re: [tips] Afterword on alpha male
On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:59:53 -0700, Stephen Black wrote: I recently challenged TIPSters to provide the name for a scientific concept. The phenomenon is that subordinate males can gain access to females for copulation while the alpha males are competing with each other. What do we call these sneaky f*ckers and their opportunistic strategy? [snip] ... I recommend that everyone teaching evolutionary psychology make sure to discuss the concept and to utter the term which dares not speak its name. That oughta make those little f*ckers sit up and pay attention. Sometime I wonder if retirement is making Stephen Black lose touch with academic reality. I'm going to assume that Stepehn is actually serious about the SF phrase and isn't just pranking Tips. It is with this in mind that I make the following comments: (1) I have heard the SF phrase used and occasionally seen it in print. A google search reveals that it has wide usage, but usually in non-scientific contexts. Searching books.google.com turns up the phrase in a fairly large number of books (N=616) in a variety of topics: see: http://tinyurl.com/paqlfm Even that great skeptic Michael Shermer refers to the concept in the first volume of The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, see: http://tinyurl.com/pmtzru However, it is another thing to claim that biologists or people doing research on evolution use the SF phrase commonly (it is telling that even Wikipedia no longer has an entry on the SF Strategy, instead it redirects to an entry on Sexual Conflict; the other two entries don't actually use the SF phrase). (2) An implication of what Stephen argues is that the SF phrase should be readily detectable in relevant databases such as www.Jstor.org which has articles by John Maynard Smith as well as articles about him and other candidates for originator of the SF phrase but there are only three hits on Jstor for SF and none of them are biology or evolution related. A search of Medline turns up no hits (probably because the f-bomb is not found in the database; see www.pubmed.gov ). A search of the Annual Reviews website which includes The Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics as well as other annual review in biology and the social sciences (such as The Annual Review of Psychology of which the 2009 issue is the 60th volume in the series) turns up no use of the SF phrase. Using the term sneakers provides 14 hits though not all are relevant to the SF concept. One that is relevant is the following: MALE AND FEMALE ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIORS IN FISHES:A New Approach Using Intersexual Dynamics S. A. Henson and, R. R. Warner Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1997 28, 571-592 The SF phrase does not appear in the Wiley Interscience database, the Sage Fulltext Collections, or PsycInfo (even when searching all text for the phrase). It is not a commonly used expressed in print. Perhaps it is used in public presentations or other contexts where a public record might not be made (Maynard Smith is reported several times to have uttered the phrase but appears to never have used the phrase in print). So, why the emphasis on it? (4) Stephen can make all the recommendations he wants about what phrases to use in class, especially those that may cause a challenge to the practice of academic freedom at one's institution. Stephen, as far as I know, isn't teaching anymore so he's can't determine what the consequences might be of using something like the SF phrase in a class. I would suggest caution to those who don't have tenure or are teaching as adjunct faculty. Especially if you will have to justify it to your dean that the SF phease is commonly used in relevant literature. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] Afterword on alpha male
On 14 Sep 2009 at 19:31, Mike Palij wrote: I would suggest caution to those who don't have tenure or are teaching as adjunct faculty. Especially if you will have to justify it to your dean that the SF phease is commonly used in relevant literature. Ah, Michael, Michael, Michael. Nice rant. But so easily shocked. And I thought you were a New Yorker. Let the record show that I did not say that the SF phease (or even phrase) is commonly used in relevant literature. I said (and I quote): The term does appear in a number of academic publications. As for fearing the wrath of the Dean from complaints from scandalized students and parents, at my university at least, most students already have a passing familiarity with this word. Some of them even use it. You might also want to check out this 2007 interview with Tim Clutton-Brock aired on Australian public radio, which apparently does not fear the outrage of its listeners (perhaps because they're Aussies, and not so easily shocked as Mike). Listen to it or click on transcript to hear Robyn Williams matter-of-factly ask Clutton-Brock, Tell me about the sneaky fucker strategy. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/inconversation/stories/2007/1817469.htm Stephen - Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada --- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] Afterword on alpha male
