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Insects are the most diverse group of organisms in the animal kingdom, and some species exhibit complex social behaviors. Although research on insect object use is still in its early stages, insects have already been shown to display rich object‐use behaviors. This review focuses on patterns and behavioral flexibility in insect object‐use behavior, and the role of cultural evolution in the development of object‐use behaviors. Object use in insects is not widespread but has been documented in a diverse set of taxa. Some insects can use objects flexibly and display various object‐use patterns. Like mammals and birds, insects use objects in diverse activities, including foraging, predator defense, courtship, and play. Intelligence, pre‐existing manipulative behaviors, and anatomical structure affect innovations in object use. In addition, learning and imitation are the main mechanisms underlying the spread of object‐use behaviors within populations. Given that insects are one of the major animal groups engaging in object use, studies of insect object use could provide general insights into object use in the animal kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After documenting Tarde's neglect and placing him in the 19th-century sociological context, this paper argues that his concept of "imitation" was important because social learning (writ small) or culture (writ large), a non-genetic form of heredity, means that a distinct cultural evolutionary process including variation and selection resulting in descent with modification is inevitable. Beginning in the last half of the 20th century there was a flowering of theorizing and research about cultural evolution across the humanities and social sciences and eventually about culture in general in sociology. Unfortunately, what should have been recognized as Tarde's role as a forefather of these has only occasionally been recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social life is a key feature in humans; without it, language, science, and technology would not have appeared. The inclination to engage with others is also a main source of pleasure and pain and as such a key factor for quality of life. In this paper, I shall present current knowledge on the evolutionary trajectory leading to the four main types of relations: parent–child, pair-bonding, kinship, and social life (bonding between non-kin for purposes other than breeding). These relationships are not unique to humans; they have evolved independently multiple times across the animal kingdom. In our lineage, the origins of parent–child bonding may be traced back to the early amniotes some 320 Mya (million years ago). Pair-bonding and social life most likely evolved recently. Understanding how these affiliations are rooted in the brain, particularly the role of feelings, provides valuable insights that can help us improve society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The desire to survive is inherent in any organization; in the private sector, profit, and in the public sector, people's satisfaction is the guarantee of survival. Taking into account the ever-increasing changes and developments, achieving this goal, requires the adoption of a suitable strategy such as the evolution of an organization that, along with patient-centeredness and service quality, encourages government employees to gain the satisfaction of citizens. The main goal of this research is to design organizational evolution in hospitals affiliated with Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. Methods:. This research was carried out qualitatively using grounded theory. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were used and data analysis was done using Strauss and Corbin method and the paradigm model. Purposive sampling was carried out based on which14 interviews conducted with professors of the scientific board of universities and experts working in government hospitals. Results: The results of the data obtained from the interviews during the process of open, central ,and selective coding led to the creation of grounded theory in the field of organizational evolution in hospitals affiliated with Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. The model designed in this research included 43 sub-categories in the form of 6 main categories of causal, contextual, interventional, central phenomenon, consequences, and strategies. Conclusion: This research can be a complete road map for hospital managers to move towards an evolutionary organization by providing causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences of the central phenomenon of organizational evolutionism. Furthermore, this research will help to better understand this phenomenon.

Max Weber's ambivalent view of evolutionary theory has sparked ongoing debate. While rejecting simplistic social Darwinism, his writings reveal an implicit evolutionary logic underlying broader cultural transformations. Across multiple works, Weber modeled cultural change through the interplay between charismatic innovation and institutional order. This paper argues Weber provides a sophisticated model of cultural evolution by elucidating the relationship between these two forces. The aim is to demonstrate how framing Weber's dichotomy in evolutionary terms offers novel insight into his nuanced vision of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grand Canal is one of the most important hydraulic engineering projects in Chinese history. The city of Suzhou has abundant and concentrated cultural heritage sites in the southern section of the Grand Canal. However, due to natural hazards, anthropogenic damage, and lack of human management, the cultural heritage sites have suffered irreversible damage. Digital preservation of these sites will make it possible to maintain their aesthetic and cultural value. This paper takes cultural heritage sites along the Suzhou Canal as its research subject and establishes a cultural heritage dataset using geographical information system (GIS). The paper uses geocoding and spatial analysis