Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Three Random Stories from the Wonderful World of Science
1. “Democratic” Animals?—How do deer decide what to do?
If you’ve ever watched animal documentaries, you may have noticed a variety of ways the animals are presented. For example, the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom show from the 1960’s emphasized the competitive qualities of the animal world. (In fact, one of the researchers might just jump into the picture to wrestle an alligator.) Recently, the interconnected web of creatures is emphasized. We should remember that the way we conceptualize the animal world depends in large part in how we understand our own social existence. And, in turn, the animal kingdom can serve as a potent source of metaphors for our own social organizations.
An article in the NewScientist.com news service titled “Democracy beats despotism in the animal world” documents a study of red deer undertaken by Tim Roper with interesting conclusions drawn (Jan. 8, 2003).
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3248-democracy-beats-despotism-in-the-animal-world.html
While deer are understood to have a clearly hierarchical social group with one individual dominating potential rivals, much as primates do, the dominant male does not always get his way. The study showed that the deer actually engaged in a democratic decision making process when moving from a grazing area to a drinking area. It wasn’t the case that the dominant male decided when it was time to move. Instead, when a critical mass had been reached of a majority of the group indicating it was time to move, then the group moved, whether the dominant male was ready or not. How might this apply to people?
2. Does “Race” Exist?
Martin Luther King, Jr. and others involved in the Civil Rights movement dreamed of a world that didn’t see color. Yet, I would hazard a guess that we haven’t really achieved this goal. I know that for myself at least when I see someone, I see her/him as belonging to a race, based primarily on skin pigmentation. I don’t think I have overly racist or prejudiced notions of what that person will be like based on his/her race, but the concept of race remains firmly implanted in our collective consciousness. The concept of “race” is anything but simple, though. A number of geneticists and biologists interrogate the concept of race and its genetic basis. They find that often common notions of race do not correspond to underlying genetic differences. The relationship between skin pigmentation and ancestry is quite variable. There are a number of references to mention: “Does Race Exist?” Scientific American, Nov. 10, 2003, by Michael Bamshad and Steve Olson, http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00055DC8-3BAA-1FA8-BBAA83414B7F0000 and “Implications of correlations between skin color and genetic ancestry for biomedical research,” http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v36/n11s/full/ng1440.html, by E J Parra, R A Kittles, and M D Shriver. So, in a way, what we think of as “race” may be in fact just a metaphor.
3. Neolithic Romeo and Juliet http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/NEWS/202080344/1004
Here's a story about an unusal burial recently uncovered from c. 6000 years ago.
If you’ve ever watched animal documentaries, you may have noticed a variety of ways the animals are presented. For example, the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom show from the 1960’s emphasized the competitive qualities of the animal world. (In fact, one of the researchers might just jump into the picture to wrestle an alligator.) Recently, the interconnected web of creatures is emphasized. We should remember that the way we conceptualize the animal world depends in large part in how we understand our own social existence. And, in turn, the animal kingdom can serve as a potent source of metaphors for our own social organizations.
An article in the NewScientist.com news service titled “Democracy beats despotism in the animal world” documents a study of red deer undertaken by Tim Roper with interesting conclusions drawn (Jan. 8, 2003).
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3248-democracy-beats-despotism-in-the-animal-world.html
While deer are understood to have a clearly hierarchical social group with one individual dominating potential rivals, much as primates do, the dominant male does not always get his way. The study showed that the deer actually engaged in a democratic decision making process when moving from a grazing area to a drinking area. It wasn’t the case that the dominant male decided when it was time to move. Instead, when a critical mass had been reached of a majority of the group indicating it was time to move, then the group moved, whether the dominant male was ready or not. How might this apply to people?
2. Does “Race” Exist?
Martin Luther King, Jr. and others involved in the Civil Rights movement dreamed of a world that didn’t see color. Yet, I would hazard a guess that we haven’t really achieved this goal. I know that for myself at least when I see someone, I see her/him as belonging to a race, based primarily on skin pigmentation. I don’t think I have overly racist or prejudiced notions of what that person will be like based on his/her race, but the concept of race remains firmly implanted in our collective consciousness. The concept of “race” is anything but simple, though. A number of geneticists and biologists interrogate the concept of race and its genetic basis. They find that often common notions of race do not correspond to underlying genetic differences. The relationship between skin pigmentation and ancestry is quite variable. There are a number of references to mention: “Does Race Exist?” Scientific American, Nov. 10, 2003, by Michael Bamshad and Steve Olson, http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00055DC8-3BAA-1FA8-BBAA83414B7F0000 and “Implications of correlations between skin color and genetic ancestry for biomedical research,” http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v36/n11s/full/ng1440.html, by E J Parra, R A Kittles, and M D Shriver. So, in a way, what we think of as “race” may be in fact just a metaphor.
3. Neolithic Romeo and Juliet http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/NEWS/202080344/1004
Here's a story about an unusal burial recently uncovered from c. 6000 years ago.
