Niche: A Productive Guide for Use in the Analysis of Cultural Complexity

THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES some of the interpretative implications of a failure to consider the potential causes for organized variability among cultural systems. The niche concept is considered useful when exploring organizational similarities and differences among cultural systems and central to a productive discussion regarding the differences between living systems that are biologically as opposed to culturally organized. Some interesting issues regarding systems complexity are focused upon through a discussion of mutualism and what is implied by the term when students of cultural systems use the idea

Las prácticas funerarias: su estudio y su potencial.

Se analizan ampliamente las explicaciones sobre las costumbres funerarias dadas anteriormente por antropólogos, a la vez que las hipótesis y las interpretaciones que de ellas se derivan. Unas y otras se ha demostrado que son inadecuadas tanto desde el punto de vista de la teoría de los sistemas como desde el examen detallado del registro empírico. Un estudio multicultural elaborado según los datos de la Human Relations Area Files2 (HRAF) muestra que existen relaciones entre las evaluaciones de la variedad de rituales funerarios y la complejidad estructural. Se descubrió que tanto el número como las formas específicas de la dimensión de la persona social, comúnmente reconocidas en el ritual funerario, varían significativamente según la complejidad organizativa de la sociedad, tomando como baremo las diferentes formas de las prácticas de subsistencia. Además, las formas que adoptan las diferencias en el ritual funerario varían significativamente en función de la dimensión del sujeto social al que representan. Así pues, muchas de las conjeturas de la arqueología contemporánea y de la interpretación relacionada con los procesos de cambio cultural, diferenciación cultural y la presencia de costumbres funerarias específicas son inadecuadas, al igual que lo son las hipótesis y supuestos conceptuales que subyacen en tales nociones. Las inferencias acerca de las presupuestas «relaciones », comparadas directamente con las listas de rasgos obtenidas de entre las manifestaciones arqueológicas, son inútiles sin el conocimiento de las propiedades organizativas de los sistemas culturales pertinentes.Se analizan ampliamente las explicaciones sobre las costumbres funerarias dadas anteriormente por antropólogos, a la vez que las hipótesis y las interpretaciones que de ellas se derivan. Unas y otras se ha demostrado que son inadecuadas tanto desde el punto de vista de la teoría de los sistemas como desde el examen detallado del registro empírico. Un estudio multicultural elaborado según los datos de la Human Relations Area Files2 (HRAF) muestra que existen relaciones entre las evaluaciones de la variedad de rituales funerarios y la complejidad estructural. Se descubrió que tanto el número como las formas específicas de la dimensión de la persona social, comúnmente reconocidas en el ritual funerario, varían significativamente según la complejidad organizativa de la sociedad, tomando como baremo las diferentes formas de las prácticas de subsistencia. Además, las formas que adoptan las diferencias en el ritual funerario varían significativamente en función de la dimensión del sujeto social al que representan. Así pues, muchas de las conjeturas de la arqueología contemporánea y de la interpretación relacionada con los procesos de cambio cultural, diferenciación cultural y la presencia de costumbres funerarias específicas son inadecuadas, al igual que lo son las hipótesis y supuestos conceptuales que subyacen en tales nociones. Las inferencias acerca de las presupuestas «relaciones », comparadas directamente con las listas de rasgos obtenidas de entre las manifestaciones arqueológicas, son inútiles sin el conocimiento de las propiedades organizativas de los sistemas culturales pertinentes.The explanations of burial customs provided by previous anthropologists are examined at length together with the assumptions and data orientations that lay behind them. Both the assumptions and explanations are shown to be inadequate from the point of view of systems theory and from a detailed examination of the empirical record. A cross-cultural survey drawn from the Human Relations Area Files shows that associations do exist between measures of mortuary ritual variety and structural complexity. It was found that both the number and specific forms of the dimensions of the social persona commonly recognized in mortuary ritual vary significantly with the organizational complexity of the society as measured by different forms of subsistence practice. Moreover, the forms that differentiations in mortuary ritual take vary significantly with the dimensions of the social persona symbolized. Hence, much of contemporary archaeological conjecture and interpretation regarding processes of cultural change, cultural differentiation, and the presence of specific burial customs is inadequate as well as the ideational propositions and assumptions underlying these notions. Inferences about the presumed «relationships» compared directly from trait lists obtaining among archaeological manifestations are useless without knowledge of the organizational properties of the pertinent cultural systems

Niche: A Productive Guide for Use in the Analysis of Cultural Complexity

THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES some of the interpretative implications of a failure to consider the potential causes for organized variability among cultural systems. The niche concept is considered useful when exploring organizational similarities and differences among cultural systems and central to a productive discussion regarding the differences between living systems that are biologically as opposed to culturally organized. Some interesting issues regarding systems complexity are focused upon through a discussion of mutualism and what is implied by the term when students of cultural systems use the idea

Flow energizers. Task A

The effects of a propeller slipstream on the wing laminar boundary are being investigated. Hot-wire velocity sensor measurements have been performed in flight and in a wind tunnel. It is shown that the boundary layer cycles between a laminar state and a turbulent state at the propeller blade passage rate. The cyclic length of the turbulent state increases with decreasing laminar stability. Analyses of the time-varying velocity profiles show the turbulent state to lie in a transition region between fully laminar and fully turbulent. The observed cyclic boundary layer has characteristics similar to relaminarizing flow and laminar flow with external turbulence