methods based on GIS, including nearest neighbor analysis, kernel density analysis, center of gravity analysis, and standard deviation ellipse. The paper explores the distribution of 104 cultural heritage sites along the Suzhou Canal across six historical periods and discusses the influencing factors for evolution of the distribution. The results show that: (1) major constructions on the Grand Canal water system were started in the Pre-Sui period and completed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties; (2) the degree of clustering of the distribution has increased since the Sui and Tang Dynasties until Modern Times; (3) the high-density area has been centered around the ancient city since the Pre-Sui period, and has shown a migration trend towards the Shantang Canal since the Ming Dynasty; (4) the center of gravity first moved from northwest to southeast along the Canal and then moved northeast towards the ancient city; (5) the aggregation of the sites peaked in the Qing dynasty (1636 CE-1911 CE), and the elliptical direction of distribution has become stable since then; and (6) the types of the cultural heritage in the evolution process are affected by the joint effects of natural and human factors, namely, elevation, canals, population, water transportation, and intangible cultural heritage, among which the canal characteristics play the decisive role. This study reveals the internal evolution mechanisms of the cultural heritage in the Suzhou Canal area and presents a scientific basis for the protection and utilization of the cultural heritage in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Passage experiments that sequentially infect hosts with parasites have long been used to manipulate virulence. However, for many invertebrate pathogens, passage has been applied naively without a full theoretical understanding of how best to select for increased virulence and this has led to very mixed results. Understanding the evolution of virulence is complex because selection on parasites occurs across multiple spatial scales with potentially different conflicts operating on parasites with different life histories. For example, in social microbes, strong selection on replication rate within hosts can lead to cheating and loss of virulence, because investment in public goods virulence reduces replication rate. In this study, we tested how varying mutation supply and selection for infectivity or pathogen yield (population size in hosts) affected the evolution of virulence against resistant hosts in the specialist insect pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis, aiming to optimize methods for strain improvement against a difficult to kill insect target. We show that selection for infectivity using competition between subpopulations in a metapopulation prevents social cheating, acts to retain key virulence plasmids, and facilitates increased virulence. Increased virulence was associated with reduced efficiency of sporulation, and possible loss of function in putative regulatory genes but not with altered expression of the primary virulence factors. Selection in a metapopulation provides a broadly applicable tool for improving the efficacy of biocontrol agents. Moreover, a structured host population can facilitate artificial selection on infectivity, while selection on life‐history traits such as faster replication or larger population sizes can reduce virulence in social microbes.

Copyright of Conservative Thought / Muhafazakar Düşünce is the property of Muhafazakar Dusunce Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This qualitative study takes on to gauge the evolution of research culture in Pakistan. Primarily it revolves around SWOT analysis of past, present, and future. It seeks expert opinions of faculty members of the Departments of Humanities, and Management Sciences of COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus on open-ended questions. The study finds a recent emergence of certain features of research culture identified in the literature and foresees it's further strengthening in the coming days based on some assumptions? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Social defectors may meet diverse cooperators. Genotype-by-genotype interactions may constrain the ranges of cooperators upon which particular defectors can cheat, limiting cheater spread. Upon starvation, the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus cooperatively develops into spore-bearing fruiting bodies, using a complex regulatory network and several intercellular signals. Some strains (cheaters) are unable to sporulate effectively in pure culture due to mutations that reduce signal production but can exploit and outcompete cooperators within mixed groups. Results In this study, interactions between a cheater disrupted at the signaling gene csgA and allopatrically diversified cooperators reveal a very small cheating range. Expectedly, the cheater failed to cheat on all natural-isolate cooperators owing to non-cheater-specific antagonisms. Surprisingly, some lab-evolved cooperators had already exited the csgA mutant’s cheating range after accumulating fewer than 20 mutations and without experiencing cheating during evolution. Cooperators might also diversify in the potential for a mutation to reduce expression of a cooperative trait or generate a cheating phenotype. A new csgA mutation constructed in several highly diverged cooperators generated diverse sporulation phenotypes, ranging from a complete defect to no defect, indicating that genetic backgrounds can limit the set of genomes in which a mutation creates a defector. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that natural populations may feature geographic mosaics of cooperators that have diversified in their susceptibility to particular cheaters, limiting defectors’ cheating ranges and preventing them from spreading. This diversification may also lead to variation in the phenotypes generated by any given cooperation-gene mutation, further decreasing the chance of a cheater emerging which threatens the persistence of cooperation in the system.

