed superiority of mankind in (Islamic) theological discourses. Using Qurʾānic narratives as a key point of divergence in the natural superiority of man within the idea of vicegerency, we argue that the Qurʾān's egalitarian ethos presents animals as 'intentional political agents' (Pepper 2021: 30) independent of human intercession. This agency enables them to be key players in deciding the outcomes of political conundrums; in so doing, it also rebuts and destabilises arrogant anthropocentric presuppositions associated with the idea of vicegerency. We particularly read, in 'signs themed' Qurʾānic narratives, a dynamic relationship between humans and animals through the animal's role as Allah's warriors and agents against human oppressors and transgressors. Drawing on the Islamic Ecological Paradigm, Angie Pepper's idea of intentional political agency and Sarra Tlili's de-anthropocentric reading of the Qurʾān, we suggest that the Qurʾān robustly invites humans to reflect on the animal world by foregrounding animals as political agents while epitomising human accountability and responsibility towards them instead of establishing a relationship of dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Wage Earners in India, 1500–1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context" edited by Jan Lucassen and Radhika Seshan explores the social and economic conditions of wage earners in early modern and modern South Asia, with a focus on the Deccan and South India. The contributors examine various aspects of wage labor, including the types of work, payment methods, and the impact of factors such as caste and gender on wages. The book draws on underutilized sources from archives in different regions of South Asia and provides valuable insights into the lives of wage earners in the region. This volume would be of interest to scholars and students of early modern South Asia, comparative history, and labor history. [Extracted from the article]

Formalist legal and economic theories axiomatically assume the "rational economic man" and the "inevitable optimal resource allocation by perfectly competitive markets," thereby justifying the ownership of corporate entities by the holders of capital assets. Professional cooperatives, guided by this formalist logic, predominantly serve the interests of capitalized large-scale peasants. In contrast, the organizational practices from mutual aid to comprehensive cooperation during the Chinese revolutionary period reveal an alternative possibility diverging from formalist logic. This alternative centers on community-based rationality of small-scale peasant households, promoting agricultural development by enhancing resource use efficiency through community mutual aid among smallholders to meet their collective production and living needs. This substantivist logic, grounded in mutual aid practices, can also provide direction for integrating small-scale peasant households into large markets in the contemporary context. 摘要: 形式主义法学和经济学理论将"理性经济人"和"完全竞争市场必然实现资源最佳配置"作为公理性的前提假设，据此赋予资本要素的所有者对企业法人的所有权。农民专业合作社就是以形式主义逻辑为主导、服务于资本化大农户的合作组织形式。与之不同的是，中国革命时期从互助到综合合作的组织实践，展示了不同于形式主义逻辑的另一种可能，即以社区集体理性的小农户为主体，通过小农户间的社区互助，在满足共同生产、生活需求的同时带来要素使用效率的提高，从而推动农业的发展。这种从互助实践出发的实体主义逻辑同样能够为当今小农户对接大市场提供方向。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When establishing new peer relationships, animals may explore different modes of interaction, testing-out dominance roles, reciprocation of affiliation, and responses to investigation. This exploration is potentially risky, as higher variability may be counterproductive to establishing expectations and trust. There is therefore a tradeoff between exploration within a new social relationship and maintaining predictable, 'safe' behaviours, raising questions about how animals differ in how they engage with strangers. The Chilean degu offers an opportune case study to investigate novel social situations, as females form relationships relatively rapidly with unrelated peers. We presented degu dyads with a series of 20 min 'reunion' sessions and found that session-to-session variability in stranger females is, in fact, lower than in cagemates, and lower than stranger or cagemate males. Reduced variability was observed only after an initial social exposure, suggesting it was a feature of new relationships rather than novelty. There was no evidence that groups differed in predictability of behaviours within a reunion. It is known that in the wild, female degus differ from males by readily forming cooperative relationships with unrelated individuals. The data therefore raise the possibility that animals predisposed to cooperation might also show reduced behavioural variability across encounters with new individuals. This work offers new results and methods for considering strategies animals use to cope with social uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces contemporary patterns of housing and homelessness to colonial geographies as race-place schemata: historic and ongoing relationships to territory that articulate and impose white supremacy while stimulating resistance to it. These phenomena are approached through the four fields of anthropology, placing a contemporary ethnography of gentrification/displacement in Oakland in conversation with the archeological record of colonization. The demographic tracking of human populations through census instruments and discourses of biological distancing suggest implications for biological anthropology, and socio-linguistic analysis is applied to colonial naming practice. Intended as an essay-length land acknowledgement and critical interrogation of contemporary white spatial entitlement, this research centers the capacity of territorial aesthetics and the geographic organization of the Spanish imperial project to produce continuing place-based dominance over colonized peoples through dispossession of their lands, containment of their populations, assimilation and erasure of their life ways, and surveillance over and defense against their resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of this paper is to describe the strategies that a specific type of Roman priests, namely the galli who worshipped the goddess Mater Magna, used to enhance their own religious authority. By doing so, they were transcending a state-given political hierarchy and a long established social normativity, namely the masculine hegemony of the ancient Roman society. More generally, temporary priestly offices were highly political: every Roman statesman had to fulfil at least one such office for some time during his life. However, there were also priests and priestesses that held their offices for life. Lacking the possibility of generating prestige through warfare or political success, like Roman statesmen, the galli had to garner prestige in their lifelong priesthood, and consequently social power, through different aspects. Specific religious services, such as sacrifices, spells, etc., were one possibility. However, the galli 