Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Philosophie--Lille 3, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 257-270. L'ISSN exact est : 1292-430X.

La musique est un comportement humain incontestablement universel, elle demeure néanmoins peu abordée par l’anthropologie. Si les connaissances empiriques accumulées à ce jour ont permis de bien la caractériser à des niveaux proximaux d’analyse, la question de son origine évolutionniste est, en contrepartie, souvent délaissée. Or, toute tentative sérieuse de comprendre ce phénomène requiert une investigation de sa fonction adaptative et de sa phylogénèse. Le projet entrepris ici consiste en une tentative de définition du concept de musique en terme d’universaux, d’une comparaison interspécifique du phénomène et d’un résumé de l’histoire phylogénétique des comportements musicaux, ainsi que d’une analyse de deux modèles portant sur les origines de la musique (Miller, 2000; Mithen, 2006). De ces modèles sont extraites des prévisions qui sont confrontées à des données empiriques provenant de disciplines diverses afin d’évaluer leur valeur scientifique. L’analyse des données disponibles permet de produire un inventaire des universaux musicaux aux plans cognitif, structurel, émotionnel, fonctionnel et symbolique et d’identifier ainsi certaines des bases biologiques du phénomène. Plusieurs mécanismes évolutionnistes, dont la sélection naturelle, la sélection sexuelle, la sélection de groupe et la sélection parentale sont employés par les divers auteurs afin d’expliquer l’apparition du phénomène musical. Il appert que la musique a joué un rôle important dans la relation parent-enfant au cours de l’évolution humaine, de même que dans la cohésion sociale, la coordination des activités et la formation de l’identité de groupe. En ce qui a trait aux deux modèles analysés ici, chacun ne traite que d’une partie des invariants musicaux et leur comparaison permet d’établir qu’ils sont mutuellement exclusifs. En guise de conclusion, nous tentons de formuler un scénario évolutif qui concilie les différentes hypothèses abordées. / Music is a universal and ubiquitous human behaviour, but it is still largely ignored by anthropology. While music is well characterised at proximate levels of explanation, the question of their evolutionary origins remains relatively unexplored. Nevertheless, any attempts to explain this phenomena needs to investigate its potential adaptive significance and phylogeny This project consists of an attempt to define music in terms of universals, of a interspecific comparison of the phenomena and of a summary of the phylogenetic history of musical behaviour as well as an analysis of two theories on origins of music (Miller, 2000 ; Mithen, 2006). Their predictions will be confronted to empirical data from a large array of disciplines to evaluate their scientific value. The analysis of the data available allows to produce an inventory of cognitive, structural, emotional, functional and symbolic music universals and to identify certain biological bases of the phenomena. Several evolutionist mechanisms, including natural selection, sexual selection, group selection and kin selection, have been employed by several authors to explain the emergence of music. It seems that music played an important role in the parent-infant relationship throughout evolution, as well as in social cohesion, coordination of social activities and formation of group identity. Regarding the two models analysed in this research, their comparison allows us to conclude that they are mutually exclusive and only discuss part of the musical invariants. In the end, an evolutionary framework that synthesizes and reconciles these hypotheses is proposed.

Le rire est un comportement humain indiscutablement universel. Abondamment traité par la psychologie et les neurosciences, il demeure néanmoins le laissé-pour-compte de l’anthropologie. Si les connaissances empiriques accumulées à ce jour ont permis de bien le caractériser à des niveaux proximaux d’analyse, la question de son origine évolutionniste est, en contrepartie, souvent évacuée. Or, toute tentative sérieuse de comprendre ce comportement requiert une investigation de sa fonction adaptative et de sa phylogénèse. Le projet entrepris ici consiste en une analyse de cinq hypothèses ultimes sur le rire et l’humour, desquelles sont extraites des prédictions qui sont confrontées à des données empiriques provenant de disciplines diverses. En guise de conclusion, il est tenté de formuler un scénario évolutif qui concilie les différentes hypothèses abordées. / Laughter is a universal and ubiquitous human behavior. Widely investigated by psychology and neuroscience, it is still largely ignored by anthropology. While humor and laughter are well caracterised at proximate levels of explanation, the question of their evolutionary origins remains relatively unexplored. A number of recent hypotheses have yet attempted to shed light on the potential adaptive significance and phylogeny of these behaviors. This project consists of an analysis of five of these ultimate explanations, by confronting their predictions to empirical data from a large array of disciplines. In the end, I propose an evolutionary framework that synthesizes and reconciles these hypotheses.