Experimentalists observe allele frequency distributions and try to infer mutation rates and selection coefficients. How easy is this? We calculate limits to their ability in the context of the Wright-Fisher model by first finding the maximal amount of information that can be acquired using allele frequencies about the mutation rate and selection coefficient– at least 2 bits per allele– and then by finding how the organisms would have shaped their mutation rates and selection coefficients so as to maximize the information transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectomics, which is the network study of connectomes or maps of the nervous system of an organism, should be applied and expanded to human and animal societies, resulting in the birth of the domain of socioconnectomics compared to neuroconnectomics. This new network study framework would open up new perspectives in evolutionary biology and add new elements to theories, such as the social and cultural brain hypotheses. Answering questions about network topology, specialization, and their connections with functionality at one level (i.e., neural or societal) may help in understanding the evolutionary trajectories of these patterns at the other level. Expanding connectomics to societies should be done in comparison and combination with multilevel network studies and the possibility of multiorganization selection processes. The study of neuroconnectomes and socioconnectomes in animals, from simpler to more advanced ones, could lead to a better understanding of social network evolution and the feedback between social complexity and brain complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social behaviors and lifestyles have evolved as successful strategies to cope with adverse and challenging living conditions, often by manipulating the immediate environment. These manipulations can extend to the surrounding microbiome, both in terms of combating harmful agents such as pathogens but also by facilitating the growth of beneficial microbes. In contrast to the largely antagonistic role traditionally assigned to microbes in social systems, these host–microbe interactions are receiving increasing attention as potential facilitators of social evolution. Here, we explore this perspective using Nicrophorus burying beetles, a group of insect carrion breeders which offer insights into the evolutionary interactions between sociality and microbial mutualists in a relatively simple family model. Recent studies have demonstrated the constant microbial challenges faced by Nicrophorus nurseries and the costly consequences they entail. Here, we provide an overview of these challenges and then explore the role of microbial mutualists in this social endeavor, focusing on the advantages they confer in terms of development and immunity. Additionally, we discuss how these mutualistic associations may select for committed parental care and more obligate forms of social life by promoting prolonged social associations through vertical transmission. Our review highlights the hypothesis that microbial mutualists not only provide immediate benefits but may also encourage social interactions in their hosts. However, the occurrence, degree, and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon remain largely theoretical, as do the evolutionary feedbacks on microbes. Empirical evidence in this area is currently limited, emphasizing the need for further research. Nicrophorus burying beetles represent an ideal system to investigate the interplay between microbial mutualists and social evolution, offering a promising avenue for future studies. Overall, this review underscores the importance of understanding the complex interactions between microbial mutualists and social behaviors in challenging environments, and beyond.

Human brain reduction from the Late Pleistocene/Holocene to the modern day is a longstanding anthropological observation documented with numerous lines of independent evidence. In a recent study (DeSilva et al., 2021; Front. Ecol. Evol.), we analyzed a large compilation of fossil and recent human crania and determined that this reduction was surprisingly recent, occurring rapidly within the past 5,000 to 3,000 years of human history. We attributed such a change as a consequence of population growth and cooperative intelligence and drew parallels with similar evolutionary trends in eusocial insects, such as ants. In a reply to our study, Villmoare and Grabowski (2022; Front. Ecol. Evol.) reassessed our findings using portions of our dataset and were unable to detect any reduction in brain volume during this time frame. In this paper, responding to Villmoare and Grabowski’s critique, we reaffirm recent human brain size reduction in the Holocene, and encourage our colleagues to continue to investigate both the timing and causes of brain size reduction in humans in the past 10,000 years.

Schooling is ubiquitous in the modern world and academic development is now a critical aspect of preparation for adulthood. A step back in time to pre-modern societies and an examination of life in remaining traditional societies today reveals that universal formal schooling is an historically recent phenomenon. This evolutionary and historical recency has profound implications for understanding academic development, including how instructional practices modify evolved or biological primary abilities (e.g., spoken language) to create evolutionarily novel or biologically secondary academic competencies (e.g., reading). We propose the development of secondary abilities promotes the emergence of academic self-concepts that in turn are supported by evolved systems for self-awareness and self-knowledge. Unlike some forms of self-knowledge (e.g., relative physical abilities) that appear to be universal and central to many people's overall self-concept, the relative importance of academic self-concepts are expected to be dependent on explicit social and cultural supports for their valuation. These culturally contingent self-concepts are contrasted with universal social and physical self-concepts, with implications for understanding variation students' relative valuation of academic competencies and their motivations to engage in academic learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that social life imposes specific cognitive demands for animals to communicate, cooperate and compete, ultimately requiring larger brains. The “social brain” hypothesis is supported by data in primates and some other vertebrates, but doubts have been raised over its applicability to other taxa, and in particular insects. Here, we review recent advances in insect cognition research and ask whether we can identify cognitive capacities that are specific to social species. One difficulty involved in testing the social brain hypothesis in insects is that many of the model species used in cognition studies are highly social (eusocial), and comparatively little work has been done in insects that live in less integrated social structures or that are solitary. As more species are studied, it is becoming clear that insects share a rich cognitive repertoire and that these abilities are not directly related to their level of social complexity. Moreover, some of the cognitive mechanisms involved in many social interactions may not differ from those involved in non-social behaviors. We discuss the need for a more comparative and neurobiologically grounded research agenda to better understand the evolution of insect brains and cognition.