's power could also have been generated through social aspects, such as habitus, which is rooted in the living conditions, the cultural milieu, and the biography of an individual (Schreg, Zerres, et al. 2013, 101). This article discusses the case of the priesthood of the Mater Magna cult, a religion that emerged in Rome at the end of the 3rd century BCE and in which the priests applied a specific form of stigma management to foster their religious authority. I argue that the priesthood of the Mater Magna—although they were even defamed by the Roman intellectuals for their inconclusive sex—made use of their 'otherness' to generate a certain religious authority, as a form of stigma management, that elevated them in the social hierarchy and created heterarchical relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In, 1954, Warder C. Allee and Joshua C. Dickinson decided to establish that "dominance-subordination" hierarchies are present in the Chondrichthyan phylogenetic line. To do so, they confined sixteen fished smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) in tanks and observed their behaviour. They found neither competition over food, in spite of starving the animals for up to six days at times, nor any clear example of aggression, though it is through aggressive actions that such hierarchies are, by definition, established. They therefore used collision avoidance to support their hypothesis that the sharks had established a rigid size-dependent dominance-subordinate hierarchy, and claimed to have established that such hierarchies are present in Chondrichthyans. However, ethological studies since then have not identified the hierarchies in elasmobranchs that this study claims to be present, but they have found that smaller sharks tend to avoid colliding with larger individuals, which is the simplest explanation for their observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of anomie has two main theorists: Durkheim, its founder, and Merton, who developed it. However, Durkheim's theory of anomie is very different from Merton's. This difference has been largely ignored due to the dominance of Merton's theory in sociological research. The purpose of this article is to explain these theories and to explore their differences. This article shows that the differences between Durkheim's and Merton's theories of anomie are mainly in explaining anomie, precedence and latency of factors, studied societies, origin of aspirations, impact of poverty and class on anomie and scope of explanation. The ignorance of these theoretical differences has led to ambiguities in meaning and differences in the definition and measuring methods for anomie, while each of these theories has distinct capabilities that, by better understanding these differences, can be used to research a range of social issues such as social deviations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article seeks to establish caste groups in India as Weberian status groups. Dumont and Weber's understanding of caste, while partially correct in this area, sought to establish caste as uniquely Indian, through their orientalist leanings. The Brahmin caste was seen by most orientalists as being an exclusive group of ascetic priests who headed Hindu society. By attempting to demonstrate the political and economic factors behind their dominance, the author here seeks to de-exoticize these assumptions, and calls for the term caste to be replaced by status. This will allow us to compare endogamous caste groups or jatis in India with status groups in premodern and modern complex societies all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Many animal groups can develop weapons that originate from specialized modifications in different body regions. Decapods are a classic example of organisms that develop these weapons. In this group, we can find specific appendages modified to claws that are used during agonistic conflicts, as is the case between dominant and submissive male morphotypes in freshwater prawns. Our study aimed to analyze the shape, size, and morphological integration of claw components (propodus and dactyl) in male morphotypes of two freshwater prawn congeners (Macrobrachium amazonicum and M. brasiliense). Claws of the prawns were photographed and marked with landmarks and semilandmarks for the acquisition of shape variables. The shape of the propodus and dactyl was statistically different between almost all morphotypes of the two species. The size of structures differed statistically between all morphotypes. The claws of almost all morphotypes showed a high degree of morphological integration; however, statistical differences were observed only between the morphotypes of M. brasiliense. The variation in the shape and degree of morphological integration of the claws between the morphotypes of M. amazonicum was less evident when compared to the morphotypes of M. brasiliense , which may be related to distinct patterns in the development of chelipeds of each species, that is, homochely and heterochely, respectively. Thus, the exaggerated development of a cheliped (heterochely) can cause greater variation in the shape of this structure, also influencing the degree of morphological integration between its components, as evidenced in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides novel information about gregariousness and intraspecific aggression in Iberian bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula iberiae) in northwestern Spain. Small monospecific parties never exceeding 10 individuals were seen throughout the year, larger in winter on average. Males considerably outnumbered females within the groups. Adult flocks were frequent only in winter. In spring, many of the adult groups were mixed-sex assemblages composed of pairs plus supernumerary males. Sightings of juvenile groups, up to seven individuals, were common in summer–autumn. The vigilance role in mixed-sex assemblages, including pairs, appeared to be the responsibility of males based on sex-specific vigilance rates. The highest frequency of aggressive encounters, mainly male against male, occurred during the breeding season, associated with mate defence. Females attacked males, not the contrary, which supports reversed sexual dominance in bullfinches. Gregariousness probably acted as an anti-predatory and foraging strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article provides an overview of the way in which three recently published edited volumes study emotions in International Relations; how they define and operationalise emotions;and how they make sense of the link between emotional framings and international violence. It is argued here that much progress has been made but that future research would benefit from a more detailed examination of the articulation between the social and the dominance of a certain emotional framing in a given (inter)national setting. Thus, emotions should not be considered as "independent variables" but