Understanding the mutualistic interaction between greater honeyguides and four co-existing human cultures in northern Tanzania

Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) eat wax, and to obtain it, they guide people to bees' nests by flying from one tree to another while giving a distinctive chattering call, in the direction of a wild bees' nest. This relationship is mutually beneficial: the hunters harvest valuable honey, and the honeyguides feed on the beeswax leftover from the harvest. In northern Tanzania, multiple human cultural groups live in close proximity in the same geographical area, and most of them practice honey-hunting with the help of honeyguides. Yet, they may differ in cultural traits that determine their relationship with honeyguides. To map this, I visited 12 villages to interview 129 people from the Hadzabe, Ndorobo, Maasai, Sonjo and Datoga cultural groups about their honey-hunting activities and interactions with honeyguides. Specifically, this thesis investigates (i) how important honey and honeyguides are to each human cultural group; (ii) the sounds used by each group to communicate with honeyguides, to test whether honeyguides may have to learn multiple human ‘languages' in the same geographical area; (iii) the traditions of each cultural group concerning whether and how to reward the honeyguide after it has shown them a bees' nest; (iv) the methods used by different cultures to subdue the bees, and whether some of these are more sustainable than the use of fire; (v) each cultural group's ownership traditions concerning wild bees' nests, which might incentivise sustainable honey-hunting practices; and finally, (iv) the likely impact of cultural change for the future of the honeyguide-human mutualism. Overall, my results suggest that (i) the human-honeyguide mutualism still thrives in this region, particularly in the Hadzabe and Ndorobo cultural groups who do not practice bee-keeping; (ii) people from each culture are largely consistent in the calls they use to communicate with honeyguides, but that these calls differ between cultures (but are most similar between the Maasai and Ndorobo people who are culturally close despite many differences in lifestyle); (iii) many cultures deliberately ‘keep the honeyguide hungry' so it shows them more bees' nests, by either concealing the wax (particularly Hadzabe people) or by pretending not to see the bees' nest the bird shows them (particularly Ndorobo people); (iv) people commonly use methods besides fire to subdue bees, specifically because these methods are less harmful to bees, and particularly a fungus called ‘Engishimui' (Scleroderma verrucosum); (v) only the Ndorobo currently have ownership traditions associated with wild bees' nests; and (vi) cultural changes such as bee-keeping were sometimes reported to underlie declines in humanhoney-guide mutualism, but that environmental deterioration of bee habitat because of climate change and pastoralist activities seem to be the biggest threats to the still very active Hadzabe and Ndorobo honey-hunting cultures

Current, August 22, 2005

https://irl.umsl.edu/current2000s/1266/thumbnail.jp

Aurora, 1992

https://commons.emich.edu/aurora/1098/thumbnail.jp

Interpreting language-learning data

This book provides a forum for methodological discussions emanating from researchers engaged in studying how individuals acquire an additional language. Whereas publications in the field of second language acquisition generally report on empirical studies with relatively little space dedicated to questions of method, the current book gave authors the opportunity to more fully develop a discussion piece around a methodological issue in connection with the interpretation of language-learning data. The result is a set of seven thought-provoking contributions from researchers with diverse interests. Three main topics are addressed in these chapters: the role of native-speaker norms in second-language analyses, the impact of epistemological stance on experimental design and/or data interpretation, and the challenges of transcription and annotation of language-learning data, with a focus on data ambiguity. Authors expand on these crucial issues, reflect on best practices, and provide in many instances concrete examples of the impact they have on data interpretation

Multi-verb constructions in Eastern Indonesia

Constructions with multiple verbal elements have posed a long-standing challenge to linguistic analysis. Most studies of verb serialisation have been confined to single languages rather than looking at crosslinguistic patterns. This book provides the first in-depth account into the areal characteristics of multi-verb constructions (MVCs) in Eastern Indonesia. By collating published data as well as corpus data from 32 Austronesian and Papuan languages, the study traces commonalities as well as differences in MVC use across the area. Analysis takes place on two levels: first, the morpho-syntactic behaviour of MVCs is taken into account. As this plane of analysis arguably does not provide any meaningful insights into why MVCs are construed and used the way they are, a semantic account of MVCs is presented. One of the main hypotheses advanced in this book is that the crucial driving force behind multi-verb construals is semantic interaction between the verbs, leading to four principal techniques of event formation: merging, staging, modification, and free juxtaposition. The study aims at showing that while all four techniques are, to varying degrees, in use in Eastern Indonesian languages, the morpho-syntactic output does not necessarily mirror these underlying differences in event conception. Applying insights from Davidsonian event semantics as well as from predicate decomposition, the book provides a model of event interaction that helps to explain differences in MVC behaviour such as issues in constituent order or operator assignment