Human laughter and laugh faces show similarities in morphology and function with animal playful expressions. To better understand primordial uses and effects of human laughter and laugh faces, it is important to examine these positive expressions in animals from both homologous and analogous systems. Phylogenetic research on hominids provided empirical evidence on shared ancestry across these emotional expressions, including human laughter and laugh faces. In addition, playful expressions of animals, in general, arguably have a key role in the development of social cognitive skills, a role that may help explain their polyphyletic history. The present work examines the evolution and function of playful expressions in primates and other animals. As part of this effort, we also coded for muscle activations of six carnivore taxa with regard to their open-mouth faces of play; our findings provide evidence that these carnivore expressions are homologues of primate open-mouth faces of play. Furthermore, our work discusses how the expressions of animal play may communicate positive emotions to conspecifics and how the motor resonance of these expressions increases affiliation and bonding between the subjects, resembling in a number of ways the important social–emotional effects that laughter and laugh faces have in humans. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cracking the laugh code: laughter through the lens of biology, psychology and neuroscience'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the evolution of social networking sites (SNSs) from a networked audience duplication perspective. Guided by social network theory, the theory of double jeopardy, and niche theory, this study proposes an integrated framework to explain the evolution of SNS choices of the US audience between 2016 and 2019. Shared traffic data were retrieved from comScore's Media Metrix Multi-Platform database. The empirical results of the separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) confirm that preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width significantly drive the likelihood of tie formation and dissolution in the evolving audience duplication network. These effects hold true even when other endogenous structural features and exogenous nodal attributes are taken into account. Theoretical implications for the networked media landscape are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Information scientists may find value in studying cultural information evolution and information diffusion through memetics. Information studies in memetics have often found datafication in memetics research difficult. Meanwhile, current memetic scholarship elsewhere is abundant in data due to their focus on Internet artifacts. This paper offers a way to close the datafication gap for information researchers by associating information data with "differences" between memetic documents. Design/methodology/approach: This work offers a joint theory and methodology invested in information-oriented memetics. This methodology of differences is developed from a content analysis of difference on a collection of images with visual similarities. Findings: The authors find that this kind of analysis provides a heuristic method for quantitatively bounding where one meme ends and another begins. The authors also find that this approach helps describe the dynamics of memetic media in such a way that the authors can datafy information or cultural evolution more clearly. Originality/value: Here the authors offer an approach for studying cultural information evolution through the study of memes. In doing so, the authors forward a methodology of difference which leverages content analysis in order to outline how it functions practically. The authors propose a quantitative methodology to assess differences between versions of document contents in order to examine what a particular meme is. The authors also move toward showing the information structure which defines a meme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural evolution is substantially driven by agentic forces and rather less by the random variation and natural selection that dominate the evolution of genes. Reinforcement based decisions (attractors) keep cultural evolution tolerably on track of genetic fitness. Reinforcement can come from a variety of proximate mechanisms ranging from rather general-purpose appetites and emotions to highly specific cognitive features. Cognitive features must be substantially built by social and individual learning to be compatible with the vast cultural diversity we observe in space and over time. At the same time gene-based components of reinforcement keep culture generally on track of genetic fitness. This essay asks whether the available neuroscientific evidence on brain function is more compatible with this cultural niche hypothesis or the much more directly gene-based cognitive niche alternative. Future neuroscience may provide a complete proximate account of the biological foundations of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural selection is the main mechanism that drives the evolution of species, including human societies. Under natural selection, human species responds through genetic and cultural adaptations to internal and external selection pressures for survival and reproductive success. However, this theory is ineffective in explaining human societal evolution in the Holocene and a cultural selection argument has been made to remedy the theory. The present article provides a critique of the cultural selection argument and proposes an alternative conception that treats human self-selection as an emergent mechanism of human societal evolution characterized by a new type of selection pressure and a separate fitness criterion. Specifically, the evolution of human societies is divided into two major periods, each driven by a different mode of selection: natural selection acting on genes and cultures for survival and reproductive success prior to the Neolithic Revolution, and human self-selection acting on cultures – and potentially genes as well – for thrival and prosperous living after the Neolithic Revolution. The conditions for the transition from the first mode of selection to the second and the implications of this transition for social research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-engages with the science versus religion debate in the light of the last three decades of scholarly progress in the study of religion coming from the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion. I begin by asking (1) 'if it is indeed possible to account for the origins of religious belief, its cultural transmission and evolution, and its maintenance— without any appeal to the real existence of any supernatural deity—then are we in a position to say we have explained it all away?' If we are, how does this affect central themes in the philosophy of religion about God's existence? In (2) I provide an outline of the cognitive and evolutionary approach to explaining religion. In section (3) I discuss abductive reasoning (3.1), problems with the accusation of having committed the genetic fallacy when answering (1) in favour of positive atheism (3.2), the need for first-order justifications of religious belief (3.3), and in (3.4) a peculiar divine attribute (i.e. omnipotent potential in a causal chain of events) that appears to immunise religious belief in a particular kind of supernatural deity from having been explained away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the development of social Darwinism in China from the mid-1890s to 1930 vis-à-vis its ties with social Darwinism in the West, employing a comparative analysis of Spencer, Huxley, and Yan Fu. A form of evolutionism that envisioned a cosmological order based upon strength was transformed into a component of power politics in Republican China, despite unsuccessful political endeavors that illustrated both the triumphs and social malfunctions of evolutionary ideas. From the late 1910s, a new variety of social Darwinism arose alongside the scientific one, reflecting the influence of Kropotkin and de Vries, as Chinese thinkers incorporated non-Anglophone texts. The theories that emerged made sense of the changing Chinese adaptations of evolutionary thinking by contextualizing and modifying them within the intellectual and political dynamics inside China and also in China's evolving relationship with capitalism and imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Learning & Technology is the property of Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Researchers in cultural evolutionary theory (CET) have recently proposed the foundation of a new field of research in cultural evolution named 'epistemic evolution'. Drawing on evolutionary epistemology's early studies, this programme aims to study science as an evolutionary cultural process. The paper discusses the way CET's study of science can contribute to the philosophical debate and, vice versa, how the philosophy of science can benefit from the adoption of a cultural evolutionary perspective. Here, I argue that CET's main contribution to an evolutionary model of scientific growth comes from the application of 'population thinking' to science. Populationism offers a 'variation based' understanding of scientists' epistemic and socio-epistemic criteria that is able to better accommodate the variegated preferences that intervene in scientific epistemic decisions. A discussion of the so called theory choice context is offered as an example of the way a populationist approach can shed new light on the operation of scientists' epistemic choices., Author(s): Antonio Fadda [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.9983.b, 0000 0001 2181 4263, Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab, Centro de Filosofia da Ciências, História e Filosofia das Ciências, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade [...]

Abstract Background The reproductive division of labor of eusocial insects, whereby one or several queens monopolize reproduction, evolved in a context of high genetic relatedness. However, many extant eusocial species have developed strategies that decrease genetic relatedness in their colonies, suggesting some benefits of the increased diversity. Multiple studies support this hypothesis by showing positive correlations between genetic diversity and colony fitness, as well as finding effects of experimental manipulations of diversity on colony performance. However, alternative explanations could account for most of these reports, and the benefits of diversity on performance in eusocial insects still await validation. In this study, we experimentally increased worker diversity in small colonies of the ant Lasius niger while controlling for typical confounding factors. Results We found that experimental colonies composed of workers coming from three different source colonies produced more larvae and showed more variation in size compared to groups of workers coming from a single colony. Conclusions We propose that the benefits of increased diversity stemmed from an improved division of labor. Our study confirms that worker diversity enhances colony performance, thus providing a possible explanation for the evolution of multiply mated queens and multiple-queen colonies in many species of eusocial insects.

The social mole-rats of the family Bathyergidae show elaborate social organisation that may include division of labour between breeders and non-breeders as well as across non-breeders within their groups. However, comparative behavioural data across the taxa are rare and contrasts and similarities between species are poorly understood. Field studies of social bathyergids usually involve capturing all group members until the entire group is captured. Because each animal is only captured once and traps are typically placed in close proximity to active foraging areas, the order in which animals are captured provides an indication of the foraging activity of different individuals and of the spatial organisation of the group within the burrow system. Here, we compare the association of capture order with breeding status, sex, and body mass in four species and subspecies of social bathyergids, which vary in group size and represent all three social genera within the family Bathyergidae. We show that in naked and Damaraland mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber and Fukomys damarensis), male and female breeders are captured later than non-breeders, whereas in two different subspecies of the genus Cryptomys only female breeders are captured later than non-breeders. The effect sizes vary largely and are 10 times larger in naked mole-rats as compared to Fukomys and 3–4 times larger than in Cryptomys. Among non-breeders, sex effects are notably absent in all species and body mass predicted capture order in both naked and Damaraland mole-rats. In naked mole-rats, larger non-breeders were captured earlier than smaller ones, whereas in Damaraland mole-rats intermediate-sized non-breeders were captured first. Our data suggest that there are similarities in behavioural structure and spatial organisation across all social bathyergid species, though the most pronounced differences within groups are found in naked mole-rats.