as embedded in social structures and practices that favour or disfavour the expression of given emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the Special Issue "Parliaments in the Middle East and North Africa: A Struggle for Relevance." Tunisia's parliament has undergone a remarkable internal transformation process since 2011, from a formerly mostly irrelevant institution to an influential locus of policy-making. This successful progress notwithstanding, the parliament's transformation to a democratic assembly has not been fully concluded yet. A main challenge is that the legislature still shows a number of characteristics of an "authoritarian parliament": besides a lack of staff and financial resources, the continuous dominance of personal kinship over institutionalized power structures remains particularly problematic. While private networks of individual decision-makers were perceived as crucial for Tunisia's stability during the turbulent post-revolution years, they concomitantly contain the risk for a resurrection of former authoritarian structures. The article thus traces the Tunisian parliament's major transformation steps from a former irrelevant legislature to a consolidated, influential assembly, and points out the still existing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the research of the institute of civil liability through the prism of recoding of the civil legislation of Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to the experience of a number of European Union countries in reforming civil legislation. The study used the following methods: dialectical, formal and legal, comparative legal. In the process of future recoding of the civil legislation of Ukraine, it is proposed to focus the attention of the expert community on the following problems: defining a system of non-contractual obligations; overcoming the dominance of blanket norms in the main act of civil law; revision of fundamental approaches to terms of exemption from civil liability; full revision of the rules governing liability for breach of monetary obligations; the need to enshrine pre-contractual liability rules; the implementation of institution of collective redress in substantive civil law; rethinking of approaches to the regulation of conditioning obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although both Pentecostalism and postcolonial thought seem to stand poles apart, they have a remarkable amount in common. Early Pentecostal revivals largely sprang from 'subaltern groups', people groups marginalized by colonial power and dominant groups. Bringing together Pentecostalism and postcolonial thought is a complex task, but one that promises to yield positive results. Exploring the text through the twin lenses of postcolonial thought and the distinctive Pentecostal emphasis on pneumatology results in a fresh hermeneutical perspective: that the Holy Spirit might be understood as a postcolonial agent of change that empowers those who have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit to resist dominant structures of oppression. The New Testament text can therefore be understood as a 'hidden transcript', a disguised work of resistance composed by subaltern groups against dominance and oppression. This article therefore seeks to explore the theoretical underpinnings of a 'Pentecostal, postcolonial reading' of the New Testament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing interest in consistent individual differences in behaviour (animal personality), the influence of social context on different behavioural types remains poorly understood. The suite of correlated behaviours within and across contexts is called behavioural syndromes. Most personality studies have investigated consistent individual behavioural types and their consequences in a asocial context, however few studies have considered the influence of social context on individual behaviour. In addition, the evolutionary and ecological consequences of personality differences in social context remain unknown. In the present study, we confirm individual personality in Great tits (Parus major) using room exploration and neophobia tests. As a result of these two tests, repeatability and correlational structure of two personality traits were investigated. Additionally we assessed the extent to which personality influences dominance in a social feeding context. Great tits remained consistent in their personality traits (exploration and neophobia). Individuals who explored a novel environment faster also approached a novel object faster, while those who spent more time exploring a novel environment were also slower to approach a novel object. In a social feeding context personality was linked to dominance: with proactive individuals being more likely to be dominant. Our result provides evidence of the importance of social context in a wild population of birds and may have fitness consequence, both for focal individuals and their conspecifics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marius makes it clear from the outset that social class, not skin color, has always been the "primary vector" for social inclusion or exclusion in Haiti. Philippe-Richard Marius, I The Unexceptional Case of Haiti: Race and Class Privilege in Postcolonial Bourgeois Society i . The Unexceptional Case of Haiti: Race and Class Privilege in Postcolonial Bourgeois Society, by Philippe-Richard Marius. [Extracted from the article]

Dominance relationships imply consistent asymmetries in social relationships. Socioecological models predict that resource distribution determines the mode of competition that animals will face and, ultimately, the nature of their social relationships. Here, we provide the first systematic investigation of dominance style in white-nosed coatis (Nasua narica). Coatis live in cohesive female-resident groups, and have a diet based on clumped (fruits) and dispersed (insects) food items, which are predicted to favour despotic and egalitarian social styles, respectively. Our results revealed moderate linearity and steepness in dominance relationships over time, with variations attributed to stages of reproductive season, rather than presumed variations in food resources. Primary social bonds and coalitions were found to mediate dominance rank. Overall, our results suggest some similarities between coatis and despotic-tolerant primate species, at least under particular ecological circumstances, and we discuss their potential for affording a deeper understanding on the sources of variation in mammal social systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazing behaviors as a part of group initiations have been theorized to contribute to a sense of group solidarity, to ensure loyalty and commitment of group members, to teach group-relevant skills and attitudes to group members, and to reinforce the social hierarchy within groups. In a survey of members of an international college fraternity (n =2833), researchers