Pecking order and cooperative breeding

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Sociology learns from the study of birds in several key areas related to social behavior and culture, including the origins of social structures, cooperation, communication, and cultural evolution in non-human societies. 

Key insights include:

• Social Learning and Culture: Birds provide excellent models for understanding how behaviors are acquired and transmitted through social learning, leading to the formation of "cultures" or local traditions. This has been extensively studied in contexts such as:
  • Song dialects: The development of distinct regional songs in passerines (songbirds) demonstrates cultural transmission across generations, similar to human language variations.
  • Foraging techniques and tool use: Innovations in foraging behaviors, like New Caledonian crows using tools or tits learning to open milk bottles, can spread through a population's social network, illustrating how culture can help species adapt to changing environments.
  • Predator recognition: Naive birds can learn to identify predators by observing the alarm responses of experienced group members, showing the social transmission of vital knowledge.
  • Migration routes: In some long-lived species like geese and cranes, migration routes are culturally inherited, passed down from experienced older birds to juveniles, which can help populations respond to climate change or other environmental shifts.
• Social Structures and Cooperation: Studying how birds interact offers insights into general principles of social organization:
  • Dominance hierarchies: The concept of the "pecking order" (pecking order in hens), a classic example of a dominance hierarchy, provides a simple model for understanding rank and status in social groups.
  • Cooperative breeding and altruism: Many bird species engage in cooperative breeding, where "helpers" assist a primary breeding pair in raising offspring. This behavior helps sociologists and biologists study the evolution of altruism and the role of kinship and social bonds in cooperation.
  • Social Bonds: Birds form complex, individualized relationships and long-term social bonds, which play a key role in cooperation, conflict resolution, and group stability, similar to dynamics in many social mammals, including primates and humans.
• Methodological Applications: Avian studies are used as powerful experimental systems to test fundamental theories in behavioral ecology and social science because their behaviors are highly visible and can be studied both in the lab and field. The ease of tracking individual birds in large populations with modern technology allows researchers to gather large-scale data on social dynamics and collective decision-making, offering unique windows into the ecology of collective behavior that can be used to understand similar phenomena in humans. 

Ultimately, bird studies help sociology and related fields by providing comparative models for the origins and functions of social complexity, illuminating the interplay between individual behavior, social interaction, and environmental factors across different species, including our own. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=What+does+sociology+learn+from+the+birds

[PDF] LINGUISTICS IN BIHAR

A Kumar, H District-Begusarai

… Before English media began blatantly supporting the Hindutva forces and major Hindi publications had already caved in. … Besides consuming a considerable energy of Hindi speakers, the resentment fuels the Hindutva’s flawed contention of ‘the …

[PDF] Political Populism and the Media

MS Pinto - 2026

… He put this supreme talent to very good use for divisive politics in polarising masses with his Hindutva ideology, casting communal innuendos … The key difference appears to be that Modi is striving to govern through a hardcore Hindutva …

South Asia's Freedom in Global Perspective: Nation, Partition, Federation

S Bose, A Jalal - 2025

This book engages in a creative process of historical retrieval of visions for substantive democracy and federal union during the struggle for freedom that remained unrealized during the post-colonial transition. Structured in three parts, the …

சீதாயணம் புதினத்தில் சாதி என்னும் கருத்தாக்கம்: Conceptualization of the caste in Seethayanam Novel

G Satheeswaran - Tamilmanam International Research Journal of Tamil …, 2025

Human societies are sustained through shared cultural narratives, among which myths and literature play a crucial role in shaping and regulating collective life. These narratives often function to legitimize and reinforce the ideologies of the ruling …

Show the Guru Cheating: Ekalavya re-tellings in post-Independent India's Hindi heartlands

C Sharma - Journal of Hindu Studies, 2025

Ekalavya has emerged as a significant figure in Mahabharata re-tellings in post-Independent India. In the wildly popular 1980s television serial, Mahabharat, the Ekalavya story arc appears as a crucial and troubling depiction of the violence of the caste system …

[PDF] Rethinking Knowledge, Unthinking the Brahminical: Dalit Feminism and Gender-Caste

U Geetha - CASTE/A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 2025

This article introduces a Dalit decolonial feminist standpoint as an epistemic and political framework that redefines feminist thought through four interrelated pillars. It argues that decolonial and postcolonial frameworks remain constrained by their …

True authority is not announced with grandeur

Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra 

In Franz Kafka's novel The Castle, the protagonist K. enters the public bar of the Bridge Inn and sees a group of men at a table. He describes them as "gentlemen" who appear to be officials, though their appearance does not suggest anything special. 

