The Social Construction of Perceptual Categories

In this article I shall argue that the categories a subject employs to codify her perceptions are emergent elements of the social niche her community inhabits. Hence, I defend the claim that categories are primarily elements of the social ontology a certain subject experiences. I then claim that public representations (e.g. icons) shared in a social niche play a crucial regulative role for the members of that community: in fact, they offer a rule (a canon) to conceive a certain type or a certain category, e.g. ‘movement’, ‘time’ or ‘space’. In this sense, categories function as normative elements.

Social niche construction in captive Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae) Flocks

The organization of animal groups is both a cause of, and consequence of, patterns of interactions among individuals. The stability of animal social organization reflects how individuals construct and maintain resilient patterns of interactions across changes in group size and membership. In this study we describe patterns of social interactions in captive flocks of Gouldian Finches (Erythrura gouldiae) that were exposed to changing social conditions. A flock of adult Gouldian Finches was exposed to two changing conditions, an introduction condition where juveniles were introduced to the flock, and a fission-fusion condition where the flock was split into two smaller flocks and a new group of juveniles introduced to each. We show that the social organization of captive Gouldian finch flocks is characterized by stable homophilic communities of adult females and juveniles. Females showed higher rates of approaches to other adult females, while juveniles maintined higher rates of approaches towards other juveniles. These findings highlight how the stable interactive decisions made by individuals contribute to higher-order patterns of organization in bird flocks. Furthermore, this study is one of the few to demonstrate self-assortment of juveniles in passerine flocks and suggests that peer and sibling interactions are an unexplored area in avian social development.

Social survival: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use social structure to partition ecological niches within proposed critical habitat

Animal culture and social bonds are relevant to wildlife conservation because they influence patterns of geography, behavior, and strategies of survival. Numerous examples of socially-driven habitat partitioning and ecological-niche specialization can be found among vertebrates, including toothed whales. But such social-ecological dynamics, described here as ‘social niche partitioning’, are not known among baleen whales, whose societies—particularly on foraging grounds—are largely perceived as unstructured and incidental to matters of habitat use and conservation. However, through 16 years of behavioral observations and photo-identifications of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding within a fjord system in the Canadian Pacific (primarily within Gitga’at First Nation waters), we have documented long-term pair bonds (up to 12 years) as well as a complex societal structure, which corresponds closely to persistent patterns in feeding strategy, long-term site fidelity (extended occupancy and annual rate of return up to 75%), specific geographic preferences within the fjord system, and other forms of habitat use. Randomization tests of network congruency and clustering algorithms were used to test for overlap in patterns of social structure and habitat use, which confirmed the occurrence of social niche partitioning on the feeding grounds of this baleen whale species. In addition, we document the extensive practice of group bubble net feeding in Pacific Canada. This coordinated feeding behavior was found to strongly mediate the social structure and habitat use within this humpback whale society. Additionally, during our 2004–2019 study, we observed a shift in social network structure in 2010–2012, which corresponded with environmental and demographic shifts including a sudden decline in the population’s calving rate. Our findings indicate that the social lives of humpback whales, and perhaps baleen whales generally, are more complex than previously supposed and should be a primary consideration in the assessment of potential impacts to important habitat.

Genomic architecture and evolutionary dynamics of a social niche polymorphism in the California harvester ant,Pogonomyrmex californicus

The societies of social insects are highly variable, including variation in the number of reproductives in a colony. In the California harvester ant,Pogonomyrmex californicus(Buckley 1867), colonies are commonly founded by a single queen (haplometrosis, primary monogyny). However, in some populations in California (USA), two or more queens cooperate in colony founding (pleometrosis) and continue to share a nest over several years (primary polygyny). Here, we use population genomics and linkage mapping to study the evolutionary dynamics and genetic architecture of this social niche polymorphism. Our analyses show that both populations underwent consecutive bottlenecks over the last 100,000 generations, particularly decreasing population size in the P-population and that the two populations diverged until 1,000 generations ago, after which gene flow increased again and we found signs of recent genetic admixture between the two populations. We further uncover an 8 Mb non-recombining region segregating with the observed social niche polymorphism, showing characteristics of a supergene comparable to the ones underlying social niche polymorphism in other ant species. In addition, 57 genes in five genomic regions outside the supergene show signatures of a selective sweep in the P-population, some of which are differentially expressed between haplo- and pleometrotic queens during colony founding. Our findings expose the social niche polymorphism inP. californicusas a polygenic trait involving a supergene.