propose and test a four-dimensional model of hazing motivation. Using exploratory factor analysis, the proposed four-factor model explains 74 percent of the overall variance and confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated acceptable model fit. Correlation and regression analysis suggested that social dominance- motivated hazing is strongly associated with hazing tolerance, moral disengagement, and a variety of measures related to organizational commitment and attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental research suggests that young children tend to value dominant individuals over subordinates. This research, however, has nearly exclusively been carried out in Western cultures, and cross-cultural research among adults has revealed cultural differences in the valuing of dominance. In particular, it seems that Japanese culture, relative to many Western cultures, values dominance less. We conducted two experiments to test whether this difference would be observed in preschoolers. In Experiment 1, preschoolers in France and in Japan were asked to identify with either a dominant or a subordinate. French preschoolers identified with the dominant, but Japanese preschoolers were at chance. Experiment 2 revealed that Japanese preschoolers were more likely to believe a subordinate than a dominant individual, both compared to chance and compared to previous findings among French preschoolers. The convergent results from both experiments thus reveal an early emerging cross-cultural difference in the valuing of dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intraspecific social dominance hierarchies should be influenced by environmental variation; however, in colour polymorphic species, dominance hierarchies are often assumed fixed, and thus insensitive to environmental variability. We ran a series of experiments using the colour polymorphic long-tailed brush lizard (Urosaurus graciosus) to challenge this assumption. We staged contests between orange and yellow morph males over a single heated perch, two perches at the same temperature, or two perches differing in temperature. Our first experiment revealed that orange-throated males are socially dominant. However, this hierarchy collapsed in our other experiments as yellow males became more aggressive. Interestingly, both males only ever secured their own perch where the perches differed in temperature. These findings mirror observations of morph behavioural flexibility in nature and studies of behaviour-environment interactions in non-polymorphic taxa. We conclude that colour morphs may have an underappreciated ability to assess resource-level changes and respond with concomitant flexibility in behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The size of the Muslim population in the United States is growing, while the number of hate groups also continues to increase across the states. Based on the social dominance theory and group threat theory, there may be a link between these two dynamics as social dominators become concerned about their group status, i.e. white Christian males. This potential relationship is explored in this article. Although there were significant positive correlations between the number of hate groups and the size of the Muslim population, a panelled negative binomial regression with a number of relevant control variables found that there was not a significant relationship between these variables at the 0.05 probability level. The article further explores these findings and future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This current study is a pilot project designed to clarify changes in the lived world among people with diagnoses within the schizophrenia spectrum. The Examination of Anomalous World Experience (EAWE) was used to interview ten participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZ) and a comparison group of three participants with major depressive disorder (DEP). Interviews were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological method. This analysis revealed two complementary forms of experience unique to SZ participants: Destabilization, the experience that reality and the intersubjective world are less comprehensible, less stable, and generally less real; and Subjectivization, the dominance of one's internal, subjective experiences in the perception or interpretation of the lived world. Persons with depressive disorders, by contrast, did not experience disruptions of the reality or independence of the world or any significant disruptions of appearance or meaning. These results are consistent with contemporary and classic phenomenological views on anomalous world experience in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As emotions and feelings in the Hebrew Bible are starting to receive scholarly attention, I question here the appropriateness of applying the modem concept of "emotions" to Biblical Hebrew. To which extent do our "emotions" fit the way Biblical Hebrew organizes human experience? The first part of the article analyzes a few Hebrew words commonly translated by terms of emotion in modem languages. Based on existing scholarship and a brief study of the words in their literary contexts, I suggest that the terms are not limited to the expression of what we call emotions; rather, they also include actions, movements, ritual gestures, and physical sensations, w ithout strict dissociation among these different dimensions. This observation casts doubt on the existence of an isolated emotional realm in Biblical Hebrew's organization of human experience. In the second half, I proceed in an opposite way: I start from a given situation - scenes where the self faces the suffering affecting another person and initiates different actions in favor of the sufferer. The examples highlight that the experience we commonly shape as an "emotion" - compassion or sympathy - does not receive such a construction in Biblical Hebrew. Besides, the experience affects the self not so much in its individuality as in its social relationships; as such, it also functions inside a given social hierarchy. I conclude by considering the potential impact that this reframed view on biblical "emotions" may have on this nascent field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dog social behaviour has been well studied, but little is known about affiliative relationships between dogs. We report a yearlong study of dominance and affiliation in 24 dogs at a dog daycare facility and provide additional details on dog relationships through long-term observations of pairs of dogs who lived together in the same household or met frequently for years. Companion dogs formed highly differentiated relationships with one another. At daycare, some dyads affiliated and displayed one-way submission (formal dominance), others affiliated without a dominance relationship (egalitarian), and the majority of dyads did not affiliate at all (agonistic or non-interactive). The dogs in household environments showed formal and egalitarian relationships, and two dyads exchanged two-way agonism without submission (unresolved). Sex influenced the types of relationships dogs formed, with mixed sex dyads more likely to affiliate and less likely to exhibit dominance than same-sex pairs. Dominance influenced the nature of affiliation in relationships; egalitarian dyads were more likely to play and showed more equitable gentle affiliation. Gentle affiliation was reciprocal in the group as a whole, but it was highly skewed in many dyads, especially those with dominance relationships. Gentle affiliation was usually, but not always, directed up the hierarchy. Certain dyads affiliated at much higher rates than others, indicating that the dogs formed friendships. Most friends were mixed sex and/or egalitarian pairs, but friendships occurred in all of the sex class/dominance combinations. Long-term observations demonstrated how dyadic relationships can change over time. Such highly differentiated relationships suggest significant social complexity in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural syndrome literature suggests that behavioural traits may be coupled to form behavioural strategies that are consistent and repeatable across contexts. Typically these behavioural types are composed of bold, aggressive, dominant individuals and shy, less aggressive, subordinate individuals. Mountain chickadees living in varying climatic conditions across a montane environment appear to exhibit consistent behavioural types, such that high elevation birds, which experience harsher winter conditions and rely more heavily on spatial memory to retrieve food caches to survive winter, explore a novel environment at a slower rate (i.e., shy) and are socially subordinate to low elevation birds. Dominance is typically expressed in individual pairwise interactions, but it is not always clear which traits predispose an individual to become a dominant in such interactions. Aggression is frequently suggested to be associated with higher dominance status, yet the data are equivocal. Here we aimed to test whether previously described elevation related differences in social dominance might be associated with elevation related differences in aggression levels in mountain chickadees by using the mirror test. The mirror test can address potential differences in reactive and proactive aggression, although caution should be taken when using the mirror test as some species are able to self-recognize. Low elevation birds responded more aggressively to their mirror image than high elevation birds, suggesting that elevation related differences in aggression may be partially responsible for previously found differences in social dominance status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative relationships among male primates are emerging as an important aspect of primate social behavior. What remains unclear is the extent to which male associations with coresident males vary within species, and what social and demographic factors drive these associations. This information provides an important contribution to our understanding of how cooperative relationships play an adaptive role in the evolution of male social and reproductive strategies. To examine the nature of male associations and the influence of social and demographic factors, including rank and age, we collected 1751 h of focal behavioral data on adult males in two large multimale-multifemale groups of mantled howlers {Alouatta palliata) at La Pacifica, Costa Rica. Both groups inhabited upland forest area, were of similar size and sex ratio, and exhibited strongly linear male hierarchies. Based on observed .spatial associations within 3 m proximity, dyadic patterns varied from strongly preferred to strongly avoided associations that were largely consistent among dyads over the study period. In contrast to reports from other mantled howler study sites, neither rank nor age differences among males predicted whether dyads spent any time in proximity to one another, nor the amount of time in proximity. However, higher-ranked males within dyads were more likely to maintain close proximity than their lower-ranked counterparts. Our results provide important data on the nature of male associations within mantled howler groups with linear dominance relationships, and are suggestive of the adaptive value of cooperative relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urination pattern of the Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) depends on social context, and the olfactory potency of urine released depends on social rank (males) and repro-ductive status (females). This strongly suggests that urine mediates chemical communication in this species. The current study tested, firstly, whether urine production rate depends on sex or so-cial status and, secondly, whether differences in urination pattern and volume of urine stored are associated with variation in the morphology of the urinary bladder. Finally, the effect of urina-tion during aggressive male-male interactions was assessed. Urine production in catheterized fish depended neither on sex nor social status (males). Nevertheless, males had larger kidneys than fe-males. Dominant males had heavier urinary bladders than subordinate males or females, mainly due to enlarged muscle fibres, thicker urothelium and a thicker smooth muscle layer. In male pairs wherein urination was prevented by temporary constriction of the genital papillae, social interac-tion escalated to aggression (mouth-to-mouth fighting) more rapidly and frequently than control pairs. This was accompanied by elevated plasma testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone levels. In control encounters, the male that initiated the aggressive behaviour was usually the winner of the subsequent fight; this did not happen when the males could not urinate. These results suggest that the larger, more muscular bladder of dominant males is an adaptation, facilitating higher urination frequency, post-renal modulation and storage of larger urine volumes for longer. It is likely that uri-nary pheromones modulate aggression in male-male encounters by providing information on the social rank and/or motivation of the emitter; males are unlikely to invest in costly highly aggressive fights if they judge their opponent to be more dominant. Thus, a morphological explanation for the differing urination patterns of dominant and subordinant males, and females, has been provided, and a possible function for this behaviour in male-male interactions is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on how animals behave when two partners receive different amounts of food have produced variable results, with individuals responding negatively to specific food distributions in some cases (e.g., when food is distributed unequally between partners), but not in others. In this study, we used a simple experimental approach to (i) assess the strictness