Key aspects of the description and K.'s perception include:

• Appearance: The men are middle-aged and paunchy, with nothing particularly striking about them. This ordinary appearance contrasts with the authority K. assumes they hold.
• Atmosphere: They are sitting in a corner, seemingly engaged in a meeting or discussion. The overall environment, like much in Kafka's work, is somewhat dismal and ordinary, which heightens the sense of the pervasive yet unimpressive nature of the bureaucracy.
• K.'s Interpretation: K. immediately assumes they are high-level officials from the Castle, specifically people like Klamm, the official he is trying to reach. He infers a hidden significance in their plainness, believing that true authority in the Castle system is not announced with grandeur.
• The Setting: The scene takes place in a simple, public space, the Bridge Inn bar, which makes the presence of these supposed officials seem almost incongruous and mysterious. K. observes them, trying to deduce their role and how he might approach them to advance his own case, a futile endeavor typical of the novel's themes of endless bureaucracy and alienation.

- GoogleAI

https://www.google.com/search?q=when+k+enters+he.sees+a+group+of+people+at+the+table.+how+kafka+describes&oq

Kneel down for a dying God

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Hermann Hesse did not contribute to Nietzsche's original formulation of the "death of God" concept; Nietzsche developed this idea decades before Hesse began his literary career. Instead, Hesse was deeply influenced by Nietzsche's philosophy and explored the ramifications of this "smashed God" in his own novels, particularly the individual's subsequent search for authenticity and spirituality in a world without absolute divine authority. 

Influence, not Contribution

• Timeline: Friedrich Nietzsche published The Gay Science, which includes the famous aphorism "God is dead," in 1882 and 1887. Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 and began reading Nietzsche in 1895, long after the concept was established.
• Response to a World without God: Hesse was enthralled by Nietzsche's ideas, especially the concept of the Übermensch (Overman) who could embrace the "death of God" and create his own values. Hesse's works explore the crisis of meaning that follows the loss of traditional Christian morality, a direct consequence of the "death of God" that Nietzsche predicted.
• Themes in Hesse's Novels: A recurring theme in Hesse's writing, such as in Demian and Steppenwolf, is the individual's intense search for self-identity, spiritual renewal, and balance in a seemingly godless or morally relative world. His protagonists often grapple with the "dual impulses of passion and order" and reject societal norms ("herd mentality") in favor of a self-directed path, directly engaging with Nietzschean themes.
• Divergence in Path: While Nietzsche advocated for the creation of new values through the "will to power", Hesse's search for spiritual renewal often led him to explore Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Taoism, as alternative frameworks for meaning outside of the Western Christian tradition. This can be seen as a different answer to the void left by the "death of God". 

In summary, Hesse did not create the concept, but his literature served as a powerful artistic exploration of the human experience in a world where belief in the Christian God had become unbelievable, thus illustrating the cultural and psychological impact of Nietzsche's declaration. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=How+Hermann+Hesse+contributed+to+Nietzsche%27s+Death+of+God

Heinrich Heine contributed to Nietzsche's concept of the "death of God" primarily by anticipating the idea itself, stating it some 50 years earlier, and by providing a literary and philosophical framework that influenced Nietzsche's later, more developed, proclamation. 

Key aspects of Heine's contribution:

• Precursor to the Phrase: In his 1834 work On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, Heine wrote: "Do you hear the little bell tinkle? Kneel down – one brings the sacraments for a dying God". This passage directly presented the image of a deity in terminal decline, which resonated deeply with Nietzsche's later observations on the state of Western culture and belief.
• Observation of Secularization: Heine, like Nietzsche after him, observed the decline of traditional Christian belief due to the rise of science, rationalism (especially Kant's critique of pure reason), and secularism. He saw that modern society was increasingly focused on "earthly utility" and bourgeois comfort, a perspective that Nietzsche echoed in his critique of the "last man".
• Influence on Nietzsche: Nietzsche admired Heine greatly, particularly as a stylist in the German language, and was familiar with his writings. Heine's "Jewish" pantheism, a positive engagement with the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and his critique of Christian asceticism resonated with Nietzsche's own philosophical project.
• Shared "Hellenistic" Ideal: Both Heine and Nietzsche identified with a "pagan, sensual, art-loving 'Hellenic'" ideal in contrast to the ascetic, moralistic "Nazarene" (Christian/Jewish) worldview, which provided a shared perspective in their critiques of traditional religion. 

