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Patterns of wins and lo sses in pairwise contests, such as occur in sports and games, consumer research and paired comparison studies, and human and animal social hierarchies, are commonly analyzed using probabilistic models that allow one to quantify the strength of competitors or predict the outcome of future contests. Here, we generalize this approach to incorporate two additional features: an element of randomness or luck that leads to upset wins, and a "depth of competition" variable that measures the complexity of a game or hierarchy. Fitting the resulting model, we estimate depth and luck in a range of games, sports, and social situations. In general, we find that social competition tends to be "deep," meaning it has a pronounced hierarchy with many distinct levels, but also that there is often a nonzero chance of an upset victory. Competition in sports and games, by contrast, tends to be shallow, and in most cases, there is little evidence of upset wins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social meanings of monetary research incentives and the ramifications of their use in interview research. I argue that monetary incentives produce complex social meanings that significantly and diversly shape the relationship between interview researchers and participants and, as such, impact the types and volume of data that interviews produce. I discuss three distinct social meanings that emerged in my qualitative research interviews with forty-four low-wage freelance refugee interpreters in Canada. First, I show that in research with low-income workers, incentives can be interpreted as symbols of cross-class allyship that place the researcher in trusting and highly cooperative relationships of solidarity with participants. Second, the use of research incentives may also, and somewhat paradoxically, deepen socio-economic hierarchies by placing researchers and participants in relations resembling those between employers and employees. Third, research incentives may also be used by participants to resist social hierarchies and establish relations of benevolent and charitable equivalence in the interview encounter. Thus, the various social meanings of monetary incentives are productive of distinct interpersonal dynamics that shape the process of data collection as well as recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a course of correction in the discourse surrounding human-centric AI by elucidating the philosophical underpinning that serves to create a view that AI is divorced from human-centric values. Next, we espouse the need to explicitly designate stakeholder- or community-centric values which are needed to resolve the issue of alignment. To achieve this, we present two frameworks, Ubuntu and maximum feasible participation. Finally, we demonstrate how employing the aforementioned frameworks in AI can benefit society by flattening the current top-down social hierarchies as AI is currently being utilized. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship has described Deir el-Medina as a sophisticated community composed of highly trained and educated individuals, at least compared to most ancient Egyptian villages that were primarily focused on agrarian labor. The tombs at Deir el-Medina indicate that some community members were well-off financially and may have aspired to reach elite levels in ancient Egypt's social hierarchy. However, this understanding of Deir el-Medina's community lacks the nuance of the hierarchical structure that defines success and status among the workers, artists, and craftspeople living in the community. This paper will investigate how one's status within the community might dictate the allocation of artistic roles in the execution of painted royal tomb scenes. It will explore who within the community would have the privilege of depicting the primary motifs of a tomb and who would be responsible for less noticeable areas of the tomb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti relies on social instrumentation for its creation on spatial structures. It is questioned whether different mechanisms exist to transfer social and spatial hierarchies under a new model for better engagement, management, and governance. This research aims to replace physical graffiti using augmented reality (AR) in smartphones. Contact-free AR graffiti starts with the creation of 3D graffiti; this is followed by an AR cloud platform upload, quick response (QR) code access, and site deployment, leading to the secondary reconstruction of a field scene using smartphone screenshots. The working structure was created based on the first 3D reconstruction of graffiti details as AR models and second 3D reconstruction of field graffiti on different backgrounds using a photogrammetry method. The 3D graffiti can be geotagged as a personal map and 3D printed for collections. This culture-engaged AR creates a two-way method of interacting with spatial structures where the result is collected as a self-governed form of social media. The reinterpreted context is represented by a virtual 3D sticker or symbolized name card shared on the cloud. The hidden or social hierarchy was reinterpreted by a sense of ritual without altering any space. The application of digital stickers in AR redefines the spatial order, typology, and governance of graffiti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-sensitive parliaments are an emergent international norm. Research primarily focused on parliaments as gendered workplaces functioning with formal and informal rules and routines that either constrain or promote gender equality. We shift the focus to parliamentary groups and parties in public office as key actors in achieving a gender-sensitive parliament. We argue that they play a crucial role in many parliamentary systems and can actively contribute to gender-sensitive transformations. Building on the gender-sensitive parliament literature, we first explore the potential of parliamentary groups to improve parliamentary functioning across four aspects: representation, policy-making, engagement with societal interests, and groups as gender-sensitive workplaces. Secondly, we delve into the broader parliamentary and party contexts, recognizing how factors such as the diversity of parliamentary systems, organizational structures, parties in central office, and political dynamics shape parliamentary groups' room for manoeuvre. We conclude by calling for further empirical, but especially conceptual, research to develop intersectionality-sensitive parliaments which we suggest are crucial for dismantling existing power hierarchies based on social markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals' continuous success in competitive interactions with conspecifics strongly affects their social hierarchy. Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is the key brain region mediating both social competition and hierarchy. However, the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying the neural ensemble in the mPFC remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that in excitatory neurons of prelimbic cortex (PL), lncRNA Sera remodels the utilization of Pkm Exon9 and Exon10, resulting in a decrease in the Pkm1/2 ratio in highly competitive mice. By employing a tet-on/off system, we disrupt or rebuild the normal Pkm1/2 ratio by controlling the expression of Pkm2 in PL excitatory neurons. We find that long-term Pkm2 modulation induces timely competition alteration and hysteretic rank change, through phosphorylating the Ser845 site of GluA1. Together, this study uncovers a crucial role of lncRNA Sera/Pkm2 pathway in the transition of social competition to rank by remodeling neural ensemble in mPFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global literature recognizes the interactions between endogenous and exogenous forest resource (FR) management institutions. However, a comprehensive understanding of the sources, mechanisms, and outcomes of institutional change in diverse physiographic regions is lacking. We analyzed mechanisms and outcomes of five decades of institutional change across four physiographic regions of Nepal. Data collection involved 45 key informant interviews, 37 expert interviews, and 22 focus group discussions, complemented by a review of 24 policy documents and 8 community forest (CF) management plans and reports. Through directed content analysis, we found that endogenous institutions are rooted more in customs, traditions, and social hierarchies, and formal exogenous institutions are rooted in national and international policies, which are frequently observed for commercialized forest resources. It further revealed transformational changes in forest management institutions from state-oriented to community-based management across the regions between 1976 and 2010. Critical juncture, priming-framing and puzzling-learning were key mechanisms in the middle and high mountains. In contrast, Terai's recurrent mechanisms were negative/positive feedback and patching-up. After 2010, (de)incremental changes linked to exogenous and endogenous institutions were found to align more with a global agenda (e.g., REDD+). Priming-framing, negative/positive feedback, and transposition were key institutional change mechanisms of exogenous institutions across the study sites. Economic growth and exogenous institutions played an important role in (de)incremental changes linked to endogenous institutions. Additionally, exogenous institutions produced mixed socioeconomic and positive ecological outcomes, showing regional variations. Endogenous institutions led to positive outcomes, highlighting their importance in sustainable forest management. Future research should examine power dynamics, shedding light on how local actors employ institutions and power to produce differential outcomes in CF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In marine coral reef ecosystems, anemonefish are a group with highly complex behavioral patterns and strict social hierarchies. However, there has been a paucity of research on the factors associated with stable hierarchical relationships or the behaviors performed during competitive interactions, especially in anemonefish in the growth phase before sexual differentiation. In the present study, we employed an observational approach to assess the personality type of each individual by observing the interactive behavior between unsexually differentiated Amphiprion clarkii. Our findings revealed that the personality of A. clarkii varied significantly between individuals, with two main types. Furthermore, our pairing experiments confirmed the impact of personality on the establishment of a stable social hierarchy. These personality-related behavioral traits are potentially important for both individual and population survival, and extend our understanding of the establishment and evolution of social hierarchies in anemonefish and their impact on population dispersal. Furthermore, they have the potential to guide aquaculture practices. In this study, the behavioral ethogram of Amphiprion clarkii during the growth phase prior to sexual differentiation was summarized based on behavioral observations in three social environments. These behaviors can be classified into four categories: in addition to normal behaviors, the other three categories of behaviors—threatening, agonistic, and appeasing behaviors—represent different intentions in interactions with other individuals. Subsequently, the personalities of each individual were assessed by testing their reactions to intruders. These individuals mainly exhibited two distinct personality types: bold-aggressive and shy-submissive. In pairing experiments, the interactive behaviors of the anemonefish were observed in pairing combinations of different body sizes and personalities. The impact of personality on the establishment of a stable social hierarchy was confirmed by significant differences in the success rates of different pairing combinations, with the frequency of appeasing behaviors being the main factor influencing the success rate. Our results suggested that in natural waters, when juvenile individuals migrate among host anemones, shy-submissive individuals are more likely to be accepted due to their appeasing behaviors towards larger individuals, thus avoiding the risk of being attacked and bitten, and benefiting the survival of the individual. Conversely, bold-aggressive individuals are more likely to be driven away to another host anemone due to their unwillingness to settle for a lower-ranked status, thereby contributing to population dispersal and increasing opportunities for gene exchange between populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monumental rock-cut tombs decorated with wall paintings or reliefs were rare in New Kingdom colonial Nubia. Exceptions include the 18th Dynasty tombs of Djehutyhotep (Debeira) and Hekanefer (Miam), and the 20th Dynasty tomb of Pennut (Aniba). The three tombs present typical Egyptian artistic representations and inscriptions, which include tomb owners and their families, but also those living under their direct control. This paper compares the artistic and architectural features of these decorated, monumental rock-cut tombs in light of the archaeological record of the regions in which they were located in order to contextualize art within its social setting in colonized Nubia. More than expressing cultural and religious affiliations in the colony, art seems to have been essentially used as a tool to enforce hierarchization and power, and to define the borders of the uppermost elite social spaces in New Kingdom colonial Nubia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the 'democratization' of consumption during the early modern period was specifically a characteristic of the European economic shift or observable in other parts of the world remains a central question in understanding the early roots of consumerism, as well as explaining pre‐industrial growth and divergence. However, the scarcity of quantitative evidence from the non‐Western world limits our ability to make comparisons and grasp the nature of changes that occurred in the material environment. Based on a sample of 380 probate inventories from the Ottoman town of Üsküdar, this paper examines the change in possession of domestic goods from 1700 to 1850. It reveals that, from the 1760s onwards, ordinary Ottomans in the town, who were neither wealthier nor better positioned in the social hierarchy compared with their ancestors in 1700, owned a greater quantity and variety of domestic goods. As a result, they enjoyed richer and more elaborate domestic interiors. The findings strongly suggest that democratization of consumer goods, a hallmark of the early modern consumer revolutions in Europe, was experienced in the Ottoman town of Üsküdar during the second half of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhincodon typus, or the whale shark, is the largest extant fish in the world and is classified as endangered on the IUCN's Red List. Due to their enormous size and conservation status, whale sharks are rarely housed in aquaria. Here we present a behavioral analysis culminating from a large effort by 89 observers from 2008-2012 to study four R. typus (ID codes: AL, TA, TR, YU) longitudinally in an aquarium setting. We found that relatively simple behavioral metrics such as swim speed, depth occupation, swimming direction, and lead-follow interactions demonstrated R. typus individual variation and responses to habitat changes. All sharks displayed increased swim speeds 30-minutes before regimented feed times, when there was scent of food being fed to other animals in the habitat. Consistently in the habitat, one male shark (YU) was recorded swimming more at depth, faster, almost exclusively clockwise, and engaged in fewer close proximity interactions with others than expected by chance. In contrast, a larger female shark (AL) was observed swimming the slowest, at the surface more than others, led other sharks more than she followed, and had strong lead-follow interactions with another shark of the opposite sex (TA). TA and TR did not differ from each other in depth profiles or speed, but did differ in their proclivity to lead or follow. Depth preferences and lead-follow interactions suggest some partitioning of the habitat and the possibility of social hierarchy in this species. These results represent the first longitudinal behavioral analysis of aquarium R. typus, offering meaningful similarities and contrasts to field observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In recent years, the interest in virtual fencing systems for flexible animal enclosure management has increased. However, implementing such systems requires significant investment due to the need for individual collars, hindering large-scale adoption. This study examines the spatial distribution of a cow herd using GPS locations from the Nofence© system, aiming to minimize the number of collars required by identifying patterns in positions and ranks to derive a hierarchy. Contrary to expectations, no distinct pattern emerged, suggesting future studies should focus on individual interactions rather than viewing the herd as a single unit. Interest in virtual fencing has increased due to its flexibility for agriculture and rewilding. However, systems like Nofence© require large financial investments, and the need for individual collars complicates large-scale use. If cattle herds maintain cohesive groups around leading individuals, fewer collars could be used, thereby enhancing cost efficiency. This study investigates the pattern in spatial distribution in a herd of 17 Angus cows on Fanø in Denmark with GPS locations, using a Nofence© system. The aim of this paper is to determine how individuals position themselves in a herd, spatially, and identify a pattern in ranks. The method used in this study examines the distances between an individual to the rest of the herdmates using nearest neighbour and descriptive statistics. Contrary to expectations, this study did not reveal a distinct pattern in herd distribution. While some tendencies in spatial distribution patterns were observed, only a low concordance could be found ( W = 0.15 , p < 0.001 ), indicating great variability in the cattle's ranks. A cumulative curve of the ranks estimated over the entire periods, however, allowed a rough estimation of the hierarchy and allowed identification of the highest-ranked cows, making the use of a cumulative curve a possible solution to finding the high-ranked cows. This research underscores the complexity of cattle social structures and highlights the need for extended observation periods and alternative methodologies to enhance the cost-effectiveness and scalability of virtual fencing in agricultural and rewilding contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The vomeronasal organ is essential for chemical communication in many species, particularly in pigs, in which the establishment of a social hierarchy in groups is crucial. Alterations to the vomeronasal organ have been shown to be linked to aggressive behaviors in this species. Moreover, it was recently demonstrated in a mouse model that the environmental air composition can impact the condition of the vomeronasal organ. As pigs can be farmed in intensive and free-range farming conditions, the aim of this study was to analyze whether the porcine farming method influences the condition of the vomeronasal organ using a histological approach. The results showed that pigs housed in free-range farming conditions exhibited more alterations in their vomeronasal organs than did those housed in intensive conditions. The vomeronasal organ (VNO) plays a key role in mammals, since it detects pheromones thus enabling social interactions between congeners. VNO inflammatory changes have been shown to severely impact animal life, leading to impaired social interactions in groups, such as in pigs. Environmental air is known to be strongly modified in farms, and it is suspected to be one of the causes of this alteration. This study aimed to compare via histology the VNOs of pigs housed in intensive conditions (n = 38) to those of pigs housed in free-range farming conditions (n = 35). VNO sections were stained in hematoxylin and eosin to assess the presence of nonsensory and sensory epithelium alterations and collagenolysis. The nonsensory epithelium was significantly more inflamed in animals in free-range farming conditions than those in intensive conditions (p < 0.0001) and was more strongly affected by signs of collagenolysis (p < 0.0001). The sensory epithelium seemed to be less altered by the different environmental conditions (p = 0.7267). These results suggest that species-typical pig behaviors, such as digging and rooting for food, could facilitate the presence of microparticles in the oral cavity and their entrance into the vomeronasal canals, leading to changes to the VNO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tropelías: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada is the property of Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal for Religion in Education / Religionspädagogische Beiträge is the property of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Katholische Religionspadagogik & Katechetik (AKRK) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In many aquatic taxa, formation traveling can reduce the energetic expenditure of locomotion by exploiting the vorticity trails shed by neighbors or through drafting. Cetaceans, especially odontocetes, often swim in groups; nevertheless, the possibility that whales gain energetic benefits from swimming in formation remains poorly studied, apart from mother-calf pairs. Between June and September in 2019 and 2021, we recorded aerial videos of Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the Salish Sea (USA) travelling in groups. We estimated whale tailbeat and breathing frequencies as proxies of the relative energetic costs of swimming, and tested the effect of swimming speed, relative positioning (e.g., leaders, whales in the middle of groups, or followers), sex and estimated size on these observed proxies. Our results reveal a complex relationship between physical characteristics, relative positioning, and energetic proxies. Intervals between respiration lasted longer in large-sized trailing individuals, but the overall breathing frequency was similar for all whales regardless of their position. The tailbeat frequency was mainly associated to whale sex, size, and swimming speed; in addition, tailbeat frequency showed a decreasing trend as the number of individuals in the formation increased. We found moderate evidence that position-based energetic effects may be present in the formation swimming of killer whales, and it is likely that additional factors such as social ties and hierarchies, play a key role in determining individual positioning in travelling groups. Significance: Swimming in formation has been extensively studied in fish and other aquatic animals and has been documented to provide energetic advantages. Our understanding of the potential energetic benefits of wild cetacean formation swimming has been constrained by the difficulties of studying the movement of whale groups from traditional observation platforms. In recent years, non-invasive observations of cetaceans using unoccupied aerial systems have significantly improved the observation of these species in the wild, providing an exciting opportunity to better understand their behaviors and habits. Our results show a tendency for formation swimming to affect two energetic proxies (tailbeat frequency and the duration of underwater intervals between surfacing events). The results of this study set the stage for further research to identify the multiple determinants affecting killer whale formation swimming which go beyond purely energetic advantages, e.g. social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quakerism is conventionally viewed as a politically radical movement at its foundations. This thesis has been challenged recently, but the problem remains that early Quakers provided little justification for a politics comfortable with established social and political hierarchies. This article proposes that early Quakerism's 'incoherence', a feature which intellectual historians are often alert to within political texts and movements, was patched up by the efforts of George Fox the Younger (d.1661), a previously little studied Friend. Scholars have often discounted or misinterpreted Fox's work, but it can provide a key to understanding political boundaries which the movement respected in practice. This essay establishes his thought's representative quality, despite the relative singularity of his voice. This may provide a hermeneutic for other studies of Quakerism and intellectual history; and some reflections upon Fox's abiding normative importance are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on David Joselit's critique of modernity in relation to the proprietary mindset that regulates the production and circulation of art on the art market, this article focuses on a few examples of artists employing gestures of displacement around techniques involving collage and montage - in various fields of expression from performance art, theatre, photography, installation to mixed media and sculpture and in relation to their spaces - to declassify the dominant perceptions of the real and history by exposing the arbitrary nature of social hierarchies and giving voice to those who are traditionally silenced. We will observe how these different approaches tackle, disrupt and offer an alternative to the commodified modes of spectatorship that in both the space of art and of the city (embodying and reflecting the mechanisms of modernity) perform a systematic dispossession of the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries, archives, and museum collections are distinct collecting entities that share similarities in their concepts and workflows, yet diverge in their fundamental approaches to descriptive work. While librarians and archivists are frequently associated due to their placement within institutional hierarchies and shared academic backgrounds, librarians and museum registrars are more naturally aligned in the realm of metadata. Both librarians and registrars traditionally emphasize item-level description whereas archivists prioritize a creator and collection-based approach. This article aims to explore the challenges of maintaining archival descriptive best practices within a museum culture that predominantly emphasizes object collections and item-level documentation. By identifying tools, techniques, and strategies archives can implement, museum staff can better understand and appreciate the unique contributions of archival practices. Additionally, advocating for archival standards to senior staff will foster a more comprehensive and holistic approach to cataloging and preserving cultural heritage. By recognizing the value of both item-level and collection-based approaches, the museum can create a more robust and interconnected system of documentation, enhancing the overall quality and accessibility of their collections and archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs structural realism indicators to predict the likelihood of a great power war in today’s multipolar world. Focusing on key indicators such as changes in the balance of power, alliance systems, military expenditure, and the intensity of competition over strategic resources and regions, the analysis aims to establish a theoretical foundation for assessing the risk of conflict among major powers in Europe and beyond. Drawing on historical precedents and contemporary geopolitical trends, the study evaluates the dynamics of international relations through the structural realist framework. By examining the evolving power structures and strategic behaviors of major states, the article seeks to identify patterns that may indicate an increased risk of great power conflicts. The multifaceted approach integrates both historical insights and current realities, offering a comprehensive perspective on the potential triggers and dynamics of great power wars in the complex landscape of a multipolar world. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the structural factors that may influence the emergence of conflicts among major powers, providing valuable insights for policymakers, scholars, and analysts grappling with global security challenges and provides a deeper analysis of the security implications for the Baltic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social structure may have changed from hierarchical to egalitarian and back along the evolutionary line of humans. Within the tradition of sociophysics, we construct a mathematical model of a society of agents subject to competing cognitive and social navigation constraints and predict, using statistical mechanics methods, that its degree of hierarchy decreases with encephalization and increases with group size, hence suggesting human societies were driven from hierarchical to egalitarian structures by the encephalization during the last few million years and back to hierarchical due to fast demographic changes during the Neolithic. In addition, applied to a different problem, the theory leads to the following predictions for modern pre-literary humans: (i) an intermediate hierarchy degree in mild climates. In harsher climates, societies will be (ii) more egalitarian if organized in small groups (of less than 100 persons) but (iii) more hierarchical if in larger (of more than 1000 persons) groups. The predicted bifurcation, characteristic of a phase transition, is also seen in the empirical cross-cultural record (248 cultures in the Ethnographic Atlas). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The locations around us have a profound influence on our actions, thoughts, and behaviours. The major capitals around the world have served as settings for many fictional works that showcase how the psyches of the characters have changed when interacting with these locations. Kuala Lumpur, being one of the bustling cities in Southeast Asia, is no exception. The beauty and vibrancy of the metropolis have been highlighted in numerous creative works. However, its depiction is significantly different in the KL Noir series, which emphasises the darkness and bleakness of a location. In the collection of short stories, KL Noir: Magic (2021), the city plays a pivotal role in influencing and shaping the life trajectories of the characters. This study aims to examine how female characters in selected stories from the anthology are able to build their resilience within the city through the lens of psychogeography. Examined alongside Mikhal Bakhtin's concept of the Carnivalesque, the characters' abilities to inverse social hierarchy and create a temporal escape as they engage with their surroundings within Kuala Lumpur are explored. The diverse set of female characters found within the selected stories consists of struggling working-class women, a retiree, a robot, and ghosts; it establishes a more robust connection between these characters and the city. Finally, the study shows how the effects of psychogeography and carnivalesque are able to transcend various forms of female existence and lead to female resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how everyday practices of 'bordering', as conceived by Yuval- Davis, Wemyss, and Cassidy (2019) as the ongoing proliferation of border sites where migrants are assessed to be fit for inclusion or exclusion, may violate moral respect by subjecting migrants to a wide array of discriminatory treatment, leading to what I call 'status-harms'. Section II begins by providing an overview of bordering and the various forms it has taken, such as internal immigration checkpoints or even online visa application processes. Section III develops an account of comparative and non-comparative status-harms and why they constitute violations of moral respect. There, I pay special attention to comparative status-harms by proposing three conditions under which a comparative status-harm can be said to have occurred: (a) if an individual or group is singled out for disadvantageous treatment that others are not subjected to on the basis of a socially salient attribute, (b) if the attribute marks them out as inferior relative to those who are not affected thus, and (c) ascriptions of inferior status occur within a morally objectionable social hierarchy where they are targeted by hostile norms and practices centred around that attribute. I then consider how discriminatory practices of bordering routinely imposes status-harms on migrants. Section IV draws a distinction between two types of discrimination that migrants may be subjected to at border sites, which I term policy-based discrimination and procedure-based discrimination, and explores their relationship to the comparative and non-comparative status-harms suffered by migrants. I conclude in Section V. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text reports on the results of research on a topic rarely addressed in the historiography of the relations between the Church and the Mexican State in the 19th century: the actions of the Catholic hierarchy to counteract the effects of the loss of material goods due to of the reformist laws promoted by the liberal governments after the triumph of the Ayutla revolution in 1855. In the following lines we will analyze the spirit and objective of these measures, the actions undertaken by the bishops of Veracruz, in the indicated period, in order to recover part of those expropriated assets and resources and some of the cases that could be analyzed, temporarily located in the era of the restored republic and the Porfiriato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ecosistemas y Recursos Agropecuarios is the property of Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Highlights: In this article, we contend that the bedrock of an equitable world lies in the profound recognition of love as the fundamental force permeating the cosmos. We believe that love is built into the essence of who we are. We posit that genuine progress toward an equitable world is elusive unless we place love, both for one another and for the natural world, at the core of our educational endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some features of digital payments in China to raise analytical questions for a pragmatist anthropology of money. It shows that digital payments in China are concentrated in two companies, that are part of a small oligopoly of companies that organize digital connections among around 850 million people in the territory. This raises questions concerning the role of digital payments for social interdependence and the constitution of social hierarchies. The second section analyzes the institutional setting and the legitimizing narratives with which this happens. It shows a complex interdependence between the state and non-state-owned big technological companies, which produce legitimizing narratives that can be shared, divergent or even contradictory. This raises questions concerning the role of digital payments in the project of constituting a national society. In the conclusion, the paper recalls that, although these developments in the Chinese territory cannot be replicated elsewhere, they pose important questions for the analysis of digital money's present and potential futures worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know that, through lobbying and contributions, organizations systematically seek to influence political outcomes in liberal democracies. But what role do organizations play in an authoritarian regime's strategy for remaining in power? We argue that in order to maintain stability and consolidate control, an authoritarian regime must actively work to preempt dissent and the emergence of oppositional challengers. When potential challengers are unknown ex ante, the best guess is that they may rise from the ranks of those who run economically powerful organizations. Ability to control these organizations then minimizes the risk of instability. One way in which the regime accomplishes this control is through pro-forma cooptation—the process by which organizational leaders are assigned to positions with nominal authority in the government, thus ensuring their allegiance. We develop a theory predicting which organizations will be targeted for cooptation and posit that absolute and relative size and industry context are the key determinants. Empirical analyses of reappointment to congress of senior business executives in China offer support for the theory. The findings also offer a way to think of cooptation that is different from the conventional view that it drives adaptation (because power sharing widens representation and vested interests). By contrast, pro-forma cooptation of prominent organizations under authoritarian rule reifies the regime's dominance and solidifies its control, thus promoting inertia through the reproducibility of hierarchy in the social structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of HiSTOReLo: Revista de Historia Regional y Local is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro Editorial Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The natural alignment of animals into social dominance hierarchies produces adaptive, and potentially maladaptive, changes in the brain that influence health and behavior. Aggressive and submissive behaviors assumed by animals through dominance interactions engage stress-dependent neural and hormonal systems that have been shown to correspond with social rank. Here, we examined the association between social dominance hierarchy status established within cages of group-housed mice and the expression of the stress peptide PACAP in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). We also examined the relationship between social dominance rank and blood corticosterone (CORT) levels, body weight, motor coordination (rotorod) and acoustic startle. Male C57BL/6 mice were ranked as either Dominant, Submissive, or Intermediate based on counts of aggressive/submissive encounters assessed at 12 weeks-old following a change in homecage conditions. PACAP expression was significantly higher in the BNST, but not the CeA, of Submissive mice compared to the other groups. CORT levels were lowest in Submissive mice and appeared to reflect a blunted response following events where dominance status is recapitulated. Together, these data reveal changes in specific neural/neuroendocrine systems that are predominant in animals of lowest social dominance rank, and implicate PACAP in brain adaptations that occur through the development of social dominance hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International development work involves external partners bringing expertise, resources, and management for local interventions in LMICs, but there is often a gap in understandings of relevant local shared values. There is a widespread need to better design interventions which accommodate relevant elements of local culture, as emphasised by recent discussions in global health research regarding neo-colonialism. One recent innovation is the concept of producing 'cultural protocols' to precede and guide community engagement or intervention design, but without suggestions for generating them. This study explores and demonstrates the potential of an approach taken from another field, named WeValue InSitu, to generate local culturally-informed protocols. WeValue InSitu engages stakeholder groups in meaning-making processes which 'crystallize' their envelope of local shared values, making them communicable to outsiders. Our research context is understanding and reducing child stunting, including developing interventions, carried out at the Senegal and Indonesia sites of the UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub. Each national research team involves eight health disciplines from micro-nutrition to epigenetics, and extensive collection of samples and questionnaires. Local culturally-informed protocols would be generally valuable to pre-inform engagement and intervention designs. Here we explore generating them by immediately following the group WeValue InSitu crystallization process with specialised focus group discussions exploring: what local life practices potentially have significant influence on the environments affecting child stunting, and which cultural elements do they highlight as relevant. The discussions will be framed by the shared values, and reveal linkages to them. In this study, stakeholder groups like fathers, mothers, teachers, market traders, administrators, farmers and health workers were recruited, totalling 83 participants across 20 groups. Themes found relevant for a culturally-informed protocol for locally-acceptable food interventions included: specific gender roles; social hierarchies; health service access challenges; traditional beliefs around malnutrition; and attitudes to accepting outside help. The concept of a grounded culturally-informed protocol, and the use of WeValue InSitu to generate it, has thus been demonstrated here. Future work to scope out the advantages and limitations compared to deductive culture studies, and to using other formative research methods would now be useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rodents establish dominance hierarchy as a social ranking system in which one subject acts as dominant over all the other subordinate individuals. Dominance hierarchy regulates food access and mating opportunities, but little is known about its significance in other social behaviors, for instance during collective navigation for foraging or migration. Here, we implemented a simplified goal-directed spatial task in mice, in which animals navigated individually or collectively with their littermates foraging for food. We compared between conditions and found that the social condition exerts significant influence on individual displacement patterns, even when efficient navigation rules leading to reward had been previously learned. Thus, movement patterns and consequent task performance were strongly dependent on contingent social interactions arising during collective displacement, yet their influence on individual behavior was determined by dominance hierarchy. Dominant animals did not behave as leaders during collective displacement; conversely, they were most sensitive to the social environment adjusting their performance accordingly. Social ranking in turn was associated with specific spontaneous neural activity patterns in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, with dominant mice showing higher firing rates, larger ripple oscillations, and stronger neuronal entrainment by ripples than subordinate animals. Moreover, dominant animals selectively increased their cortical spiking activity during collective movement, while subordinate mice did not modify their firing rates, consistent with dominant animals being more sensitive to the social context. These results suggest that dominance hierarchy influences behavioral performance during contingent social interactions, likely supported by the coordinated activity in the hippocampal-prefrontal circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a multimodal corpus consisting of 48 farmer-themed cartoons retrieved from the China News Cartoon Network, this research aims to undertake a comprehensive analysis of farmers' images constructed through the utilization of various multimodal metaphors and metonymies in news cartoons. A multimodal critical metaphor / metonymy analysis approach will be adopted to lay bare the hidden evaluative attitudes that underlie these tropes. Thorough scrutiny, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the study reveals the existence of five primary stereotypical media images of farmers in the Chinese news media. These include the depiction of farmers as economically disadvantaged laborers, powerless takers reliant on protection, contrasting figures to urban citizens, poorly educated criminals, and beneficiaries of agricultural policies. The predominantly one-dimensional, weakened, and biased images are intentionally (or unintentionally) crafted by the media through the use of metaphorical and metonymic mappings, which involve highlighting certain aspects while concealing others. The negative attitudes, discrimination, and stigmatization toward the least powerful members of Chinese society unveil the underlying unequal power dynamics, social hierarchy, and economic duality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection is a critical component of machine learning and data mining to remove redundant and irrelevant features from a dataset. The Chimp Optimization Algorithm (CHoA) is widely applicable to various optimization problems due to its low number of parameters and fast convergence rate. However, CHoA has a weak exploration capability and tends to fall into local optimal solutions in solving the feature selection process, leading to ineffective removal of irrelevant and redundant features. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the Enhanced Chimp Hierarchy Optimization Algorithm for adaptive lens imaging (ALI-CHoASH) for searching the optimal classification problems for the optimal subset of features. Specifically, to enhance the exploration and exploitation capability of CHoA, we designed a chimp social hierarchy. We employed a novel social class factor to label the class situation of each chimp, enabling effective modelling and optimization of the relationships among chimp individuals. Then, to parse chimps' social and collaborative behaviours with different social classes, we introduce other attacking prey and autonomous search strategies to help chimp individuals approach the optimal solution faster. In addition, considering the poor diversity of chimp groups in the late iteration, we propose an adaptive lens imaging back-learning strategy to avoid the algorithm falling into a local optimum. Finally, we validate the improvement of ALI-CHoASH in exploration and exploitation capabilities using several high-dimensional datasets. We also compare ALI-CHoASH with eight state-of-the-art methods in classification accuracy, feature subset size, and computation time to demonstrate its superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social hierarchies can be inferred through observational learning of social relationships between individuals. Yet, little is known about the causal role of specific brain regions in learning hierarchies. Here, using transcranial direct current stimulation, we show a causal role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in learning social versus non-social hierarchies. In a Training phase, participants acquired knowledge about social and non-social hierarchies by trial and error. During a Test phase, they were presented with two items from hierarchies that were never encountered together, requiring them to make transitive inferences. Anodal stimulation over mPFC impaired social compared with non-social hierarchy learning, and this modulation was influenced by the relative social rank of the members (higher or lower status). Anodal stimulation also impaired transitive inference making, but only during early blocks before learning was established. Together, these findings demonstrate a causal role of the mPFC in learning social ranks by observation. A brain stimulation study (tDCS) on healthy humans shows that the medial prefrontal cortex plays a causal role in learning social hierarchical relationships by observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the nineteenth century, the Alzate family, of Medellín, Colombia, grasped the magnetism of the Natural Man (a malleable myth with porous edges that combines both the Edenic and the cannibalistic visions of indigenous peoples) and its economic potential and orchestrated a family craft business of fake pre-Columbian pottery. They created pieces that would engage in dialogue with collectors’, anthropologists’, museums’, and tourists’ desires and imaginaries, as well as authenticity criteria, about indigenous pre-Columbian peoples. This article shows the relationship between these forgeries’ production, circulation, and consumption and the ways Latin American indigenous peoples have been conceived of by others. Moreover, this research stresses how authentic fakes, together with official and popular discourses and images, certain exhibition and validation rhetorics, and other mises-en-scène construct what is sacralized as uncontaminated, original, and traditional. Such fakes operate politically by undermining social hierarchies linked to essentialized race and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Advisors generally evaluate advisee‐relevant feedback after advice giving. The response to these feedback—(1) whether the advice is accepted and (2) whether the advice is optimal—usually involves prestige. Prior literature has found that prestige is the basis by which individuals attain a superior status in the social hierarchy. However, whether advisors are motivated to attain a superior status when engaging in advice giving remains uncharacterized. Using event‐related potentials, this study investigates how advisors evaluate feedback after giving advice to superior (vs. inferior) status advisees. A social hierarchy was first established based on two advisees (one was ranked as superior status and another as inferior status) as well as participants' performance in a dot‐estimation task in which all participants were ranked as medium status. Participants then engaged in a game in which they were assigned roles as advisors to a superior or inferior status advisee. Afterward, the participants received feedback in two phases. In Phase 1, participants were told whether the advisees accepted the advice provided. In Phase 2, the participants were informed whether the advice they provided was correct. In these two phases, when the advisee was of superior status, participants exhibited stronger feedback‐related negativity and P300 difference in response to (1) whether their advice was accepted, and (2) whether their advice was correct. Moreover, the P300 was notably larger when the participants' correct advice led to a gain for a superior‐status advisee. In the context of advice giving, advisors are particularly motivated to attain a superior status when the feedback involving social hierarchies, which is reflected in higher sensitivity to feedback associated with superior status advisees at earlier and later stages during feedback evaluations in brains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interweaving social dominance, person-environment fit, and self-determination theories, the present study sought to understand whether the attrition between students' levels of social dominance orientation and the hierarchy-attenuating function of the social work faculty in which they study may influence students' academic motivational pathways. A total of 221 undergraduate social work students participated in the study and completed a self-report questionnaire. Participants' social dominance orientation, person-environment misfit, and academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were measured. Results indicated that students' social dominance orientation was associated with an external rather than an internal regulation of their academic motivation, mediated by their perceived person-environment misfit. For those students who personally support group-based inequalities, exposure to hierarchy-attenuating contexts would lead to regulating their academic behavior toward the pursuit of extrinsic (vs. intrinsic) goals, that is, studying to gain financial benefits and social prestige, in accordance with the pursuit of their beliefs of social dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American democracy is marked by an unwavering deployment of racialized economic modalities of fines, fees, and debt aimed at scaffolding hierarchies of white power and prescribing Black people as commodities, not human beings. Over the last two decades, an expanding praxis in the economic justice field has emerged, opposing and disrupting racialized economic logics within a national anti-fine, fee and cost movement. From scholarly discourse to legal interventions and reforms at city- and county-levels, the movement has sought to target interlocking material and ideological forces that comprise racial capitalist geographies across many criminal and civil systems. Despite this significant work, however, the distinctly racialized dispossessive and extractive economic realities of fines and fees regimes in other public state systems, namely K-12 public education, have escaped interrogation and advocacy. This Article serves to fill that gap at three levels-- theoretical, analytic, and prescriptive--presenting an incisive critique of public education absent from the existing legal literature and highlighting explicating existing remedies available to civil rights education attorneys to protect Black students and families. In advancing racial capitalism as its constructive feature, this Article does not simply rely on a theoretical approach. Instead, it employs critical theory and social science methodologies, drawing on an original dataset of firsthand accounts of clients and analyses of more than seven hundred different published and publicly-available individual public school, charter school, cyber charter school, and district handbooks and codes of conduct. The data illuminates how public education functions across key dynamics of racial capitalism--accumulation, dispossession, debt, punishment, and containment. This work thus contributes richly to legal scholarship and legal practice by attending to an undertheorized yet formative area of critical theory, and exposing the operation of racial capitalism through a familiarly racially evasive modality that fundamentally undermines Black students' access to their education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominance hierarchy exists in social animals and shows profound impacts on animals’ survival, physical and mental health, and reproductive success. Aggressive interaction, as the main indicator used to calculate social hierarchy, however, is not found in some female animals. In this study, we aimed to figure out the establishment of social hierarchy in hens that almost perform aggressive behaviors and investigated the interactions of social hierarchy with production performance and gut microbiome. Forty 49-day-old Qingyuan hens were randomly divided into four groups. The social hierarchy of hens was calculated by the relative position around the feeder. The rank 1 (R1), R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, and R10 birds were determined in ascending order. Then, R1 and R2 birds (four duplicates, n = 8) were named as the high-ranking hens (HR) group, while R9 and R10 individuals were named as the low-ranking hens (LR) group (four duplicates, n = 8). The heart index (p = 0.01), number of visits per day, daily feed intake, and occupation time per day were higher in the HR group than LR group, but the LR group had a higher feed intake per visit than the HR group. The alpha diversity was significantly lower in the HR group than the LR group (p = 0.05). The relative abundance of phylum Firmicutes was higher while that of phylum Deferribacterota was lower in the HR group than LR group (p < 0.05). At the genus level, the relative abundance of Succinatimonas, Eubacterium hallii group, and Anaerostipes were higher in HR group than in LR group. The relative abundance of Bacteroides, Mucispirillum, Subdoligranulum, and Barnesiellaceae unclassified was higher in the LR group than HR group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the rank of hens could be calculated by the relative position around the feeder when they compete for food. The dominant hens have an versatile. Moreover, they are more vigilant and have priority when foraging. Low-ranking hens adopt strategies to get enough food to sustain themselves. Hens of high-rank possess beneficial bacteria that use favorable substances to maintain the balance of the gut environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical communication is important for many social mammals. Scent-related gene clusters have undergone extraordinary expansion in some species, such as the house mouse (Mus musculus). One such family encodes major urinary proteins (MUPs). MUPs can provide recipients with complex information about the signaller and potentially serve as honest signals of social rank. In this study, we examined the development of overall MUP production in two mouse subspecies in the context of establishing their social hierarchy during the critical period between weaning and 100 days of age. We used fraternal pairs as simple social units, where dominant/subordinate ranks were naturally established between two brothers raised together, to test the hypothesis that dominant males of both taxa excrete higher amounts of MUPs in their urine than subordinates. The results were compared to data on ontogeny of steroid hormone levels gathered in the same individuals during an earlier experiment. Higher MUP levels in dominant males were only corroborated in one subspecies (domesticus), whereas musculus males revealed similar MUP quantities irrespective of rank. These results are consistent with the notion that these closely related taxa adopted different strategies for establishing social hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the caste system as a cultural construct. Esteemed social anthropologists and sociologists have perceived caste as a set of cultural beliefs and practices prevalent in Indian society. Caste is traditionally viewed as a cultural system shaped by specific norms and values that dictate the interrelations among individuals. Essentially, the caste system is a codified set of beliefs and practices observed within society. It is posited that a cultural approach to analyzing the caste system yields a deeper understanding. G. S. Ghurye (1932) characterizes caste by six features: segmental division of society, hierarchical structure, dietary and social interaction restrictions, civil and religious rights and disabilities, occupational restrictions, and marriage limitations. The entrenched social hierarchy of the Indian caste system has evolved notably in recent times. While caste is a unique societal stratification in India, this paper investigates its current socio-cultural transformations, focusing on significant cultural practices and processes such as Sanskritization, Westernization, Secularization, Modernization, and Globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the depiction of Jewish and Christian merchants in the medieval English Host miracle play, the Croxton Play of the Sacrament. This play is a critical illustration of religious racialization, effectively demonstrating the perpetuation of anti-Jewish stereotypes and legitimizing violence. Positioned within a broader scholarly debate, particularly in relation to Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness, the play portrays Jews as allegorical figures that validate Christian theological constructs. This paper delves into the representation and linguistic depiction of Jewish characters in the play, emphasizing their systematic dehumanization and instrumentalization in Christian narratives. A significant focus is placed on the coerced conversion of Jewish characters, which forces them into the archetype of the "Wandering Jew", thereby highlighting motifs of symbolic aggression and unending diaspora. This paper also confronts contemporary scholarly perspectives that view the play as challenging religious boundaries, positing that such interpretations overlook the ingrained racialization and marginalization of Jewish identity during the European Middle Ages. It argues that the play's transient disruption of power dynamics ultimately reinforces prevailing social hierarchies, thereby solidifying deep-seated anti-Jewish sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of watercolours from Michel van Meeyer's «Friends' Album» reveals the unique characteristics of the work and its relevance to source criticism. The study suggests that van Meeyer might not have directly witnessed the events he depicted. The album's role before becoming a primary source demonstrates a fascinating blend of visual and textual cultures in early modern Europe. Two watercolours portray James I in significant contexts: one shows him in the English Parliament, and the other depicts him among spectators at a rooster battle. These images provide insights into contemporary perceptions of James I and the interactions between the king and society. The purpose of this article is to analyze Michel van Meyer's friends' album, focusing on depictions of King James I Stuart (1603-1625) and royal authorities. It aims to examine the representation of power from the perspective of a traveller and compare it with the official image constructed by governmental institutions. In conclusion, at the presource stage, the album amicorum functioned much like modern social media, capturing life moments to share with family and friends. These «travel notes» were similar to contemporary photography, often signed and dated. The results of this analysis show that the albums provide insights into the perception of the king and its origins. Watercolours can be examined both as reflections of van Meyer's receptive attitudes and as sources of royal representation for acquaintances. This historical artifact actively participated in its time, rather than merely representing a tradition. In the watercolours, King James I is depicted as a proponent of chivalrous ideals, emphasizing his affiliation with the Order of the Garter and traditional equestrian portraits. Early Art England preserved representative strategies from the Tudor dynasty, such as the cult of St. George and the king's procession on St. George's Day. The king's title as a «blessed peacemaker», continuing the Elizabethan imperial tradition, is also maintained. The watercolour depicting a cockfight highlights the king's leisure activities and serves as a symbolic representation of social hierarchies. The originality of this analysis lies in its examination of Michael van Meyer's album as an object representing the image of King James I in society for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how gender abuse is not merely restricted to hierarchical gender oppression but also operates within an intersectional framework where gender is intertwined with hierarchical caste exploitation. While revisiting White bourgeois feminism, bell hooks emphasizes the incorporation of different marginal perspectives to make feminism an all-encompassing radical movement, accessible to everyone. Inspired by the lens that hooks uses to interpret Black feminism and the Indian scholars who approach Dalit feminism from an intersectional standpoint, I analyze Sujatha Gidla's autobiography Ants among Elephants (2017), a family story of a lower-middleclass rural South Indian Dalit woman. I argue for the need to bring different axes of oppression--such as inter-caste and intra-caste dimensions along with linguistic and regional hierarchies--into conversation with each other. The primary focus of my analysis of the autobiography are three topics--the narrative voice, the author's personal experience, and the intersectional aspect of domination in Dalit women's experience as recounted in the text. My paper highlights the literary aspect of the text by tracing Dalit rage in the narratorial voice that undercuts the mostly objective family narrative, following hooks' reconceptualization of Black rage. Dalit representation is shaped and informed by the psychological consequence of internalized inferiority as a result of looking at themselves and being looked at by others only in terms of absence. Bearing in mind that every strand in the interlocked webs of oppression critically informs the other, ignoring any one strand at the cost of another might render the task of liberation truncated and incomplete. This study, therefore, brings to the fore the need to address interlocking strands of oppression if a struggle for the liberation of any marginalized group can have a real impact on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ciência & Trópico (03042685) is the property of Fundacao Joaquim Nabuco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Through her dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood fuels the debate surrounding the global plight of women. Atwood weaves many biblical concepts, names, and motifs relating to the status of women into the novel, with a particular focus on the concept of the handmaid, whose sole function is childbearing. Atwood thus warns against fundamentalist readings of the Bible and other canonical texts that are the foundations of our culture. In order to reach a fuller understanding of the contextual biblical sources of the novel, in this article I take an in-depth look at the biblical source of the name "Gilead", as Atwood chose to set her tale in the "Republic of Gilead". Furthermore, as the novel presents a radical social hierarchy among women based on their childbearing duties, I will also examine the biblical narratives foundational to the hegemonic male interpretation that gave rise, according to the novel, to this dystopian reality. In this terrifying novel, the transformation of women into childbearing handmaids is based both on the biblical story of the handmaids and on the proprietary relationship of men over women in the Bible. I argue that the novel's critical approach deconstructs the unspoken assumptions of a particular way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Constelaciones (2340-177X) is the property of Fundacion Universitaria San Pablo - CEU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)