of dominance relationships based on the degree of social tolerance and (ii) compare the behavioural responses of seven primate species (chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes; bonobos, Pan paniscus; gorillas, Gorilla gorilla; orangutans, Pongo pygmaeus; brown capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella; spider monkeys, Ateles geoffroyi; long-tailed macaques, Macaca fascicularis), when two partners received different amounts of food and no effort was required. We predicted that negative responses (i.e., refusal to participate in the task or avoidance of proximity to the food source) would be elicited by food distributions that violate the individual expectations based on tolerance levels and subject's dominance rank relative to the partner. In the 'tolerance' task, we found that species with less strict dominance relationships were chimpanzees and bonobos, followed by orangutans, spider monkeys, gorillas, brown capuchin monkeys and long-tailed macaques. In the 'food distribution' task, capuchin monkeys and especially macaques showed their aversion by refusing to participate in most conditions, including the ones with equal food distribution. When dominants received more food than the partner, subjects of all species maintained a comparable amount of proximity to the food source, possibly reflecting the general acceptance of such a food distribution across species. When dominants received less than or as much as their partners, dominant capuchin monkeys maintained less proximity than other species, possibly because having different expectations of food distributions (i.e., more/all food to the dominant). Our study highlights the importance of the species' degree of social tolerance and the relative dominance rank between partners in the study of violation of expectations of different food distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost all verbs in Slovene have two aspectually different forms, the perfective (PF) and the imperfective (IPF). But in institutional settings or settings strongly marked with social hierarchy only the first, the imperfective form, is used by Slovene speakers in a performative sense. Why is that? And what, in fact, has a Slovene speaker said if (s)he used the imperfective verb in "performative circumstances"? No doubt that (s)he may be in the process of accomplishing such an act. But at the same time, having the possibility of choosing between the PF and the IPF form, (s)he may have also indicated that this act hasn't been accomplished (yet): as long as we are only promising (IPF), we have not really promised anything yet, and if we are only promising (IPF), we cannot take anything as having been really promised. That was how Stanislav Škrabec, the 19th century Slovene linguist and the central figure of this paper, saw the role of verbal aspect within language use. Being caught in such a dilemma, a question inevitably arises: how to accomplish an act of promise (or any other performative act) in Slovene? at dilemma may seem more than artificial at first, but it was very much alive among Slovene linguists at the end of the 19 th century. And it was that very dilemma - how to use aspects in Slovene - that quite unexpectedly gave rise to the foundations of performativity in Slovene, half a century before Austin! In the present paper, the author tries to shed some light on this controversy that involved different Slovene scholars for about thirty years, and proposes a delocutive hypothesis as a solution for the performative dilemma this controversy unveiled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rodents, the presence of conspecifics may trigger changes in food-hoarding behaviour when the risk of pilferage is perceived to be high. It is not clear how hoarding intensity and hoarding patterns (scatter- or larder-hoarding) of rodents change in the presence of conspecific audiences or if the nature of the change is different between sexes, or influenced by body size. We investigated these questions in Korean field mice (Apodemus peninsulae) (KFM, showing both scatter- and larder-hoarding behaviours) and Chinese white-bellied rats (Niviventer confucianus) (CWBR, showing larder-hoarding behaviours only) through carefully controlled experiments in outdoor enclosures. We observed the seed-hoarding behaviour of focal females and males of each species in the presence of a conspecific audience of the opposite sex, same sex, and alone (control treatment). We found both rodent species increased hoarding efforts when faced with an increased pilferage risk (presence of audiences), supporting the pilferage tolerance hypotheses or forage competition hypotheses. In contrast with previous studies, we found potential pilferage risk can result in a KFM shift from scatterhoarding to larder-hoarding, supporting the larder defence hypotheses, not the catastrophic avoidance hypotheses. However, the relationship between hoarding patterns, and body size or sex, is rather complex and requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural syndromes are consistent patterns in behavioural tendencies across varying situations in individual animals. Although studies of behavioural syndromes are becoming more common, few draw connections to social dominance. Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) flock in winter, and dominance hierarchies play an important role in governing social behaviour within these flocks. Dominants and subordinates may also pursue different foraging strategies and differ in risk-taking, such as consuming novel food. In this study we examined whether social rank was related to neophobia and observational learning in chickadees. We measured individual reactions to novelty and individual differences in foragingtask learning ability. Latencies to approach a variety of novel stimuli were consistent within individuals. Social rank was related to individual reactions to novelty but not to observational learning ability. Lower-ranking individuals were less neophobic, which was consistent with the pattern of their dominance hierarchy in the wild where dominants control access to preferred resources and restrict subordinates to forage in riskier novel environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coalitions between animals are found in a variety of taxa, but are most common among primates. Here, we present data on the relative abundance of male-male coalitions within a group of free-ranging rhesus macaques, a species in which male coalitions are reportedly rare or absent. We then report a series of revolutionary coalitions among subordinates against higher ranked individuals that transformed male dominance relationships. We use these data to test theoretical model predictions about revolutionary rank-changing coalitions among primate males. We also use data on male age, rank, group residency length, associations and relative fighting ability (morphometric variables), to test predictions about coalition