While Heine presented the observation with a "sovereign sense of irony" and some regret, it was Nietzsche who took this cultural diagnosis and made it the central mission of his philosophy: to explore the profound, world-shattering implications of this event and call for the creation of new values in a post-theistic world. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=How+Heinrich+Heine+contributed+to+Nietzsche%27s+Death+of+God

K. Satchidananda Murty engaged with the concept of the "death of God" as expressed by Hegel and Nietzsche, analyzing it from his unique perspective that bridged Western philosophy and Indian thought. 

Murty's Interpretation

• Hegel and the "Cruel Words": Murty noted that Hegel, in his lectures, described the statement "God himself is dead" (found in a hymn by Johann von Rist) as "the cruel words" or "the harsh utterance". According to Murty's 1973 writings, Hegel developed the theme of God's death to explain that, from one form of experience, God is indeed dead.
• Nietzsche and Popularity: Murty traced the popularization of the phrase "death of God" to Heinrich Heine (who spoke of a "dying God") and subsequently to Nietzsche, after their comments on Kant's first Critique. Nietzsche famously announced that "God is dead" as an observation that the belief in the Christian God had become unbelievable due to secularization and the rise of science, leading to a collapse of traditional European morality.
• Criticism of "Death of God" Theology: Murty was critical of the "Death of God" theology that emerged in the mid-20th century. While he acknowledged that belief in God is not a prerequisite for an ethical life, he felt that the moral order gained a stronger foundation when viewed within a theological perspective.
• Theistic Perspective: Fundamentally, Murty held a strong theistic viewpoint, heavily influenced by Vedantic theism (specifically Visishtadvaita and Dvaita thought), which contrasted sharply with the implications of the "death of God". He argued for a personal God and stressed that the human soul (jiva) can never become God, a position that led him to criticize certain aspects of Advaita Vedanta as well as Western "death of God" concepts. 

In essence, Satchidananda Murty treated the "death of God" as a significant phenomenon in Western thought, discussing its origins in Hegel and Nietzsche, but ultimately offered a critique from the standpoint of a robust, personal theism rooted in Indian philosophical traditions. 

- GoogleAI

https://www.google.com/search?q=Satchidananda+murty+Nietzsche+hegel+death+of+god

SELF 2005 - 2025

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Savitri Era Learning Forum
Truths are hidden in patterns - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Sri Aurobindo SAVITRI Book II Canto IV 52:23 Sri Aurobindo SAVITRI Book II Canto IV. No views · 6 minutes ago ...more. g...

Savitri Era Open Forum
One can think of it as temple property - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Proposed handover of Auroville farm land for IIT-M campus reignites sustainability debate 2 days ago — Auroville resident...

Savitri Era
Sri Aurobindo was not planted by the Missionaries - Collated X posts in original by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Savitri Era: Eagles, Dolphins, Daffodils, and Bilwamangala savitriera.blogspot.com/2025/07/eagles… ...

Marketime
Tocqueville foresees a slow death of freedom - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra The nature of dictatorship evolves with time, much like crime. While violent physical crimes have largely been replaced...

Plain & Simple
Mohan Mistry passed away - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra - Savitri Era Learning Forum Words do dance in the writings of Sri Aurobindo - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatr...

Feel Philosophy
Marc Edmund Jones and Sri Aurobindo - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra I like this as an interesting thought but am not sure how I would recognize a "radical intuition" in myself as opposed ...

Aurora Mirabilis
Mohan had a very intimate inner relationship with The Mother - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra [On the auspicious night of Gurupurnima, Shri Mohanbhai Mistry, a senior Sadhak and loving singer of devotional Bhajans...

Savitri Era Party
Keep remembering The Mother even if mechanically - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Lecture series on Sri Aurobindo's Synthesis of Yoga (by Ranganath), pp 139-141 45:56 Lecture series on Sri Aurobindo's S...

Savitri Era Political Action
Ascent of sacrifice moves forward towards Progress - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Savitri Class with Shilpa (by Narad) - Book 2, Canto 2 - Pg (113-114) 29:33 Savitri Class with Shilpa (by Narad) - Book 2...

Savitri Era Religious Fraternity
Perfecting oneself for evolutionary journey - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra SAILC India – Sri Aurobindo Integral Life Center Sri Aurobindo Integral Life Center is the source of inspiration and lea...

the Orchid and the rOse
Activities that encourage absorption like getting lost in a book - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Part 1 - A New Dawn Series Dialogues | Our Upcoming Film ‘Sri Aurobindo: A Call to New India’ 1:31 ANewDawnSeriesDialogu...

