Cooperation, leadership and numerical assessment of opponents in conflicts between groups of feral dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)

This thesis attempted to assess the adaptive value of the behaviour of feral dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) by using such species as a model for testing predictions based on evolutionary theories. In particular, the following topics concerning dogs’ behaviour were examined: intergroup agonistic behaviour in relation to numerical assessment of opponents, cooperative behaviour during intergroup conflicts and decision making processes during collective activity changes. The research focused mainly on three dogs packs living in a suburban environment whose members were not socialized to human beings although subsisted mostly on food provided by “volunteer dog caretakers”. Game theoretical arguments predict that in conflicts between social groups competitors should adjust their agonistic behaviour according to the relative size of the interacting groups. In the feral dogs studied, the overall probability of at least one pack member approaching aggressively opponents increased significantly with decreasing the ratio of the number of opponents to that of the present pack members. Moreover, a retreat response by more than half pack members was more likely to be elicited the higher the ratio of the number of opponents to that of the present pack members. However, such a ratio had no significant effect on the aggressive/retreat response of dogs when both the interacting packs comprised more than 4 individuals. A higher asymmetry in size between the interacting packs was actually required to make optimal decisions about the aggressive/retreat response when numbers larger than 4 were involved, but not with smaller numbers. This results suggest that feral dogs are able to assess relative group size and to adjust their agonistic behaviour accordingly. Moreover, two different cognitive mechanisms, one of these based on noisy mental magnitudes, may be involved in such numerical assessment. Social animals need to reach consensus decisions about the nature and timing of group activities in order to maintain group cohesion. Group members which contribute more to the decision outcome are termed leaders. Patterns of distribution of leadership within social groups are expected to be influenced by group size, age, gender and social relationships. In all feral dog packs studied, but the smallest, a limited number of habitual leaders made group decisions about activity changes. In one large pack the number of habitual leaders decreased after such pack underwent a drastic reduction in size. Individuals which behaved more frequently as leaders were those which received active submissions during greeting cerimonies from a higher number of partners. The results are consistent with the view that animal collective movements may result from the need by low-ranking individuals to maintain close proximity with specific valuable social partners. Unravelling factors which promote individual participation in costly cooperative activities may help to explain how cooperation may evolve in animal societies despite the consistent defection of specific individuals. In the feral dogs studied, the individual level of cooperation during intergroup conflicts seemed to decrease with decreasing the difficulty of winning: the proportion of cooperating animals decreased when there were more companions present; the individual probability of cooperating decreased significantly, in one pack, when such pack outnumbered opponents; dogs belonging to the smallest pack tended to be more cooperative than those belonging to larger groups. Such pattern may be consistent with the view that individuals cooperate to maximize individual mutualistic benefits. Contrary to the predictions of the handicap hypothesis, social prestige (measured as the amount of active submissions received) did not correlate with cooperation. The individual level of cooperation was, instead, positivey affected by the number of affiliative partners. In conclusion, the overall results of this thesis suggest that, despite a very long history as domesticated animals, feral dogs may still match some of the predictions based on evolutionary theories

TRANSMISSION & THE INTERNET: THE CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE OF A TRADITIONAL MUSICAL COMMUNITY

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/2385 on 14.03.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis is a study of the performance, interpretation and transmission practices of traditional instrumental musicians in Scotland and Ireland. Extensive original research was undertaken over a period of four years including a survey of current transmission practices amongst traditional musicians from Britain and Ireland. Both preservation and the study of change are vital elements in maintaining a flourishing oral culture. However, my focus is on definition. The study is an attempt to clarify the many contemporary and often conflicting expressions of musical experience that constitute part of the oral tradition in Scotland and Ireland. By examining the work of the practitioners of this music it is possible to see that innovative and diverse approaches to arrangement, performance, education, transmission and reception are generating clearer ways of defining cultural values within the community. The emergence of a clearer set of definitions will help practitioners establish a grammar from which interactions with other cultural and socio-economic models can be undertaken. This in turn may help reduce perceived threats and alleviate the fears of some members of the traditional music community and clarify for those from other musical, academic and economic cultural groups the importance of acknowledging differences between the values of disparate systems of exchange. In terms of research methodology it is clear that, in the case of a subject area whose very existence depends on the conscious experience of individuals, we must accept the role that our specific and subjective contact with the world plays in the study of oral transmission. We must also reassess the value of oral traditions in their own right, away from textual analyses. Within an academic setting this approach must be validated as part of a system that is geared towards the understanding of all aspects of western cultural practices

Cognitive and motivational underpinnings of early helping behavior

Frühes Hilfeverhalten scheint eine einfache Handlung zu sein, es ist jedoch ein komplexes Phänomen. Warum beginnen Säuglinge schon früh in ihrem zweiten Lebensjahr anderen zu helfen, zum Beispiel, wenn diese ein Objekt nicht erreichen können, nach dem sie sich ausstrecken? Wie nehmen sie Situationen wahr in denen andere ein Bedürfnis haben, wie verstehen sie ihre eigene Rolle in diesen Situationen (kognitive Grundlagen) und was motiviert ihre Hilfsbereitschaft in diesen Situationen (motivationale Grundlagen)? In dieser Synopse, bette ich die Forschungsarbeiten meiner Dissertation in einen breiteren empirischen und theoretischen Kontext, ein. Hierzu organisiere ich aktuelle Themen und Forschungsarbeiten entlang vier allgemeiner Faktoren, die das frühe Hilfeverhalten beeinflussen. Diese umfassen sozial-kognitive Funktionen (z. B. das Verständnis über die Hilfsbedürftigkeit anderer und über die eigenen Fähigkeiten, helfen zu können), die Sozialisation im kulturellen Kontext (z. B. die mütterliche Vermittlung alltäglicher Aufgaben), Einflüsse der sozialen Situation (z. B. vorherige Interaktionen mit der bedürftigen Person) und die erwarteten Konsequenzen früher Hilfehandlungen (z. B. Lob und Dank durch die Eltern). Schließlich wende ich mich den biologischen Grundlagen frühen Hilfeverhaltens zu. Einerseits, wieso sich Hilfsbereitschaft evolutionär entwickelt haben könnte und andererseits, wie früher Hilfeverhalten in proximalen biologischen Mechanismen verankert sein könnte. Dies bringt mich zu dem Schluss, dass, auch wenn die Frage nach der Existenz einer frühen, altruistischen Motivation ungelöst bleibt, frühes Hilfeverhalten tief in unserer sozialen Natur verankert ist.Infants’ helping behavior appears to be a simple action, but it is a complex phenomenon. Why do infants spontaneously start to help others at the beginning of their second year of life, for example, when another individual is reaching for an object that she cannot reach? Put differently, how do infants perceive situations and their own role in situations in which another individual is in need for help (cognitive underpinnings) and what motivates them to engage helpfully in these situations (motivational underpinnings)? In this synopsis, I embed the empirical works of my dissertation in a broader empirical and theoretical context. In particular, I will organize recent topics and research about infants’ helping behavior along four general factors that influence infants helping behavior in a certain situation. These comprise socio-cognitive functions (e.g., understanding others’ needs and the own competencies to engage helpfully), the socialization within the cultural context (e.g., maternal scaffolding of chores), influences of the social situation (e.g., recent social interactions with the recipient), and expected consequences of helpful behavior (e.g., praise and thanking by the parents). I will then discuss the biological foundations of infants’ early motivation to help. That is, why helping behavior may have evolved and how early helping behavior may be grounded in proximate biological mechanisms. I will conclude that, although the debate about infants’ altruistic tendencies remains unresolved, early helping behavior is certainly deeply grounded in our social human nature

A Companion to Naturalism

Offering a engaging and accessible portrait of the current state of the field, A Companion to Naturaslim shows students how to think about the relation between Philosophy and Science, and why is both essencial and fascinating to do so. All the authors in this collection reconsider the core questions in Philosophical Naturalism in light of the challenges raised in Contemporary Philosophy. They explore how philosophical questions are connected to vigorous current debates - including complex questions about metaphysics, semantics, religion, intentionality, pragmatism, reductionism, ontology, metaethics, mind, science, belief and delusion, among others – showing how these issues, and philosopher’s attempts to answer them, matter in the Philosophy. In this sense, this collection is also compelling and illuminating reading for philosophers, philosophy students, and anyone interested in Naturalism and their place in current discussions

Common minds, uncommon thoughts: a philosophical anthropological investigation of uniquely human creative behavior, with an emphasis on artistic ability, religious reflection, and scientific study

The aim of this dissertation is to create a naturalistic philosophical picture of creative capacities that are specific to our species, focusing on artistic ability, religious reflection, and scientific study. By integrating data from diverse domains (evolutionary and developmental psychology, cognitive anthropology and archeology, neuroscience) within a philosophical anthropological framework, I have presented a cognitive and evolutionary approach to the question of why humans, but not other animals engage in such activities. Through an application of cognitive and evolutionary perspectives to the study of these behaviors, I have sought to provide a more solid footing for philosophical anthropological discussions of uniquely human behavior. In particular, I have argued that art, religion and science, which are usually seen as achievements that are quite remote from ordinary modes of reasoning, are subserved by evolved cognitive processes that serve functions in everyday cognitive tasks, that arise early and spontaneously in cognitive development, that are shared cross-culturally, and that have evolved in response to selective pressures in our ancestral past. These mundane cognitive processes provide a measuring rod with which we can assess a diversity of cultural phenomena; they form a unified explanatory framework to approach human culture. I have argued that we can explain uncommon thoughts (exceptional human achievements, such as art, religion and science) in terms of interactions between common minds (ordinary human minds that share their knowledge through cultural transmission). This dissertation is subdivided into four parts. Part I outlines the problem of human uniqueness, examining theories on how humans conceptualize the world, and what their mental tool box looks like. Part II discusses the evolutionary and cognitive origins of human artistic behavior. Part III focuses on the cognitive science of religion, especially on how it can be applied to the reasoning of theologians and philosophers of religion. Part IV considers the cognitive basis of scientific practice

Compositional Ethnomusicology and the Tahitian Musical Landscape: Towards Meta-Sustainability through Creative Practice Research Informed by Ethnographic Fieldwork

Taking the contemporary musical landscape of Tahiti as a case study, this thesis jointly in ethnomusicology and composition combines an ethnographic and ethnomusicological enquiry with a practice-based artistic research applied to ethnomusicology. It contributes to a greater understanding and appreciation of issues surrounding contemporary indigenous cultural identity and musical change, and includes scholarly and field-informed collaborative musical works. This research contends that the creative exploration of musical syntheses represents an effective alternative to processes of cultural revival through engagement with an indigenous community. It relies on the concept of a sustainability extended to the global cultural environment, which is termed meta-sustainability. In allowing aspects or elements of Tahitian music to be transmitted by way of a repository of global intangible culture, it enacts a proactive and cosmopolitanist response to perceptions of out-of-control globalization processes. The first volume of the thesis introduces compositional ethnomusicology, an emergent paradigm aiming to contribute to the meta-sustainability of musical tradition, and which articulates ethnomusicological methods with creative practice. Subsequently, this volume sets out an ethnographic description of the contemporary Tahitian musical landscape and its dynamics of change, depicting it as a broad, complex system of overlapping fields. Grounded in the related findings, the second volume delivers substantial artistic research outcomes. These fieldwork-informed musical fictions demonstrate the possibilities of a new aesthetics for the meta-sustainable development of Tahitian musical tradition. They include on the one hand a folio of six pieces for small ensembles bridging Tahitian musical heritage with jazz and improvisation, on the other hand an operatic work in Tahitian language