members' characteristics. Contrary to model predictions, coalition sizes were large, but consistent with predictions, targets were high ranking, and members middle ranking. Coalition males were more similar to each other in rank, group residency length and body mass than other males were. Coalition members were also associates (spent more time with other members than non-members did in the preceding months), and had longer canines than other males. Our results show that males forming revolutionary coalitions were from a specific part of the male distribution and represent the first systematic analysis of male-male coalitions in free-ranging rhesus macaques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the DomWorld model was used to evaluate five dominance ranking methods. The suitability of the DomWorld model for this purpose is however not without question. The characteristic unidirectionality of most dominance behaviour observed in many monkey species is not found in DomWorld. Besides this, the current paper shows that the additive dominance value updating method in combination with the relative win chance, Pij = DOMi/(DOMi + DOMj), gives rise to unrealistically large changes in win chance after fights among low ranking individuals. It is shown that this can be resolved by replacing the additive update rule by a multiplicative one. Moreover, this combination of relative win chance and multiplicative update rule is equivalent to the combination of a sigmoidal win chance and additive update rule as employed in the Elo-rating method. It is also shown that, contrary to Hemelrijk's recommendation, David's score is to be preferred to the average dominance index. The paper concludes with presenting a differentiated list of recommendations on the use of ranking methods that takes into account the required premises and different aims for which these methods have been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological market models explain variability in reciprocity and interchange between groups. In groups with a shallow dominance gradient, grooming will be mostly exchanged for itself (i.e. exchange will occur). In groups with steep dominance hierarchies, interchange is expected: individuals will groom higher ranking individuals to get access to limited resources or commodities such as support in conflicts, and grooming will be traded for these commodities. We examine patterns of reciprocity in grooming and support, and of interchange of grooming for support or for tolerance in six captive groups of bonobos. We test whether differences between groups in patterns of reciprocity and interchange can be attributed to differences in a measure of steepness of dominance hierarchies, which is based on dyadic agonistic interactions. We found that grooming was reciprocal in some, but not all groups. Support was highly reciprocal, but this was a side effect of dominance in most groups. Interchange between grooming and support was observed in some groups. Corroborating earlier findings, this was a side effect of individuals preferring high ranking individuals as grooming and support partners, possibly because these high-ranking individuals provide more efficient support in conflicts. There was no evidence for interchange of grooming for tolerance. Variability in grooming reciprocity was explained by differences in steepness of dominance hierarchies, as predicted by the biological market models. In groups with a shallow dominance hierarchy, grooming was more reciprocal. This was not true for reciprocity in support. There was some evidence that individuals groomed dominants more frequently in groups with a steep dominance hierarchy. The variation in interchange relations between grooming and support did not depend on the steepness of dominance hierarchies. We suggest that grooming in itself is a valuable commodity in bonobos, especially under captive conditions, which can be exchanged reciprocally. Bonobos may interchange grooming for another value equivalent, with food sharing as a very likely candidate. This interchange effects seem more dependent on potential to monopolise food than on steepness of dominance hierarchies per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed experiments with cichlid fish to test whether several basic aspects of dominance were the same in isolated pairs as in pairs within a social group of three or four. We found that the social context, whether a pair was isolated or within a group, strongly affected the basic properties of dominance relationships. In particular, the stability of relationships over time, the replication of relationships in successive meetings, and the extent of the loser effect were all significantly less in socially embedded pairs than in isolated pairs. We found no significant winner effect in either isolated or socially embedded pairs. These findings call into question many current approaches to dominance that do not consider social context as an important factor in dominance behavior. These findings also cast serious doubt on the validity of empirical and theoretical approaches based on dyadic interactions. Among these approaches are game theoretic models for the evolution of aggressive behavior, experimental designs evaluating how asymmetries in attributes influence the outcome of dominance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social hierarchies observed in natural systems often show a high degree of transitivity. Transitive hierarchies do not only require rank differentiation within pairs of individuals but also a higher level ordering of relations within the group. Several authors have suggested that the formation of linear hierarchies at the group level is an emergent property of individual behavioural rules, referred to as winner and loser effects. Winner and loser effects occur if winners of previous conflicts are more likely to escalate the current conflict, whereas the losers of previous conflicts are less likely to do so. According to this idea, an individual's position in a hierarchy may not necessarily reflect its fighting ability, but may rather result from arbitrary historical asymmetries, in particular the history of victories and defeats. However, if this is the case, it is difficult to explain from an evolutionary perspective why a low ranking individual should accept its subordinate status. Here we present a game theoretical model to investigate whether winner and loser effects giving rise to transitive hierarchies can evolve and under which conditions they are evolutionarily stable. The main version of the model focuses on an extreme case in which there are no intrinsic differences in fighting ability between individuals. The only asymmetries that may arise between individuals are generated by the outcome of previous conflicts. We show that, at evolutionary equilibrium, these asymmetries can be utilized for conventional conflict resolution. Several evolutionarily stable strategies are based on winner and loser effects and