Women's economic advancement through agricultural change

This paper reviews donor experience with the design of development projects that are sensitive to gender-specific constraints. The review finds that the gap between intentions and implementation as regards gender-sensitivity is larger in agriculture than in health and nutrition. One of the reasons forwarded for this gap is the dearth of quantitative studies documenting the foregone benefits in terms of agricultural productivity of not promoting the economic advancement of women in agriculture.employment ,Nutrition ,Gender ,Women Economic conditions. ,Women Employment Bangladesh. ,Women in agriculture Bangladesh. ,Gender. ,Nutrition ,

Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension

Same-sex sexual behaviour has been documented across the animal kingdom, and is thought to reflect and enhance dyadic cooperation and tolerance. For instance, same-sex fellatio — the reception of a partner’s penis into another’s mouth — has been reported in several mammalian species other than humans. Although same-sex sexual behaviour is observed in our close relatives, the chimpanzees, fellatio appears to be very rare — as yet there are no published reports clearly documenting its occurrence. At Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, we observed an instance of fellatio occurring during a post-conflict period between two adult male chimpanzees (born and mother-reared at the sanctuary) where one of the males was the victim. We discuss this event with respect to the putative functions of homosexual behaviour in great apes. Given its rarity in chimpanzees, this fellatio between adult males also highlights the apparent behavioural flexibility present in our close relatives

Conventional science will not do justice to nonhuman interests: A fresh approach is required

Treves et al. (2019) make a convincing case that conservation efforts need to go beyond an anthropocentric worldview. Implementing that vision, however, will require human advocates to represent nonhuman interests. Where will the knowledge of those interests come from? How can humans know what is in the best interest of another animal, a plant, or an ecosystem? We discuss how the values embedded in current scientific practices may be ill-suited to representing nonhuman interests and we offer some ideas for correcting these shortcomings

Situating the study of jealousy in the context of social relationships

Whereas the feelings of other beings are private and may always remain so, emotions are simultaneously manifested in behavior, physiology, and other observables. Nonetheless, uncertainty about whether emotions can be studied adequately across species has promoted skepticism about their very presence in other parts of the animal kingdom. Studying social emotions like jealousy in the context of the social relationships in which they arise, as has been done in the case of animal empathy, may help dispel this skepticism. Empathy in other species came to be accepted partly because of the behavioral similarities between its expression in nonhuman animals and humans, and partly because of the neurological parallels. Non-invasive brain imaging results like those reported in the target article can thus help integrate human and animal emotions within an evolutionary framework — but the social context underlies precise definitions of the phenomenon

Moving Past Conflict: How Locomotion Facilitates Reconciliation in Humans and Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Social animals must overcome conflicts, an inherent and often detrimental consequence of gregarious life. One strategy for doing so is reconciliation, or post-conflict affiliation between former opponents. In humans and other primates, this behavior is often assumed to require a switch between opposing motivational states (e.g., anti- to pro-social). In this thesis, I argue that reconciliation is facilitated by an underlying individual tendency for movement and change between states, a motivation known as locomotion. Section one of this thesis uses a longitudinal, observational approach to establish stable individual differences in chimpanzee reconciliation while controlling for numerous relational factors known to influence the occurrence of this behavior. These individual differences are then related to several behavioral proxies of locomotion motivation. Section two of this thesis explores the relation between locomotion and conflict resolution in humans, using a range of methodological approaches and measures, including hypothetical scenarios, experimental inductions, essay studies, narrative reflections, and dyadic interactions. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of going beyond relational and other instrumental approaches to conflict resolution in order to understand more fundamental individual motivations underlying reconciliation behavior. If an individual motive to effect change and therefore resolve conflict in turn impacts one’s social relationships, it has even broader significance. Across the primate order, the influence and importance of such relationships suggest the potential role of reconciliatory motivations when it comes to individual survival, health, and overall well-being

Long-term consistency in chimpanzee consolation behaviour reflects empathetic personalities

In contrast to a wealth of human studies, little is known about the ontogeny and consistency of empathy-related capacities in other species. Consolation—post-conflict affiliation from uninvolved bystanders to distressed others—is a suggested marker of empathetic concern in non-human animals. Using longitudinal data comprising nearly a decade of observations on over 3000 conflict interactions in 44 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), we provide evidence for relatively stable individual differences in consolation behaviour. Across development,individuals consistently differ from one another in this trait, with higher consolatory tendencies predicting better social integration, a sign of social competence. Further, similar to recent results in other ape species, but in contrast to many human self-reported findings,older chimpanzees are less likely to console than are younger individuals. Overall, given the link between consolation and empathy, these findings help elucidate the development of individual socio-cognitive and -emotional abilities in one of our closest relatives

The expression of empathy in human's closest relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees: current and future directions

Empathy is a complex, multi‐dimensional capacity that facilitates the sharing and understanding of others' emotions. As our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (P. troglodytes) provide an opportunity to explore the origins of hominin social cognition, including empathy. Despite certain assumptions that bonobos and chimpanzees may differ empathically, these species appear to overlap considerably in certain socio‐emotional responses related to empathy. However, few studies have systematically tested for species variation in Pan empathic or socio‐emotional tendencies. To address this, we synthesise the growing literature on Pan empathy to inform our understanding of the selection pressures that may underlie the evolution of hominin empathy, and its expression in our last common ancestor. As bonobos and chimpanzees show overlaps in their expression of complex socio‐emotional phenomena such as empathy, we propose that group comparisons may be as or more meaningful than species comparisons when it comes to understanding the evolutionary pressures for such behaviour. Furthermore, key differences, such as how humans and Pan communicate, appear to distinguish how we experience empathy compared to our closest living relatives