This paper discusses power in world history and then in the political dimension of modernity, contrasting it with how power was exercised in other civilisations. It mobilises key texts on large-scale historical sociology and evolutionary theories. In order to articulate a discussion on systems of rule, hierarchy, network and market, the analytical categories of justification and legitimation are introduced. To organise and frame the historical record, avoiding the pitfalls of unilinear theories of evolution, it also resorts to the concepts of homology and homoplasy, divergence and convergence, which are common occurrences in history. This has to do with limited possibilities for social evolution. Yet modernity surged as a stunning historic-evolutionary divergence, in which a specific process of differentiation took place, including that of a particular, and hitherto unheard of, political dimension. Authoritarian collectivism tried to supersede it but failed, entailing a backtracking of social evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of insect sociality has repeatedly involved changes in developmental events and their timing. Here, we propose the hypothesis that loss of a canonical regulator of moulting and metamorphosis, prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), and its receptor, Torso, is associated with the evolution of sociality in bees. Specifically, we posit that the increasing importance of social influences on early developmental timing in social bees has led to their decreased reliance on PTTH, which connects developmental timing with abiotic cues in solitary insects. At present, the evidence to support this hypothesis includes the absence of genes encoding PTTH and Torso from all fully-sequenced social bee genomes and its presence in all available genomes of solitary bees. Based on the bee phylogeny, the most parsimonious reconstruction of evolutionary events is that this hormone and its receptor have been lost multiple times, across independently social bee lineages. These gene losses shed light on possible molecular and cellular mechanisms that are associated with the evolution of social behavior in bees. We outline the available evidence for our hypothesis, and then contextualize it in light of what is known about developmental cues in social and solitary bees, and the multiple precedences of major developmental changes in social insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The doctrine of original sin serves as a major challenge to apologetic theological reflection. The challenge is more demanding in times of the widespread scientific worldview, which renders biblical accounts on human evil less credible and questions the rationalization efforts produced by ancient and medieval theology. Recent developments in scientific anthropology offer a chance to better approach human negativity. So far, theologians have tried in the last years to apply those advances to update that doctrine, although not to the point which could lessen its mystery. Original sin expresses a general state of human frailty, whose origins escape scientific analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of food sharing in collectively hunting species are likely to influence social dynamics and evolution. Despite this, little is known about competition within social groups at carcasses and other food sources, making the social drivers and implications of food sharing difficult to assess. We quantified carcass access and feeding behavior in free-ranging African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus, at natural kill sites, confirming and quantifying previous descriptions of a youngest-feed-first system. Using data on feeding duration and latency to feed, we confirm that the position in the feeding queue (PFQ) runs from youngest to oldest, except the dominant pair, which generally feed after the pups. We found some evidence that older subdominants were more likely to participate in kills, perhaps because they may only gain access to carcasses at the most profitable early stages of consumption if they make the kill themselves. These dogs were no more likely to initiate hunts or sustain probable hunting-related injuries than were younger dogs with better access. We suggest that allowing younger animals uncontested access to food they have not caught themselves may be an extension of helping behavior prioritizing those least able to catch food themselves, and that this system may provide possible anti-kleptoparasitism benefits. Our results contribute to the discussion on the functions and importance of food sharing more broadly. Significance statement: Food-sharing by group-hunting animals is not well understood, but may affect many aspects of their life, including how much an individual contributes to hunting, and whether they remain in the group or disperse elsewhere. To better understand food-sharing and its implications, we recorded social aspects of feeding behavior in African wild dogs in Botswana. We confirmed an unusual system where the youngest generally feed first and found that dogs lower down the feeding queue were more likely to participate in kills, but were not more likely to initiate hunts or get injured. We speculate that allowing group members access to food that they have not caught themselves may incentivize them to attend kill sites, and thereby reduce the risk of the pack being ambushed by their competitors there or losing the kill to scavengers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicellularity has evolved numerous times across the tree of life. One of the most fundamental distinctions among multicellular organisms is their developmental mode: whether they stay together during growth and develop clonally, or form a group through the aggregation of free-living cells. The five eukaryotic lineages to independently evolve complex multicellularity (animals, plants, red algae, brown algae, and fungi) all develop clonally. This fact has largely been explained through social evolutionary theory's lens of cooperation and conflict, where cheating within non-clonal groups has the potential to undermine multicellular adaptation. Multicellular organisms that form groups via aggregation could mitigate the costs of cheating by evolving kin recognition systems that prevent the formation of chimeric groups. However, recent work suggests that selection for the ability to aggregate quickly may constrain the evolution of highly specific kin recognition, sowing the seeds for persistent evolutionary conflict. Importantly, other features of aggregative multicellular life cycles may independently act to constrain the evolution of complex multicellularity. All known aggregative multicellular organisms are facultatively multicellular (as opposed to obligately multicellular), allowing unicellular-level adaptation to environmental selection. Because they primarily exist in a unicellular state, it may be difficult for aggregative multicellular organisms to evolve multicellular traits that carry pleiotropic cell-level fitness costs. Thus, even in the absence of social conflict, aggregative multicellular organisms may have limited potential for the evolution of complex multicellularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Spiteful behaviors occur when an actor harms its own fitness to inflict harm on the fitness of others. Several papers have predicted that spite can be favored in sufficiently small populations, even when the harming behavior is directed indiscriminately at others. However, it is not clear that truly spiteful behavior could be favored without the harm being directed at a subset of social partners with relatively low genetic similarity to the actor (kin discrimination, causing a negative relatedness between actor and harmed recipient). Using mathematical models, we show that (1) the evolution of spite requires kin discrimination; (2) previous models suggesting indiscriminate spite involve scenarios where the actor gains a direct feedback benefit from harming others, and so the harming is selfish rather than spiteful; (3) extreme selfishness can be favored in small populations (or, more generally, under local competition) because this is where the direct feedback benefit of harming is greatest.

