Succès social et succès reproductif dans les sociétés modernes : une analyse sociobiologique

Succès social et succès reproductif dans les sociétés modernes : une analyse sociobiologiqueDans cet article, nous présentons l'hypothèse sociobiologique voulant qu'il existe une relation positive entre le succès social et le succès reproductif chez les individus. Cette question se révèle particulièrement significative en ce qu'elle récapitule le rapport entre le comportement culturel et ses déterminants évolutifs. Nous proposons un modèle théorique détaillé de la relation, et nous en vérifions la validité par une revue des recherches pertinentes effectuées au sein des sociétés modernes, où le rapport entre les deux formes de succès apparaft le moins évident.Social and reproductive success in modem societies : A sociobiological analysisIn this paper, I present the sociobiological hypothesis that predicts a positive relation between social and reproductive success among individuals. This question is highly significant in that it subsums the problem of the link between culture and its hypothesized evolutionary determinants. A detailed theoretical model of the relation is formulated, and tested by means of a review of the pertinent studies done in modern societies, where the positive relation between the two forms of success seems the less likely

Anthropologie et sociobiologie : les fondements d'une possible intégration

RÉSUMÉ/ ABSTRACTAnthropologie et Sociobiologie : Les fondements d'une possible intégrationDans cet article, nous comparons les épistémologies respectives de la sociobiologie et de l'anthropologie afin de situer leurs points d'articulation et d'établir les fondements de leur éventuelle intégration. Ces deux perspectives nous paraissent se rejoindre en ce qu'elles supposent toutes deux l'existence d'une unicité psychique humaine organisant la variabilité culturelle. Elles diffèrent toutefois au niveau des chemins qu'elles empruntent pour caractériser cette unicité et arriver à des théories du social. Nous mettons en lumière les faiblesses inhérentes à chacune de ces perspectives prises isolément et nous suggérons, au-delà de la polarité réductionnisme/" irréductionisme ", une intégration disciplinaire de type vertical, telle qu'elle se pratique couramment dans le monde scientifique.Anthropology and Sociobtology : The Bases of an Eventual IntegrationIn this paper, we compare the respective epistemological tenets of sociobiological and anthropological theory, in order to shed some light on their common elements and in hope of setting the grounds for their 'eventual integration. These two theoretical approaches are seen as convergent in their shared assumption of a psychic unity of mankind, a unity that nevertheless expresses itself in the rich cultural variability that we observe. These two perspectives differ however in the path they take to characterize this unity, and in the way they generate theories of social behaviour. We focus on the inherent weaknesses of each approach when applied separately, and we try to go beyond the sterile reductionnistic/holistic opposition in an effort to foster some form of vertical interdisciplinary integration - of the kind that commonly prevails in most other scientific endeavours

The lipoprotein/lipid profile is modulated by a gene–diet interaction effect between polymorphisms in the liver X receptor-α and dietary cholesterol intake in French-Canadians

Genetic and nutritional factors interact together and modulate the plasma lipid profile. We identified variations in the gene encoding the liver X receptor α (LXRα) and investigated their effects on the plasma lipoprotein/lipid profile. We also examined whether the association between cholesterol intake and plasma lipid profile was modulated by LXRα variants. The LXRα gene was sequenced in thirty-five French-Canadian men with high plasma total cholesterol (>5·0 mmol/l) and LDL-cholesterol (>3·5 mmol/l) concentrations. Dietary cholesterol was obtained from a food-frequency questionnaire. The LXRα c.-115G>A, c.-840C>A and c.-1830T>C genotypes were determined by direct sequencing in 732 subjects. Molecular screening of the LXRα gene revealed sixteen variants. Genotypes c.-115G>A, c.-840C>A and c.-1830T>C (rare allele frequency of 14·3 %, 14·2 % and 11·0 %, respectively) were analysed further. Plasma total cholesterol concentrations were higher in carriers of the -115A, -840A and -1830C allele, compared with the -115G/G, -840C/C and -1830T/T homozygotes (P ≤ 0·05). In a model including the c.-115G>A polymorphism, cholesterol intake, the interaction term c.-115G>A × cholesterol intake (mg/d) and covariates, LXRα-115G>A explained 1·8 % and 2·1 % of the variance in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentrations (P = 0·02 and P = 0·01), whereas the interaction term explained 2·9 % (P = 0·002) and 2·8 % (P = 0·005), respectively. When subjects were divided into four groups according to the median of cholesterol (290·8 mg) and -115G>A genotypes, high cholesterol intake was associated with higher cholesterol levels in -115A carriers. Similar results were observed for c.-840C>A and c.-1830T>C. These results suggest that cholesterol intake interacts with LXRα variants to modulate the plasma lipid profile

