Culture Outsmarts Nature in the Evolution of Cooperation

A one dimensional cellular automata model describes the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation when grouping by cooperators provides protection against predation. It is used to compare the dynamics of evolution of cooperation in three settings. G: only vertical transmission of information is allowed, as an analogy of genetic evolution with heredity; H: only horizontal information transfer is simulated, through diffusion of the majority\'s opinion, as an analogy of opinion dynamics or social learning; and C: analogy of cultural evolution, where information is transmitted both horizontally (H) and vertically (V) so that learned behavior can be transmitted to offspring. The results show that the prevalence of cooperative behavior depends on the costs and benefits of cooperation so that: a- cooperation becomes the dominant behavior, even in the presence of free-riders (i.e., non-cooperative obtaining benefits from the cooperation of others), under all scenarios, if the benefits of cooperation compensate for its cost; b- G is more susceptible to selection pressure than H achieving a closer adaptation to the fitness landscape; c- evolution of cooperative behavior in H is less sensitive to the cost of cooperation than in G; d- C achieves higher levels of cooperation than the other alternatives at low costs, whereas H does it at high costs. The results suggest that a synergy between H and V is elicited that makes the evolution of cooperation much more likely under cultural evolution than under the hereditary kind where only V is present.Social Simulation, Interactions, Group Size, Selfish Heard, Cultural Evolution, Biological Evolution

Una metodologia per l’analisi qualitativa: resa e cattura di Wolff

Non vi è teoria senza concetti. Dunque la definizione dei concetti è fondamentale per la costruzione di una teoria, quale che sia la metodologia scelta, costruzionista o meno, a partire dalle ipotesi o dai dati, quantitativa o qualitativa, mono-metodo o multi-metodo. Alcuni concetti poi risultano seminali, come si suole dire, perché appunto molto fertili, più produttivi di tanti altri. Così è per il concetto di classe sociale in Marx, di solidarietà in Durkheim, di carisma in Weber, di dono in Mauss, di struttura in Lévi-Strauss, di sistema in Luhmann, di campo in Bourdieu, di liquidità in Baumann, di rischio in Beck e così via. A proposito di diffusione ed utilizzo di uno o più concetti l'autore ricorda con quanta soddisfazione Edward Shils gli parlasse della sua coppia concettuale «centro e periferia» (Shils 1975), largamente ripresa in molte parti del mondo per applicazioni di natura sempre diversa. Certamente anche Kurt Wolff doveva essere contento anche lui per il buon esito della sua proposta binomiale di «resa e cattura», rifluita in molti approcci sociologici di qua e di là dell’Atlantico, come mostra la serie di saggi che vi fa riferimento, anche se non è mancata qualche osservazione critica accompagnata talora da ironia sulla figura del ricercatore divenuto «prigioniero» del suo interlocutore sociale di riferimento. Nondimeno vale proprio la pena di fare i conti con questa straordinaria intuizione bi-concettuale del Nostro

From Values to Religion

Each individual is guided by values that determine his behaviour. A recurrent distinction concerns the difference between applied values and final values, therefore between values concerning individual practices and values which represent real goals to achieve. The discussion tends to slip onto a juxtaposition of universal values and universal rights, which is to say between human values and human rights. It is not always easy to discern secular values from religious values. The main issue regards those who hold religious and secular values. If religious values are presumably conserved by churches, denominations, confessional organizations, for secular values the State is usually considered to be the main holder. Global values and local values can be in conflict, especially when the same individual has to play a number of different rules. And it must be considered that today migration context in Europe presents different communities with different values.

diffused religion and prayer

It is quite likely that the origins of prayer are to be found in ancient mourning and bereavement rites. Primeval ritual prayer was codified and handed down socially to become a deep-rooted feature of people's cultural behavior, so much so, that it may surface again several years later, in the face of death, danger, need, even in the case of relapse from faith and religious practice. Modes of prayer depend on religious experience, on relations between personal prayer and political action, between prayer and forgiveness, and between prayer and approaches to religions. Various forms of prayer exist, from the covert-hidden to the overt-manifest kind. How can they be investigated? How can one, for instance, explore mental prayer? These issues regard the canon of diffused religion and, therefore, of diffused prayer

For a historical-sociological approach to the city of Haifa

The city of Haifa, in the northern part of Israel, has been the theatre of harsh clashes between Jews and Muslims for many years. Haifa was heavy involved in the Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 and during the 1948 the Palestinian population, about 80.000 people, was evacuated by the Jewish militias. After the establishment of the State of Israel, several terror attacks took place in the city. Today, several religious groups live in Haifa, with non easy relations. Nevertheless, each year the city celebrates the Holyday of Holydays, an interfaith festival. The city presents significant traits that may help us test Tönnies’s idea of a dichotomy between community (Gemeinschaft) and society (Gesellschaft). In different moments of city life, we find features typical of community and, in certain others, characteristics typical of society

Hans Joas, Braucht der Mensch Religion? Über Erfahrungen der Selbsttranszendenz

For decades the supporters of secularization and religious revival have conducted heated debates in support of the one or other thesis (or rather, hypothesis); each with increasingly fervent invective, each bent on defending an aprioristic point of view rather than collecting and comparing empirical data. Even in the face of significant empirical evidence, some uncertainties remain regarding the representativeness of the samples used, the possibility of generalizing the results and the durati..

Religion and sport. Between rite and spectacle

There are many convergences and affinities between religion and sport. This happens since long time ago. Greece is a good example for this. The Olympics were born there because of a religious context.The modern Olympics started in 1896 as a turning point in the history of the sport. Their roots were both ethical and religious, if we consider the person of the founder, de Coubertin.Today the link between religion and sport is well evident, and it is more and more stressed through rites, prayers, gestures, symbols, and many other modalities, that are present in sport events, their preparation, and following moments.Sociological studies confirm a relevant presence of religious inspiration for sport activities, which are accompanied by religious practices and behaviors, from their foundation till the legitimation of past memories.Namely in soccer competitions para-religious movements and cults are active in order to reach positive results, in a continuous search for the victory.Sono numerosi i punti di contatto e le affinità fra religione e sport. Il che avviene sin dai tempi più antichi. Esemplare è il caso della Grecia, dove non a caso sono sorte le Olimpiadi in un contesto e con motivazioni a carattere tipicamente religioso.La stessa ripresa dei Giochi Olimpici nel 1896 rappresenta un momento di svolta per la storia dello sport ma evidenzia anche le ragioni profondamente etiche (e religiose) che animavano il loro fondatore, il barone de Coubertin.Oggi sotto diverse forme ed in situazioni favorevoli il legame fra religione e sport si va rafforzando tanto da poter verificare la presenza di riti, preghiere, formule, gesti, simboli e ruoli tipicamente religiosi anche in avvenimenti sportivi, nel corso della loro preparazione come nelle fasi successive allo svolgimento delle competizioni.Vari studi sul campo mostrano che specialmente entro modelli d'ispirazione cristiana vigono e si diffondono pratiche religiose che accompagnano da vicino le dinamiche relative all'organizzazione di gare in diversi sport, a partire dai momenti fondativi per giungere sino ai processi di legittimazione delle memorie del passato.Soprattutto nel campo del calcio esistono forme di divismo, movimenti parareligiosi e culti propiziatori ed esorcistici tesi ad ottenere risultati agonistici continuamente positivi