Rainbow & the Other
Writing an essay forces to question and think - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra About Savitri: The Mother's Commentary | B1C3-12 The Soul as Witness and King_upd 5:08 From January 1968 till August 197...

Evergreen Essays
Complex web of political forces have moulded West Bengal - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra Savitri Study with Narad (82) - Book 7, Canto 2 - Pg (479-480) 31:25 Savitri Study with Narad (82) - Book 7, Canto 2 - Pg...

Because Thou Art
Art and technology - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra 'Homage to the Mother' An art exhibition inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s writings is on display at Savitri Bhavan, Aurovill...

VIP VAK
Yoga in science, power, and poetry - Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra 1:00:04 Sri Aurobindo by Prof Binu Mukherjee, Mar 2014 YouTube · Vedanta Society of Toronto 22 Apr 2019 47:31 Plenary Ses...

Musepaper
One hundred Hindi songs - vi - One hundred Hindi songs - vi 100501 Parbat ke is paar 100502 Megha re megha re 100503 Dulhe ka sehra 100504 100505 100506 100507 100508 10050...

Tusar Nath Mohapatra
My original contributions to understanding Sri Aurobindo - My original contributions to understanding or interpreting Sri Aurobindo can be summarised under a number of heads: 1) Against Hindutva, Mythology, & Astr...

Writing an essay forces to question and think

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

About Savitri: The Mother's Commentary | B1C3-12 The Soul as Witness and King_upd

5:08

From January 1968 till August 1970, the Mother was reading chosen passages from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri and giving Her explanations which were tape-recorded ...

Poems of Narad - Poems To The Divine Mother, Volume III - Her Love

2:03

Poems of Narad - Poems To The Divine Mother, Volume III - Her Love. No views · 9 minutes ago ...more. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo : E-library. 11.1K.

Vedic Vision in the light of Sri Aurobindo, an online certificate course

20 hours ago — For Sri Aurobindo, the Veda is a Book of Knowledge, an inspiration, the spiritual imagery of which he used in his own magnum opus Savitri. We shall examine the ...

[PDF] DEENDAYAL UPADHYAYA'S CONTRIBUTION FOR BUILDING OF MODERN BHARAT: AN ANALYSIS

M SINGH, D RAJ

Deendayal Upadhyaya in his concept of ‘Integral Humanism’has succinctly demolished the social and political philosophies of rest of world ie capitalism as well as communism by underlining their inherent disdain for humanitarian aspects of …

Political narratives and the authorship of history textbooks-a case study from India

R Lakshminarayanan, D Thomas, S Paul - Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2025

… Hindu nationalism, its organizational structure and ideological perspectives had been developing since the 1920s with the publication of the ‘Hindutva’ in 1923 by Veer Savarkar and the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925. The ‘…

Competitive Religious Politics and Localisation of Hindutva in Odisha

BS Nayak - The Unholy Trinity: Hindutva, Capitalism and …, 2025

… Short-term political gains from competitive religious politics may only create fertile ground for Hindutva politics of the BJP to thrive in the … The BJD is laying long-term foundations for Hindutva politics to grow and thrive in the state. Hindutva politics …

Alternative Narratives on Nationalism, Religion and Market

BS Nayak - The Unholy Trinity: Hindutva, Capitalism and …, 2025

Flag waving nationalism (Skitka, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35:1995–2011, 2005) is growing across the globe along with reactionary market fundamentalism which collaborates with religious Religious politics to access state State power …

Everyday Realities, Ideas and Available Alternatives

BS Nayak - The Unholy Trinity: Hindutva, Capitalism and …, 2025

‘There is no alternative Alternatives ’ arguments are fundamentally capitalist propaganda to hide shameful impacts of capitalism Capitalism and all its projects on people and the planet Planet . Despite of the negative consequences of capitalism …

After the single screen: performing publics at large

SV Srinivas - South Asian History and Culture, 2025

… Sequences in RRR were read as clear indicators of the film’s pro-Hindutva tilt. The praise for the RSS by Vijayendra Prasad (the film’s … of Hindutva? Contrarily, does dancing during a song that was attacked by pro-Hindutva groups constitute an …

[HTML] Ayodhya: A Crucial Nexus of Politics and Religion in India

A Lindsay

… If Ayodhya evolves into a focal point for a Muslim-led global advocacy initiative, it could galvanize broader Islamic solidarity against the Hindutva agenda. This may culminate in a more polarized world where religious identities become the …