these strategies give rise to transitive hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A difference in dominance rank is an often-used cue to resolve conflicts between two animals without escalated fights. At the group level, adherence to a dominance convention efficiently reduces the costs associated with conflicts, but from an individual's point of view, it is difficult to explain why a low ranking individual should accept its subordinate status. This is especially true if, as suggested by several authors, dominance not necessarily reflects differences in fighting ability but rather results from arbitrary historical asymmetries. According to this idea, rank differentiation emerges from behavioural strategies, referred to as winner and loser effects, in which winners of previous conflicts are more likely to win the current conflict, whereas the losers of previous conflicts are less likely to do so. In order to investigate whether dominance, based on such winner and loser effects, can be evolutionarily stable, we analyse a game theoretical model. The model focuses on an extreme case in which there are no differences in fighting ability between individuals at all. The only asymmetries that may arise between individuals are generated by the outcome of previous conflicts. By means of numerical analysis, we find alternative evolutionarily stable strategies, which all utilize these asymmetries for conventional conflict resolution. One class of these strategies is based on winner and loser effects, thus generating evolutionarily stable dominance relations even in the absence of differences in resource holding potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lemur social systems have the striking social feature, that adult females consistently evoke submissive behaviour of adult males. In the Alaotran gentle lemur, Hapalemur griseus alaotrensis, however, female dominance has not been studied yet. Here we confirm female dominance over males on the basis of a 5-month field study of the social behaviour of four groups, in the Lake Alaotra marshland of eastern Madagascar. Further, we found that dominant individuals initiated aggressive interactions significantly more often than lowerranking ones, they initiated group movements more often and higher-ranking individuals were groomed more often. The spatial configuration was remarkable, since individuals were closer in space to those more distant in rank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In male-dominant primate species, females are sometimes dominant to some or all males of a group. In this paper, we show a number of variables that increase female dominance over males in a model called DomWorld. This model is relevant, because its results have shown to resemble those of typical egalitarian and despotic macaques. Variables that increase female co-dominance are intensity of aggression, group cohesion, a clumped distribution of food, a similar diet for the sexes and sexual attraction (by one sex to the other, but not mutually). We explain that in these cases female co-dominance increases due to more interactions between the sexes (under certain conditions), and as a consequence of all factors that increase the development of the hierarchy (i.e. a higher number of interactions, more interactions per sex, a higher intensity of aggression and a clearer spatial structure). We suggest model-guided studies of female dominance in real animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of experimental research are used to develop theoretical models of dominance hierarchy formation that incorporate effects of prior aggressive experience and body size. A combination of analytical models and computer simulations confirm previous theoretical treatments showing that intrinsic attributes such as body size fail to account for the degree of hierarchy linearity observed in nature for typical within-group variance of such attributes. Moreover, these models explain the mathematical dynamics of the operation of winner/loser effects during hierarchy formation. Additionally, I present an analysis of these models which shows that the degree to which relationships of component triads (all combinations of three individuals in a group) within a hierarchy develop sequentially can have a significant effect on linearity and is an emergent feature of prior experience effects that previously has not been examined. I explain how this feature can operate through physical and behavioral features of social groups that increase physical proximity of subgroups within a larger group, thus increasing the probability of sequential relationship development in component triads, which in turn provides the conditions for winner/loser effects to significantly increase the probability of component triad transitivity and hierarchy linearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current theory on primate social relationships implies that relationship quality consists of three factors: value, security, and compatibility. The relationship security of each group member can be determined using the level of social anxiety found when that individual is in the proximity of other individuals. I studied social anxiety by measuring the rate of rough selfscratching behaviour (RSS), a self-directed behaviour, in wild chimpanzees in Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. The RSS rate drastically differed across individual activities; RSS was rare when the focal individual was foraging or moving, but frequent during resting. The male RSS rate while resting was inversely correlated with dominance rank, particularly when males were with other group members; higher-ranking males performed RSS less often than lower-ranking males. The RSS frequency of males did not vary with the proximity of group members or the association level of the individuals in proximity. In contrast, close proximity of group members increased the female RSS rate. In addition, females performed RSS more frequently when a non-affiliative group member was in their proximity than with an affiliative group member. The relative dominance rank of the individuals in close proximity did not affect the RSS rate in either males or females. Furthermore, infant contact or separation from the mother did not influence the maternal RSS rate. These results suggest that anxietyinducing situations differ between sexes in this species, and that for female chimpanzees, relationship security is related to association level. The results are discussed in terms of interspecific variation in social dominance style and inter-individual tolerance within primates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the challenge of applying human rights to advance safe motherhood. Description of reproductive health risks as injustices that societies are obligated to remedy; Threats presented by health reforms to conventional practices and value systems; Related conditions to the advancement of safe motherhood through human rights.