Interesting thought, Stephen. The following article refers to the strategy as sneak and rape, but doesn't give a term for the sneakers except that they are low status males: http://zinjanthropus.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/what-to-beetles-cuttlefish-and-orangutans-all-have-in-common/ This article refers to them as sneakers. I find this a little unwieldy, since of course that word also connotes a kind of footwear: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B7J0V-4S934SC-5_user=10_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_acct=C50221_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=10md5=2cee2d4ce361d5b9041c255f4c98c528 This one refers to sneaking behaviors in beetles, but, as in the previous articles, stops short of naming them: http://dbs.umt.edu/research_labs/emlenlab/abstracts/AnBehavPDF.pdf Finally, Michael Majerus rather uncreatively called them sneaks: http://books.google.com/books?id=vDHOYPQ2mmYCpg=PA12lpg=PA12dq=while+males+fighting+for+females+sneaksource=blots=c-1X6Vynuesig=6f1egneHYxLzXKL6oCCNLrspgoEhl=enei=DAitSofHFsnflAfw6OGrBgsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=1#v=onepageq=f=false I vote for Omega - if Alpha is the top of the heap, why not call the bottom of the heap by the last letter of the Greek alphabet? I was thinking maybe I could patent that, but alas, it seems I'm not the first to name that male the Omega, while others refer to the sneaker as the Beta male. So I guess keeping in the Greek alphabet tradition, Beta and Omega are popular. Sociology appears to have already chosen Omega for the lowest-ranking member of a group, but I couldn't find any link for the Omega also having the behavior of sneaking to copulate while the Alpha contenders are, well, contending. Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
RE: [tips] Afterword on alpha male- flawed memory
Stephen Black asked: What is the term evolutionary biologists use to describe such sneaky f*ckers and their strategy which exploits this failing by alpha males to out-compete them? And if that's too easy, then tell me who was the first to use the term, and where. Stephen- Good one! Off the top of my head, I don't remember a specific term or whence or who first used the term. I do *seem to remember* that these acts were sometimes referred to as sneaky copulations and my memory seems to suggest that some literature, and I'm much less sure of this, sometimes referred to the perpetrators as sneaks but I'm in no way certain that my memory is even correct. This may be due to the passage of some, gulp, 25 years since last reading Wilson and friend's work in graduate school. As an aside: I'm reminded of what a friend wrote on a written prelim when asked, Some have argued that the effects seen when administering amphetamines mimics the effects of turning on the lights. What research from human and infra-human studies suggests this finding. Describe in detail the findings which tend to suggest this statement currently supported by the evidence. (That's a recollection of the question. Also 25 years old). My poor friend had no idea the answer. (He put someone on his committee from whom he had never taken classes!) He replied, I had no idea that administering amphetamines resulted in effects equivalent to turning out the lights. I shall be very happy to learn of this effect and research while preparing to retake this part of my exams. (Something to that effect). Thankfully, my memory fails at a far less critical moment. Tim ___ Timothy O. Shearon, PhD Professor and Chair Department of Psychology The College of Idaho Caldwell, ID 83605 email: tshea...@collegeofidaho.edu teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and systems You can't teach an old dogma new tricks. Dorothy Parker --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] Afterword on alpha male
I believe that Pat Bateson called this sneaky behavior mate-stealing, or kleptogamy (as opposed to monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, etc.). There is another common term for it in the animal behavior world, but I can't use it on a public listserv;-) In some species, males grow out of this sneaking strategy as they get older and larger. In others, there appear to be multiple mating strategies (i.e., sneaking, territory-holding, a few others) that appear to have genetic components in that given physical and behavioral phenotypes are maintained by the same individuals throughout their lifetimes. -Kathy Morgan Wheaton College Norton, MA 02766 kmor...@wheatonma.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