The Malevolent Myth of Cosmic War

M Juergensmeyer - Mythologizing in South Asian Traditions, 2025

… The Hindu nationalists saw the necessity of armed struggle to define and defend the Hindu culture of India, which they called Hindutva. They evoked the cosmic war images of the Hindu Epics in their moral justification for fighting for a sacred cause. …

Global Literatures and Cultures of Modernity

S Chatterjee, S Chigurupati

We launch this book as a collection of scholarly essays written by academicians and scholars from India who have read, scrutinized, and taught literary works in postmillennial Indian classrooms as well as in various public fora. Our edited …

Economic Policies of Hindutva Quackery in India

BS Nayak - The Unholy Trinity: Hindutva, Capitalism and …, 2025

… This socioeconomic divide can be exploited by political Political forces, including those aligned with Hindutva Hindutva , to consolidate power Power by tapping into the frustrations of the disenfranchised. The Hindutva budget Budget reflects the …

The Unholy Trinity

BS Nayak

… outcomes of Hindutva politics, which create foundation for Hindutva fascism in India. Deaths and destitutions don’t disturb Hindutva ideology. … The everyday resistance to Hindutva is important to break away from Hindutva capitalism. India and Indians …

[PDF] A Symphonic Zone?

D Leonard - Economic & Political Weekly, 2025

In the context of the ongoing debates on the language and education policies of the nation state, and the political crisis that the union and state governments precariously face in its implementation, this article is an invitation to critically rethink …

Hinduism in Interreligious Relations

M Barbato - Religion Compass, 2025

The concept of ‘Hinduism’ brings together a diverse group of traditions, which sometimes makes it difficult to distinguish between intrareligious and interreligious relations. This article assumes that despite all diversity it is possible to draw out …

OTHERING OF NORTHEASTERN EXPERIENCES IN AXONE (2020)

S Krishnan … This divide along religious lines, Hindus who consider cow sacred and Muslims who are considered aggressors, has only pushed the Hindutva agenda in the political state of affairs. Similarly, pork, consumed largely in northeastern states …

New book from @uncpress.bsky.social:

The Age of the Borderlands: Indians, Slaves, and the Limits of Manifest Destiny, 1790–1850 by Andrew C. Isenberg

uncpress.org/book/9781469...

https://bsky.app/profile/nellstra.bsky.social/post/3ln2nuuqw3s2h

New from @illinoispress.bsky.social:

Lincoln the Citizen, February 12, 1809 to March 4, 1861: The Complete Version by Henry C. Whitney, edited and with an introduction by Michael Burlingame

www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c0...

https://bsky.app/profile/nellstra.bsky.social/post/3ln2p4lrfms2q

Latest papers: Troy Seagraves argues for an explanation of self-hatred where quintessential cases of self-hatred are caused by shame in this open access paper doi.org/10.1080/0951...

https://bsky.app/profile/journalphp.bsky.social/post/3ln2tm4f4np2y

In today's @thehindu.com, my obituary of Mario Vargas Llosa (feat. when my copy of The Time of the Hero was confiscated at Republic Day).

Mario Vargas Llosa, 1936-2025: a strange, most astonishing contrast --

www.thehindu.com/books/mario-...

Unpaywalled: www.pressreader.com/india/the-hi...

https://bsky.app/profile/gautambhatia88.bsky.social/post/3ln3ciuo4522k

Philosophy is such a discomforting discipline. It’s a little bit frightening to find one’s settled convictions being challenged all the time. I’ve spent 15 years being confident social contract theory can accommodate nonhuman animals. But, writing a paper on justice & motivations, I’ve had to change my mind. I don’t like it. This is one reason the essay remains an important part of a university education in the arts, humanities, & social sciences. When you do the hard work of trying to craft an argument into an essay, you're forced to question & think at a deeper level.

https://bsky.app/profile/stevecooke.org/post/3lmw3tzj6v22e

It was precisely in writing an essay that 19-year-old me realized I had to give up eating animals, after having spent my life up to that point relishing their taste.

https://bsky.app/profile/scottedgar.bsky.social/post/3lmwbs7etos2q

Announcement about the second Kumārila conference (May 5--9 2025):
elisafreschi.com/2025/04/18/s...

https://bsky.app/profile/elisafreschi.bsky.social/post/3ln3bzdtr2s2w

... when students want to and have a positive experience of being in your class, so I very much enjoyed this article on the role of positive emotions in learning and teaching.

doi.org/10.47408/jld...

https://bsky.app/profile/emilynordmann.bsky.social/post/3ln3fjyvsys2u