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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101108T000000
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DTSTAMP:20201013T004823Z
CREATED:20200922T214749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z
UID:4144-1289174400-1289174400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Michael Alvard - Social structure\, cultural kinship\, and cooperation among the Lamalera whale hunters of Indonesia
DESCRIPTION:Michael Alvard: Texas A&M University Department of AnthropologyThe human ability to form large\, coordinated groups is among our most impressive social adaptation. Larger groups facilitate synergistic economies of scale for cooperative breeding\, economic tasks like group hunting\, and success in conflict with other groups. In many organisms\, genetic relationships provide the structure for sociality to evolve via the process of kin selection\, and this is the case\, to a certain extent\, for humans. But assortment by genetic affiliation is not the only mechanism that can bring like-minded people together.  Affinity based on symbolically mediated and socially constructed identity or cultural kinship structures much of human sociality. \nThis talk will examine how genetic kinship and various kinds of cultural kinship–affinal\, descent\, moiety–structure the network of cooperating whale hunters in the village of Lamalera\, Indonesia. The people of Lamalera are among the last subsistence whale hunters on the planet.  The village of 1\,200 people rely largely on the sperm whales\, other marine mammals\, manta and other rays that the community’s men cooperatively hunt from a fleet of traditional\, 11m long\, whaling vessels called tèna. \nUsing data from 853 hunts\, network analyses show that each mechanism of assortment produces characteristic networks of different sizes\, each more or less conducive to the task of hunting whales.  The results are discussed in the context of the evolution of cooperation and group identity.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-alvard-social-structure-cultural-kinship-and-cooperation-among-the-lamalera-whale-hunters-of-indonesia/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004823Z
CREATED:20200922T214750Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z
UID:4145-1289779200-1289779200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Dominic Johnson - Adaptive Politics: The Strategic Advantages of Psychological Biases
DESCRIPTION:Dominic Johnson: University of Edinburgh Reader in Politics & International RelationsA recent explosion of work suggests a key role for human physiology and evolutionary psychology in understanding political behaviour\, from genes to hormones to cognition. However\, the entire notion of an evolutionary basis for human behavior meets a traditional skepticism in the social sciences\, and political science in particular. One common conception is that psychological biases are “mistakes” or “errors” that cause policy failures\, disasters\, or wars. The book sets out the argument that psychological biases have their roots in the evolution and biology of the human brain. Consequently\, they are far from “mistakes”\, but rather they are adaptive heuristics that were favoured by natural selection because they brought important advantages in our evolutionary past. The question that remains is whether (and when) they continue to be triggered in appropriate contexts today. Given the social and political differences between the environment of our past and the environment of today (mismatch)\, an evolutionary approach offers fresh predictions for when\, why and how psychological biases will worsen\, or at other times improve\, contemporary political decision-making. The book examines five common psychological phenomena that have commonly been used to explain decision-making failures in political science: (1) overconfidence\, (2) cognitive dissonance\, (3) the fundamental attribution error\, (4) prospect theory\, and (5) in-group/out-group bias. It is argued that all of them can equally be adaptive rather than maladaptive in some contexts. The idea is that in doing so\, political scientists will be forced to rethink whether biases may have a functional rather than destructive role\, implying an evolutionary origin. The book is intended to be provocative\, showing that false beliefs can paradoxically lead to more effective decision-making–”just as they were “designed” to do by natural selection. But effectiveness depends on context\, because behavioral mechanisms are contingent\, not fixed. An evolutionary approach therefore offers us the tools to improve our understanding and predictions of political phenomena.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dominic-johnson-adaptive-politics-the-strategic-advantages-of-psychological-biases/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004822Z
CREATED:20200922T214750Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z
UID:4146-1290384000-1290384000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Parry Clarke - Infanticide and Reproductive Restraint in the Archetypical Polygynous Primate
DESCRIPTION:Parry Clarke: UC Davis Department of AnthropologyClassic sexual selection theory\, exemplified by the work of Bateman and Trivers\, has played and continues to play a central role in the study of primate mating systems. As a result\, most theorizing within the field is premised on the assumption that males have been selected to maximize competitive ability at the point of conception and are largely immune to variance in infant survivorship. This perspective runs contrary to more recent theoretical treatments of sexual selection\, however\, which point out that males will rarely\, if ever\, be able to compensate for infant mortality through re-mating and should therefore be sensitive to infant survivorship. Using data on male reproductive success in wild chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) I will argue that males do act to augment their offspring’s survivorship and they do so at the expense of their maximum potential reproductive output. Specifically\, I will show data suggesting that dominant males willingly cede reproductive opportunities to subordinates in an effort to encourage them to remain in the group. I conclude that this is because by doing so they afford their infants a greater level of protection from infanticide\, a significant source of infant mortality in chacma.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/parry-clarke-infanticide-and-reproductive-restraint-in-the-archetypical-polygynous-primate/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004822Z
CREATED:20200922T214751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z
UID:4147-1290988800-1290988800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jennifer Smith - Kinship structures patterns of cooperation and social network dynamics in the spotted hyena
DESCRIPTION:Jennifer Smith: UCLA Center for Society & Genetics and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCooperation is pervasive in the societies of humans and other animals\, yet the current body of evolutionary theory often fails to fully explain its persistence. Because spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) live in complex societies\, this species provides an interesting opportunity to elucidate the evolutionary forces favoring patterns of cooperation in a group-living carnivore. Unlike most social carnivores\, which live only with their kin\, hyenas reside in social groups\, called ‘clans’\, comprised of both kin and non-kin. In fact\, hyena clans are strikingly similar in their size and hierarchical structure to troops of Old World monkeys. Like groups of humans and other apes\, hyena societies are further structured by fission-fusion dynamics. That is\, individual hyenas regularly separate from and rejoin members of their permanent social group on an hour-to-hour basis. Here\, I apply social network theory to analyze the effects of kinship and resource distribution on the social relationships among these ‘primate-like’ carnivores. This work is part of a long-term study in the Masai Mara\, Kenya. The results indicate that hyenas associate most often with their kin\, and that although resource competition constrains the strength of social network ties among all hyenas\, kin always sustain the strongest relationships. Moreover\, when forming coalitions\, hyenas bias agonistic support towards kin and take the greatest risks when helping kin. Finally\, I show that hyenas regularly reinforce social ties with kin\, and closely associating non-kin\, through ritualized reunion displays\, called greetings. Overall\, this work reveals the central role of kinship and signaling in the maintenance and coordination of cooperation among social allies living in dispersed social groups.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper2.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper3.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/posters/JenSmithPaper4.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jennifer-smith-kinship-structures-patterns-of-cooperation-and-social-network-dynamics-in-the-spotted-hyena/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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