Despite the prominence of kin selection as a framework for understanding the evolution of sociality, many animal groups are comprised of unrelated individuals. These non-kin systems provide valuable models that can illuminate drivers of social evolution beyond indirect fitness benefits. Within the Hymenoptera, whose highly related eusocial groups have long been cornerstones of kin selection theory, groups may form even when indirect fitness benefits for helpers are low or absent. These non-kin groups are widespread and abundant, yet have received relatively little attention. We review the diversity and organization of non-kin sociality across the Hymenoptera, particularly among the communal bees and polygynous ants and wasps. Further, we discuss common drivers of sociality across these groups, with a particular focus on ecological factors. Ecological contexts that favor non-kin sociality include those dominated by resource scarcity or competition, climatic stressors, predation and parasitism, and/or physiological constraints associated with reproduction and resource exploitation. Finally, we situate Hymenopteran non-kin sociality within a broader biological context by extending insights from these systems across diverse taxa, especially the social vertebrates. Non-kin social groups thus provide unique demonstrations of the importance of ecological factors in mediating the evolutionary transition from solitary to group living.

Kin selection theory has dominated our understanding of the evolution of group living. However, many animal groups form among non-relatives, which gain no indirect fitness benefits from cooperating with nestmates. In this study, we characterized the relatedness and inter-nest migration behavior of the facultatively social carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina. Nesting constraints due to costly nest construction in this species give rise to intense intraspecific competition over access to existing nests. We used mark-recapture techniques to characterize patterns of dispersal and nest relocation within a nesting aggregation of spatially clustered nests. Two-thirds of bees relocated at least once during the reproductive season, likely to seek reproductive opportunities in another nest. This fluid nest membership creates opportunities for association among non-relatives. To assess the effects of this dynamic nesting behavior on group relatedness, we used microsatellite analysis to estimate relative relatedness within and between nests in the aggregation. We found that relatedness was variable across sampling years, but that in many cases nestmates were no more related to one another than they were to non-nestmate bees in the population. Together, these results suggest that group composition in X. sonorina may result from strategies to maximize direct fitness. This study supports the hypothesis that factors beyond kinship, such as ecological constraints, are likely to drive group formation in this species.

Kin selection theory and multilevel selection theory are distinct approaches to explaining the evolution of social traits. The latter claims that it is useful to regard selection as a process that can occur on multiple levels of organisation such as the level of individuals and the level of groups. This is reflected in a decomposition of fitness into an individual component and a group component. This multilevel view is central to understanding and characterising evolutionary transitions in individuality, e.g., from unicellular life to multicellular organisms, but currently suffers from the lack of a consistent, quantifiable measure. Specifically, the two major statistical tools to determine the coefficients of such a decomposition, the multilevel Price equation and contextual analysis, are inconsistent and may disagree on whether group selection is present. Here we show that the reason for the discrepancies is that underlying the multilevel Price equation and contextual analysis are two non-equivalent causal models for the generation of individual fitness effects (thus leaving different “remainders” explained by group effects). While the multilevel Price equation assumes that the individual effect of a trait determines an individual's relative success within a group, contextual analysis posits that the individual effect is context-independent. Since these different assumptions reflect claims about the causal structure of the system, the correct approach cannot be determined on general theoretical or statistical grounds but must be identified by experimental intervention. We outline interventions that reveal the underlying causal structure and thus facilitate choosing the appropriate approach. We note that kin selection theory with its focus on the individual is immune to such inconsistency because it does not address causal structure with respect to levels of organisation. In contrast, our analysis of the two approaches to measuring group selection demonstrates that multilevel selection theory adds meaningful (falsifiable) causal structure to explain the sources of individual fitness and thereby constitutes a proper refinement of kin selection theory. Taking such refined causal structure into account seems indispensable for studying evolutionary transitions in individuality because these transitions are characterised by changes in the selection pressures that act on the respective levels.