Sexual Selection, Physical Attractiveness, and Facial Neoteny: Cross-cultural Evidence and Implications [and Comments and Reply]

Physical attractiveness and its relation to the theory of sexual selection deserve renewed attention from cultural and biological anthropologists. This paper focuses on an anomaly associated with physical attractiveness-in our species, in contrast to many others, males seem to be more concerned than females with the attractiveness of potential sexual partners, perhaps because humans show far more age-related variance in female than in male fecundity. The resulting selection for male attraction to markers of female youth may lead incidentally to attraction to females displaying age-related cues in an exaggerated form. This paper reports cross-cultural evidence that males in five populations (Brazilians, U.S. Americans, Russians, Ache, and Hiwi) show an attraction to females with neotenous facial proportions (a combination of large eyes, small noses, and full lips) even after female age is controlled for. Two further studies show that female models have neotenous cephalofacial proportions relative to U.S. undergraduates and that drawings of faces artificially transformed to make them more or less neotenous are perceived as correspondingly more or less attractive. These results suggest several further lines of investigation, including the relationship between facial and bodily cues and the consequences of attraction to neoteny for morphological evolutio

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Weight, Height, and BMI from Birth to 19 Years of Age: An International Study of Over 12,000 Twin Pairs

Objective: To examine the genetic and environmental influences on variances in weight, height, and BMI, from birth through 19 years of age, in boys and girls from three continents

Physical activity attenuates the influence of FTO variants on obesity risk: A meta-analysis of 218,166 adults and 19,268 children

Background: The FTO gene harbors the strongest known susceptibility locus for obesity. While many individual studies have suggested that physical activity (PA) may attenuate the effect of FTO on obesity risk, other studies have not been able to confirm this interaction. To confirm or refute unambiguously whether PA attenuates the association of FTO with obesity risk, we meta-analyzed data from 45 studies of adults (n = 218,166) and nine studies of children and adolescents (n = 19,268). Methods and Findings: All studies identified to have data on the FTO rs9939609 variant (or any proxy [r2>0.8]) and PA were invited to participate, regardless of ethnicity or age of the participants. PA was standardized by categorizing it into a dichotomous variable (physically inactive versus active) in each study. Overall, 25% of adults and 13% of children were categorized as inactive. Interaction analyses were performed within each study by including the FTO×PA interaction term in an additive model, adjusting for age and sex. Subsequently, random effects meta-analysis was used to pool the interaction terms. In adults, the minor (A-) allele of rs9939609 increased the odds of obesity by 1.23-fold/allele (95% CI 1.20-1.26), but PA attenuated this effect (pinteraction= 0.001). More specifically, the minor allele of rs9939609 increased the odds of obesity less in the physically active group (odds ratio = 1.22/allele, 95% CI 1.19-1.25) than in the inactive group (odds ratio = 1.30/allele, 95% CI 1.24-1.36). No such interaction was found in children and adolescents. Concl

Формирование эмоциональной культуры как компонента инновационной культуры студентов

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders1 and Darwin was one of the first to recognise that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness2. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity, ROH), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power3,4. Here we use ROH to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity (SROH) and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in 1 second (FEV1), general cognitive ability (g) and educational attainment (nominal p<1 × 10−300, 2.1 × 10−6, 2.5 × 10−10, 1.8 × 10−10). In each case increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing convincing evidence for the first time that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples5,6, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection7, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been