Multi-verb constructions in Eastern Indonesia (Volume 28)

Constructions with multiple verbal elements have posed a long-standing challenge to linguistic analysis. Most studies of verb serialisation have been confined to single languages rather than looking at crosslinguistic patterns. This book provides the first in-depth account into the areal characteristics of multi-verb constructions (MVCs) in Eastern Indonesia. By collating published data as well as corpus data from 32 Austronesian and Papuan languages, the study traces commonalities as well as differences in MVC use across the area. Analysis takes place on two levels: first, the morpho-syntactic behaviour of MVCs is taken into account. As this plane of analysis arguably does not provide any meaningful insights into why MVCs are construed and used the way they are, a semantic account of MVCs is presented. One of the main hypotheses advanced in this book is that the crucial driving force behind multi-verb construals is semantic interaction between the verbs, leading to four principal techniques of event formation: merging, staging, modification, and free juxtaposition. The study aims at showing that while all four techniques are, to varying degrees, in use in Eastern Indonesian languages, the morpho-syntactic output does not necessarily mirror these underlying differences in event conception. Applying insights from Davidsonian event semantics as well as from predicate decomposition, the book provides a model of event interaction that helps to explain differences in MVC behaviour such as issues in constituent order or operator assignment

Life-Coaching für private Lebensthemen : Theoriebasiertheit und Auswirkungen auf die psychische Gesundheit

Hintergrund: Life-Coaching ist ein ungeschützter Beruf, der aufgrund der Leistungs- und Selbstoptimierungsgesellschaft an Popularität gewinnt. Er kann sich dank geringerer Stigmatisierung als Ergänzung zur Psychotherapie eignen. Die Forschungsbasis ist noch beschränkt, jedoch gibt es erste Erkenntnisse zur Wirksamkeit auf die psychische Gesundheit. Fragestellung: Gibt es Nachweise für die Wirksamkeit von auf theoretische Konzepte gestützten Life- Coaching-Interventionen im privaten Lebenskontext psychisch gesunder Erwachsener in Industriestaaten, deren psychisches Wohlbefinden dadurch gesteigert werden soll? Methode: Anhand einer systematischen Literaturrecherche in fachübergreifenden Datenbanken wurden Wirksamkeitsstudien, Studien zur Theoriebildung und theoretische Artikel identifiziert und narrativ aufbereitet. Ergebnisse: Aus den 22 gefundenen Artikeln geht hervor, dass in der Life-Coaching-Praxis psychologische, philosophische und andragogische Theorien benutzt werden. Life- Coaching kann sich positiv auf die psychische Gesundheit auswirken und die Lebensbewältigungsressourcen fördern, es mangelt jedoch noch an qualitativ hochwertigen Wirkungsnachweisen. Schlussfolgerungen: Durch eine verbesserte Zusammenarbeit von Forschung, Praxis und verschiedenen Fachgebieten kann die Professionalisierung gefördert, die Qualität des Life- Coaching-Angebots erhöht und eine breitere Zugänglichkeit erreicht werden

Interpreting language-learning data

This book provides a forum for methodological discussions emanating from researchers engaged in studying how individuals acquire an additional language. Whereas publications in the field of second language acquisition generally report on empirical studies with relatively little space dedicated to questions of method, the current book gave authors the opportunity to more fully develop a discussion piece around a methodological issue in connection with the interpretation of language-learning data. The result is a set of seven thought-provoking contributions from researchers with diverse interests. Three main topics are addressed in these chapters: the role of native-speaker norms in second-language analyses, the impact of epistemological stance on experimental design and/or data interpretation, and the challenges of transcription and annotation of language-learning data, with a focus on data ambiguity. Authors expand on these crucial issues, reflect on best practices, and provide in many instances concrete examples of the impact they have on data interpretation