Social survival: humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use social structure to partition ecological niches within proposed critical habitat

ABSTRACTAnimal culture and social bonds are relevant to wildlife conservation because they influence patterns of geography, behavior, and strategies of survival. Numerous examples of socially-driven habitat partitioning and ecological-niche specialization can be found among vertebrates, including toothed whales. But such social-ecological dynamics, described here as ‘social niche partitioning’, are not known among baleen whales, whose societies -- particularly on foraging grounds -- are largely perceived as unstructured and incidental to matters of habitat use and conservation. However, through 16 years of behavioral and photo-identification observations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding within a fjord system in British Columbia, Canada, we have documented long-term pair bonds (lasting up to 12 years) as well as a complex societal structure, which corresponds closely to persistent patterns in feeding strategy, long-term site fidelity (extended seasonal occupancy and annual rate of return up to 75%), specific geographic preferences within the fjord system, and other forms of habitat use. Randomization tests of network congruency and clustering algorithms were used to test for overlap in patterns of social structure and habitat use, which confirmed the occurrence of social niche partitioning on the feeding grounds of this baleen whale. In addition, we document the extensive practice of group bubble net feeding in Pacific Canada. This coordinated feeding behavior was found to strongly mediate the social structure and habitat use within this humpback whale society. Additionally, during our 2004 – 2019 study, we observed a shift in social network structure in 2010 – 2012, which corresponded with environmental and demographic shifts including a sudden decline in the population’s calving rate. Our findings indicate that the social lives of humpback whales, and perhaps baleen whales generally, are more complex than previously supposed and should be a primary consideration in the assessment of potential impacts to important habitat.

To What Extent Does Fandom Wikia Act as a Model for Labor Exploitation?

Founded in 2004, the company, Fandom, provided a new outlet for fans to engage with the media they love: a platform to edit and view information about their interests, as well as meet others who share those interests. It is possible, however, that Fandom has taken advantage of this as a vast pool of labor. As Fandom makes money from ad revenue and their users continue to make pages of information making ads more accessible, it comes into question whether or not this is a model for labor exploitation. In order to classify it as such, two conditions needed to be fulfilled to qualify Fandom as a model: is Fandom monopolistic and does it take advantage of its users. Whereas the monopolistic aspect can be determined by seeing if other media fill the niche Fandom does, the second aspect will be determined using Katz’s Uses and Gratifications Theory. A survey was conducted from user responses to analyze how users view Fandom. It was determined from the 50 responses that Fandom fits the model as it is the only media platform that fulfills an informational and social niche concurrently. The website also fulfills all aspects of Katz’s Theory, therefore, the second condition for labor exploitation is fulfilled. Although Fandom acts as a model for labor exploitation, this does not outline the moral aspects of its activities; this only classifies it as a model to be utilized for reference as technology continues to make controversial issues such as labor exploitation more ambiguous.

Grooming interventions in female rhesus macaques as social niche construction

Social animals invest time and resources into building and adapting their social environment, which emerges not only from their own but also from the decisions of other group members. Thus, individuals have to monitor interactions between others and potentially decide when and how to interfere to prevent damage to their own investment. These interventions can be subtle, as in the case of affiliative interactions such as grooming, but they can inform us about how animals structure their world and influence other group members. Here, we used interventions into grooming bouts in 29 female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to determine who intervened into which grooming bouts, why, and what determined intervention outcomes, based on kinship, dominance rank, and affiliative relationships between groomers and (potential) interveners. Using 1132 grooming bouts and 521 interventions, we show that high dominance rank of groomers reduced the risk of intervention. Bystanders, particularly when high-ranking, intervened in grooming of their kin, close affiliates, and close-ranked competitors. Interveners gained access to their close affiliates for subsequent grooming. Affiliative relationship and rank determined intervention outcomes, with reduced aggression risk facilitating grooming involving three individuals. Thus, interventions in this species involved the monitoring of grooming interactions, decision-making based on several individual and dyadic characteristics, and potentially allowed individuals to broaden their access to grooming partners, protect their own relationships, and influence their social niche.

Adaptive reshaping of the hormonal phenotype after social niche transition in adulthood

Phenotypic plasticity allows individuals to adjust traits to the environment. Whether long-term adjustments of the phenotype occur during later life stages is largely unknown. To address this question, we examined whether hormonal phenotypes that are shaped by the environment during adolescence can still be reshaped in full adulthood. For this, guinea pig males were either housed in mixed-sex colonies or in heterosexual pairs. In adulthood, males were individually transferred to pair housing with a female. This way, a social niche transition was induced in colony-housed males, but not in pair-housed males. Before transfer, corresponding to findings in adolescence, adult colony-housed males showed significantly higher baseline testosterone levels and lower cortisol responsiveness than pair-housed males. One month after transfer, the hormonal phenotype of colony-housed males was changed towards that of pair-housed males: animals showed comparable baseline testosterone levels and cortisol responsiveness was significantly increased in colony-housed males. This endocrine readjustment builds the basis for an adaptive behavioural tactic in the new social situation. Thus, an adaptive change of the behavioural phenotype may still occur in adulthood via modification of underlying mechanisms. This suggests a greater role for developmental plasticity in later life stages than is commonly presumed.

A New Exploration of Roderick Usher’s Death Based on the Ecological Niche Theory

Roderick Usher is the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece The Fall of The House of Usher. Concerning his death, the scholars and critics at home and abroad have discussed a lot but there is no fixed conclusion. Based on the ecological niche theory, this thesis explored Roderick Usher’s death and concluded that his death was a natural outcome as his natural as well as his social niche positions were on the decline because of his failure to have effective communication with the environment he was living in and with the people around him. Furthermore, his niche trend to do nothing to the ever-decaying living environment but to do harm to his twin sister further accelerated the demise of his niche position. It is hoped that this thesis can shed some new light on the exploration of Roderick Usher’s death and work as a kind of tentatively interdisciplinary research between ecology and literature.