Style, Function and Cultural Transmission

Recent evolutionary approaches to the understanding of lithic variability take us back to long-standing issues in lithic studies to do with the claimed contrast between style and function and the Binford-Bordes debate of the 1960s concerning the factors that affect inter-assemblage variation. In fact, the style and function contrast is an unhelpful one, not least when considering the question of convergence. Taking the definition of style as ‘a way of doing’, all functions are carried out in locally specific ways that have a transmission history, although the extent to which the history of the attributes relevant to the function have been subject to random drift and innovation patterns, as opposed to selection, will vary. Moreover, in a subtractive technology like lithics the extent to which a transmission signal will be visible in an attribute like the angle of a cutting edge is unclear. The contrasting view is that, in the case of lithics, functional requirements will always call into existence the technical innovations to satisfy them, which in any case are not that difficult to find. The paper addresses these and related issues with reference to previous work by Shennan and colleagues on the use of material culture to identify within and between group variation, the extent to which isolation-by-distance in space and time can account for the similarities and differences between assemblages, and the role of phylogenetic methods

Firewood and hearths: Middle Palaeolithic woody taxa distribution from El Salt, stratigraphic unit Xb (Eastern Iberia)

Spatial analyses of Palaeolithic sites typically defined by hearth-related assemblages have been mostly based on lithic and faunal remains. By using spatial analysis methods in conjunction with analytical units with higher temporal resolution than typical stratigraphic units, synchronic and diachronic relationships between artifacts deposited during successive occupation events have been elucidated. Spatial analyses applied to archaeobotanical remains are scarce, and when available, are typically focused on carpological remains (seeds and fruits). The lack of spatial indicators among anthracological remains hampers obtaining significant data linked to the relationships established between the combustion features and scattered charcoal fragments recovered from excavated occupation surfaces. To address this problem, the charcoal assemblage from El Salt Stratigraphic Unit (SU) Xb (Archaeosedimentary Facies Association 2 [AFA 2]) is analyzed using spatial analysis methods. Results suggest that the integration of anthracological remains into a palimpsest dissection analyses is vital to better understand the relationship between combustion structures and activity areas. These results highlight the utility of spatial and statistical methods as important tools for future anthracological analyses to provide meaningful information related to taxa distribution and the last firewood used in combustion structures

An Anti-Human ICAM-1 Antibody Inhibits Rhinovirus-Induced Exacerbations of Lung Inflammation

Human rhinoviruses (HRV) cause the majority of common colds and acute exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Effective therapies are urgently needed, but no licensed treatments or vaccines currently exist. Of the 100 identified serotypes, ∼90% bind domain 1 of human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as their cellular receptor, making this an attractive target for development of therapies; however, ICAM-1 domain 1 is also required for host defence and regulation of cell trafficking, principally via its major ligand LFA-1. Using a mouse anti-human ICAM-1 antibody (14C11) that specifically binds domain 1 of human ICAM-1, we show that 14C11 administered topically or systemically prevented entry of two major groups of rhinoviruses, HRV16 and HRV14, and reduced cellular inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokine induction and virus load in vivo. 14C11 also reduced cellular inflammation and Th2 cytokine/chemokine production in a model of major group HRV-induced asthma exacerbation. Interestingly, 14C11 did not prevent cell adhesion via human ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions in vitro, suggesting the epitope targeted by 14C11 was specific for viral entry. Thus a human ICAM-1 domain-1-specific antibody can prevent major group HRV entry and induction of airway inflammation in vivo

Response of Continuous Maize with Stover Removal to Living Mulches

Constraints to maize (Zea mays L.) stover biomass harvest may be mitigated by using a living mulch (LM) to offset C exports and control soil erosion. Living mulches can compete with the main crop for resources. The objective of this research was to quantify competitive effects of LM management systems grown in continuous maize with stover removal. Maize was planted into creeping red fescue (CF) (Festuca rubra L.), Kentucky bluegrass (KB) (Poa pratensis L.), and a mixture of CF and white clover (Trifolium repens L.) (MX) LMs in 2008, 2009, and 2010 near Ames, IA. Management treatments were fall strip-tillage (ST) and no-tillage (NT), with either a pre-planting paraquat burn-down followed by two glyphosate bands (PQ) or glyphosate bands only (GLY). Kentucky bluegrass PQ ST produced similar grain yields (11,230 kg ha−1) all 3 yr as the no LM control (11,810 kg ha−1) with a harvest index (HI) of 0.55 compared to 0.52 in the control, averaged across years. The control produced greater stover dry matter (SDM) (10,110 kg ha−1) 2 of the 3 yr compared to KB PQ ST (8600 kg ha−1). Total groundcover averaged 80% in KB PQ ST compared to only 45% in the no LM control. These results indicate that a combination of herbicide suppression and ST suppresses LMs adequately to maintain competitive maize grain yields. Additional research under varying climatic conditions will further quantify the risk of LM management systems to increase the sustainable stover harvest of maize biomass feedstocks

Gene content evolution in the arthropods

Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity