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PubMed1989

Traditional or transitional medical systems? Pharmacotherapy as a case for analysis.

Questions have been raised about the validity of labels such as 'western', 'alternative', and 'traditional' as applied to medical systems. This study shows that the rubric 'traditional' may be validly applied to clusters of medical systems sharing common elements that distinguish them from 'western' systems. At the same time, pluralism in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures must be recognized even within each system. The discussion in this paper analyzes explanatory models, drawing mainly from Asian examples and focussing on pharmaceuticals. A purely cognitive approach may however be insufficient in understanding the different medical systems. A review of socio-historical factors that influence medical systems highlights important processes such as cultural reinterpretation and indigenization that characterize what could be more appropriately described as transitional medical systems. Changes in cultural forms, such as the acceptance of western pharmaceuticals, may still rely on traditional cognitive frames of reference, suggesting eclecticism amid conservatism. Issues of theoretical and practical concern are outlined at the end of the article.

Asia↗
PubMed2006

Cultural coevolution of norm adoption and enforcement when punishers are rewarded or non-punishers are punished.

A number of studies have shown that social norms can be maintained at a high frequency when norm-violators are punished. However, there remains the problem of how norm-adopters and punishers coevolve within a single group. We develop a recursive system to examine the coevolution of norm-adopters and punishers where the viability of punishers is enhanced by one of two "metanorms": (1) Norm-observers reward punishers for punishing norm-violators (Reward Model); (2) Punishers punish non-punishers (Punishment Model). Both models generate a bistable system and each is characterized in phenotype frequency space by a distinct region of attraction to the equilibrium consisting of only norm-adopting punishers. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we find that cultural drift may allow norm-adopters and punishers to coevolve from invasion into this region of attraction, resulting in their fixation. This coevolution typically occurs across a wider range of conditions under the reward- than the punishment-based metanorm. We also show that, under appropriate conditions, a large negative statistical association between the two traits may evolve only under the Reward Model. Furthermore, for each metanorm, a population of norm-adopters who always observe the norm can be locally stable over a continuum of punishment frequencies.

Cultural Evolution↗
PubMed1988

Gene-culture coevolution: a test of the steady-state hypothesis for gene-culture translation.

Although there has been considerable discussion of the gene-culture theory (GCT) approach to biocultural systems, relatively little critical attention has focused on the specific approximations used in GCT, or on their improvement. Here we consider the steady-state hypothesis used in GCT models to connect activity on the level of individual choice behavior to the level of societies taken as wholes. The hypothesis is tested by using Monte Carlo techniques to estimate solutions to the dynamical equation for social order. The steady-state hypothesis is found generally to be invalid for all the categories of choice function originally considered by Lumsden and Wilson, but acceptable for the highly restricted parameter ranges used in their treatments of the gene-frequency change. The implications for the development of improved gene-culture modeling techniques are discussed.

Computer Simulation↗
PubMed1988

The impact of cultural changes on the internal experience of the adolescent.

This paper examines the impact on adolescence of major cultural changes brought about by the advent of television, the combined threat of Nuclear War and Aids and changes in social values and family structures. The main thesis is that the volume and pace of these contemporary changes have an unsettling effect on internal experience and create conditions in society that replicate those that give rise to the development of narcissistic disturbance in early childhood development. Narcissism is seen as central in adolescence and inadequately modulated in the prevailing "culture of narcissism". An example is given of such disturbance in a young man. The relevance of psychoanalysis as a body of knowledge and as an activity concerned with self and object relatedness is discussed, followed by an illustration of psychoanalysis in practice in a therapeutic community for adolescents, Peper Harow.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2001

Towards an evolutionary theory of language.

Language is a biological trait that radically changed the performance of one species and the appearance of the planet. Understanding how human language came about is one of the most interesting tasks for evolutionary biology. Here we discuss how natural selection can guide the emergence of some basic features of human language, including arbitrary signs, words, syntactic communication and grammar. We show how natural selection can lead to the duality of patterning of human language: sequences of phonemes form words; sequences of words form sentences. Finally, we present a framework for the population dynamics of grammar acquisition, which allows us to study the cultural evolution of grammar and the biological evolution of universal grammar.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Reproductive strategies for human survival.

Reproductive strategies for the human species have basically remained unaltered since Homo sapiens first appeared, probably in the valleys of Africa: males have always attempted to pass their genes to the largest feasible number of females, selecting those females capable of providing the best quality of oocytes; females invariably have sought a male capable of providing the best means of survival for herself and her offspring. This meant that human sexuality has been essentially conceptive, although it is reasonable to suppose that it began to lose this 'exclusive' connotation early in the cultural evolution of the species. Then, during the 20th century, major revolutions occurred: first, with the advent of contraception, sex without reproduction became a reality; then, with assisted reproduction technology, humans devised reproduction without sex; finally, very recently, women have begun to reproduce even in menopause. Additional strategies will, no doubt, soon be available, although we cannot as yet clearly see whether, or when, reproduction without sex and gametes, or in-vitro gestations will become available.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health as artifact.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed2004

Religion's evolutionary landscape: counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion.

Religion is not an evolutionary adaptation per se, but a recurring cultural by-product of the complex evolutionary landscape that sets cognitive, emotional, and material conditions for ordinary human interactions. Religion exploits only ordinary cognitive processes to passionately display costly devotion to counterintuitive worlds governed by supernatural agents. The conceptual foundations of religion are intuitively given by task-specific panhuman cognitive domains, including folkmechanics, folkbiology, and folkpsychology. Core religious beliefs minimally violate ordinary notions about how the world is, with all of its inescapable problems, thus enabling people to imagine minimally impossible supernatural worlds that solve existential problems, including death and deception. Here the focus is on folkpsychology and agency. A key feature of the supernatural agent concepts common to all religions is the triggering of an "Innate Releasing Mechanism," or "agency detector," whose proper (naturally selected) domain encompasses animate objects relevant to hominid survival--such as predators, protectors, and prey--but which actually extends to moving dots on computer screens, voices in wind, and faces on clouds. Folkpsychology also crucially involves metarepresentation, which makes deception possible and threatens any social order. However, these same metacognitive capacities provide the hope and promise of open-ended solutions through representations of counterfactual supernatural worlds that cannot be logically or empirically verified or falsified. Because religious beliefs cannot be deductively or inductively validated, validation occurs only by ritually addressing the very emotions motivating religion. Cross-cultural experimental evidence encourages these claims.

Anxiety↗
PubMed2003

Precise dating of Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data.

The signature of Dansgaard-Oeschger events--millennial-scale abrupt climate oscillations during the last glacial period--is well established in ice cores and marine records. But the effects of such events in continental settings are not as clear, and their absolute chronology is uncertain beyond the limit of (14)C dating and annual layer counting for marine records and ice cores, respectively. Here we present carbon and oxygen isotope records from a stalagmite collected in southwest France which have been precisely dated using 234U/230Th ratios. We find rapid climate oscillations coincident with the established Dansgaard-Oeschger events between 83,000 and 32,000 years ago in both isotope records. The oxygen isotope signature is similar to a record from Soreq cave, Israel, and deep-sea records, indicating the large spatial scale of the climate oscillations. The signal in the carbon isotopes gives evidence of drastic and rapid vegetation changes in western Europe, an important site in human cultural evolution. We also find evidence for a long phase of extremely cold climate in southwest France between 61.2 +/- 0.6 and 67.4 +/- 0.9 kyr ago.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Neurodynamic models of brain in psychiatry.

The history of brain theory is described in terms of three kinds of theory of perception. The most widely used kind sees perception as dependent on passive inflow from the environment of information that is used to make and process representations of objects and events. A second kind views perception as an active search for information that is inherent in the environment and is extracted by tuned resonances in brain circuits. A third kind holds that perception works by the creation of information through chaotic dynamics by forming hypotheses about the environment, through which learning takes place. Experimental evidence for creative dynamics in brains is briefly sketched. The explanation is offered that brains, being finite systems, work this way in order to cope with the infinite complexity of the world. All that brains can know is the hypotheses they construct and the results of testing them by acting into the environment, and learning by assimilation from the sensory consequences of their actions. The process is described as intentionality. It works through the action-perception-assimilation cycle. The cost of this solution to the problem of infinite complexity by hypothesis testing is the progressive isolation of individuals, as they accumulate their unique experiences through which their personalities form. Socialization and the acquisition of shared knowledge requires the emergence of new personality structure by self-organization through chaotic dissolution of existing the structure, as a prelude to the creation of new traits, habits, and values. Dissolution works in a crisis situation by regression to earlier stages of development, from which a fresh start can be made. A state of malleability emerges in the depth of crisis, in which compassionate companions through loving care can invite cooperative actions. Joint actions support the growth of a new lifestyle based on trust. Socialization requires neurochemical mechanisms of affiliation and bonding that evolved through the requirements of parental care of altricial offspring in mammalian reproduction. These mechanisms are invoked by means of behavioral techniques from cultural evolution. The dynamics, neural mechanisms, behavioral signs, methods of induction, and therapeutic utility of dissolution should be known by therapists. Lack of recognition and understanding may cause failure to use brief windows of opportunity to instill long-term relief of psychic pain by restructuring intentionality in distressed patients.