Traditional medicines embody knowledge on medicinal plants that has been accumulated through cultural evolution over millennia. In the latter half of the 20th century, two approaches to medicinal plant research have been established: the "Bench to Bedside" and the "Bedside to Bench" approaches which serve primarily for the development of more efficient therapeutics. Here, we propose a third, novel approach: from "Tradition to Pathogenesis" which aims to understand the pathogenesis of diseases based on the cultural evolution of their respective empirical treatments. We analyse multiple examples of diseases where the acting mechanism of traditional treatments across multiple cultures points to the pathogenesis of the respective disease. E.g., many cultures traditionally treat rheumatism with anti-bacterial botanical drugs, which is at odds with our current understanding that rheumatism is an aseptic inflammation. Furthermore, gastric ailments have traditionally been treated with anti-infectious botanical drugs indicating local infections, as demonstrated by the discovery of Helicobacter pylori as a common cause of gastric ulcer. Understanding traditional treatments can thus help to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex social play is well-documented across many animals. During play, animals often use signals that facilitate beneficial interactions and reduce potential costs, such as escalation to aggression. Although greater focus has been given to visual play signals, here we demonstrate that vocalisations constitute a widespread mode of play signalling across species. Our review indicates that vocal play signals are usually inconspicuous, although loud vocalisations, which suggest a broadcast function, are present in humans and some other species. Spontaneous laughter in humans shares acoustic and functional characteristics with play vocalisations across many species, but most notably with other great apes. Play vocalisations in primates and other mammals often include sounds of panting, supporting the theory that human laughter evolved from an auditory cue of laboured breathing during play. Human social complexity allowed laughter to evolve from a play-specific vocalisation into a sophisticated pragmatic signal that interacts with a large suite of other multimodal social behaviours in both intragroup and intergroup contexts. This review provides a foundation for detailed comparative analyses of play vocalisations across diverse taxa, which can shed light on the form and function of human laughter and, in turn, help us better understand the evolution of human social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between the evolution of advanced sociality and cognition has been an important concept across fields and taxonomic boundaries. However, in many study systems, ecological and phylogenetic confounds impair evolutionary inferences drawn when comparing social organization. Here, we highlight the value of the shell-dwelling Lamprologine cichlids of Lake Tanganyika in studies of cognitive and social evolution. These species show differences in social organization, both within and across species, but otherwise exhibit remarkable similarities in their ecology and life history. We focus on the ecological and social attributes of 15 Lamprologine cichlids that live in permanent association with empty gastropod shells, often in syntopy and with largely overlapping ecological niches. We then discuss difficulties with terminology and categorization of social organization, outlining current and emerging methodologies to address these limitations. Our goal is twofold: (i) to gather available empirical evidence on the behaviour, life history, and ecology of shell-dwelling Lamprologine cichlids, highlighting their potential in comparative studies of cognition and evolution, and (ii) to stimulate debate and critical appraisal of current terminology and categorizations of social structure, ideally leading to more precise and empirically standardized definitions of sociality in cichlids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animals respond to competition among kin for critical breeding resources in two ways: avoidance of direct fitness costs via dispersal of siblings to breed separately, and formation of kin-based societies in which subordinates offset direct fitness costs of breeding competition via altruism and increased indirect fitness. In the facultatively social eastern carpenter bee, nests are a critical breeding resource in perpetually short supply, leading to strong competition among females. Observations of individually marked and genotyped females in conditions of high and low resource competition demonstrate that competition leads to resource sharing and group nesting. However, in contrast to almost all known animal societies, females avoid nesting with relatives, and disperse from their natal nests to join social groups of non-relatives. This is the first example of a structured insect society with cooperation nestmates, the majority of which are unrelated; thus cooperation is more likely based on selection for direct, rather than indirect fitness. By forming social groups of non-kin, females avoid the indirect fitness costs of kin competition among sisters, yet increase their chances of successful reproduction, and thus direct fitness, when forming colonies of non-relatives.

The evolution of eusociality in social insects, such as termites, ants, and some bees and wasps, has been regarded as a major evolutionary transition (MET). Yet, there is some debate whether all species qualify. Here, we argue that worker sterility is a decisive criterion to determine whether species have passed a MET (= superorganisms), or not. When workers are sterile, reproductive interests align among group members as individual fitness is transferred to the colony level. Division of labour among cooperating units is a major driver that favours the evolution of METs across all biological scales. Many METs are characterised by a differentiation into reproductive versus maintenance functions. In social insects, the queen specialises on reproduction while workers take over maintenance functions such as food provisioning. Such division of labour allows specialisation and it reshapes life history trade-offs among cooperating units. For instance, individuals within colonies of social insects can overcome the omnipresent fecundity/longevity trade-off, which limits reproductive success in organisms, when increased fecundity shortens lifespan. Social insect queens (particularly in superorganismal species) can reach adult lifespans of several decades and are among the most fecund terrestrial animals. The resulting enormous reproductive output may contribute to explain why some genera of social insects became so successful. Indeed, superorganismal ant lineages have more species than those that have not passed a MET. We conclude that the release from life history constraints at the individual level is a important, yet understudied, factor across METs to explain their evolutionary success.