Brain↗
PubMed2002

Ethical consequences for professionals from the globalization of food, nutrition and health.

Globalization is the process of increasing interconnections and linkages, within societies and across geography, due to improved communication and expanded world trade. It limits the differentiation wrought by human cultural evolution, and homogenizes health practices, diet and lifestyle. There are both beneficial and adverse consequences of the globalization process. Globalization also presents a challenge to the development of ethics for practice and advocacy by food and nutrition professionals. Among the related terms, 'morals', 'values' and 'ethics', the latter connotes the basic rules of conduct for interactions within society and with the inanimate environment; rules based on recognized principles (ethical principles). The application of these principles is to resolve ethical dilemmas that arise when more than one interest is at play. Recognized ethical principles include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, utility and stewardship. These can be framed in the context of issues that arise during advocacy for material and behavioural changes to improve the nutritional health of populations. Clearly, at the global level, codes of good conduct and the construction of good food governance can be useful in institutionalizing ethical principles in matters of human diets and eating practices. Ethical dilemmas arise in the context of innate diversity among populations (some individuals benefit, whereas others suffer from the same exposures), and due to the polarity of human physiology and metabolism (practices that prevent some diseases will provoke other maladies). Moreover, the autonomy of one individual to exercise independent will in addressing personal health or treatment of the environment may compromise the health of the individual's neighbours. The challenges for the professional in pursuit of ethical advocacy in a globalized era are to learn the fundamentals of ethical principles; to bear in mind a respect for difference and differentiation that continues to exist, and which should exist, among individuals and societies; and to avoid a total homogenization of agriculture and food supplies.

Dietetics↗
PubMed2003

Endogenous pneumococcal endophthalmitis followed by pneumococcal-induced uveitis.

BACKGROUND: We describe the case of a fulminant bilateral endophthalmitis occurring in a patient, who had 9 years earlier a splenectomy for an idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. HISTORY AND SIGNS: A 40-year-old woman, back from a trip to Morocco, presented with high fever, rapid decrease in visual acuity and loss of consciousness. Medical examination revealed a pneumococcal meningitis and bilateral endophthalmitis. THERAPY AND OUTCOME: Endophthalmitis was treated with local and intravitreal antibiotics injections (vancomycin and amikacin). Repeated parabulbar betamethasone injections were performed. Intravenous (iv) methylprednisolone pulses were followed by oral steroid therapy while systemic antibiotics were given (ceftriaxone and vancomycin). In spite of this therapy, fundus examination was impossible because the anterior chamber was filled with fibrin. A cataract developed with severe vitritis and we could observe a progressive narrowing of the anterior chamber. The patient underwent a bilateral vitrectomy and lensectomy. The retina had no lesion. No bacteria were found in the vitreous culture. Evolution was characterized by an increased ocular pressure due to anterior synechiae. Visual acuity remained under 1/10. The severe ocular inflammation could be the result of a mixed mechanism including an infectious followed by a severe immune response against bacterial components. CONCLUSIONS: This case report is rare. To our knowledge, only 3 similar cases have been reported in the literature.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

A preference for own-subspecies' song guides vocal learning in a song bird.

In many song birds, males develop their songs as adults by imitating the songs of one or more tutors, memorized previously during a sensitive phase early in life. Previous work using two assays, the production of imitations by adult males and playback-induced calling by young birds during the sensitive phase for memorization, has shown that song birds can discriminate between their own and other species' songs. Herein I use both assays to show that male mountain white-crowned sparrows, Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha, must learn to sing but have a genetic predisposition to memorize and learn the songs of their own subspecies. Playback tests to young naive birds before they even begin to sing reveal that birds give begging calls more in response to oriantha song than to songs of another species. After 10 days of tutoring with songs of either their own or another subspecies, birds continue to give stronger call responses to songs of their own subspecies, irrespective of whether they were tutored with them, and are more discriminating in distinguishing between different dialects of their own subspecies. The memory processes that facilitate recognition and discrimination of own-subspecies' song may also mediate the preferential imitation of song of a bird's own subspecies. Such perceptual biases could constrain the direction and rate of cultural evolution of learned songs.

Animals↗