Understanding the evolutionary basis for human-specific phenotypes such as complex speech and language, advanced cognition or the unique preparation of their food is a topic of broad interest. Approaches focusing on comparisons of the genomic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequence between species, individuals or tissues allow for the identification of evolutionary sequence changes, some of these changes may underlie differences in phenotypes. In addition, differences in when, where and how much of a particular gene is present may also contribute to functional changes and therefore also to phenotypic differences. The resources to make such comparisons using genetic data are now available. The genome sequences of a number of outgroups: all living great apes, as well two archaic humans, are now publically available. Studying gene expression on the RNA level - a precursor of the protein expression - is considerably easier and cheaper than the measurement of expression of the protein itself. It has been shown that the RNA and protein expression levels are well correlated and therefore measuring RNA levels provides a good proxy for the expression of the protein. Using high-throughput sequencing techniques, relatively unbiased expression comparison is now possible because the RNA from any species can be sequenced directly, rather than being captured on arrays which are designed based on a particular reference sequence. The aim of this research was to use gene expression as a molecular phenotype to identify changes relevant to human-specific biology and study the difference between humans and their closest living relatives to understand patterns and differences in the gene expression and in gene expression regulation in multiple tissues in primates using high-throughput sequencing techniques. In my thesis, I describe two analyses to address open questions in the field of gene expression and genes expression regulation in humans. In the first part I will analyze how the effect of different diets impact gene expression using a mouse model. Two key components of the human diet that differ substantially from the diet of other primates, the frequent use of meat of many humans and the cooking of their food which is common for almost all human populations, are modeled in the experiment. I tested for their impact on liver gene expression. I found that both the differences in food substrates - meat and tuber - as well as in their preparation affect gene expression in mice significantly. The effect is bigger between food substrates than between methods of preparation. Differentially expressed genes between food substrates and food preparation were predominantly related to metabolic functions. In addition, immune-genes showed differential expression between the comparisons of raw meat to both, raw tuber and cooked meat, respectively. The results indicate that different food substrates and food preparations activate different metabolic pathways and that the cooking of food and particularly of meat has an influence on the immune also changes immune-reactions of the body. I showed that expression differences in these mice are correlated with the differences observed between humans and other primates, and that there is evidence that adaptation to these diets dates to more than 300.000 years. Finally, I showed that transcription factors play in important role in regulation of gene expression with respect to different food preparation. In the second part I analyzed the expression of one key regulator of gene expression: microRNAs (miRNAs). Using miRNA expression data from multiple primate species and for multiple tissues I found that expression differences vary between tissues. While heart and brain show only few expression differences between primates, other tissues are more variable in expression. The most extreme expression differences in all three primate species were found in the brain, which may reflect the importance of miRNAs in the regulation of gene expression in the brain. Expression differences in testis were significantly larger between humans and macaques than between chimpanzees and macaques, indicating that miRNAs evolved differently in human compared to chimpanzees. MiRNA expression differences were correlated with expression differences of their target genes genome-wide which underlines the regulatory importance of miRNAs. I also showed that differentially expressed miRNAs between species/tissues preferentially targeted transcription factors, which are important gene expression regulators as well. This finding that suggests complex regulatory pathways involving both miRNAs and transcription factors in the control of gene expression. Finally, I used the miRNA sequencing data to annotate new miRNAs in primates and was able to increase the number of annotated miRNAs substantially, especially for the non-human primates which were previously not extensively annotated. The overlap of miRNAs annotated in multiple primate species thereby also increased which will support future studies to investigate the evolutionary changes of miRNAs between these primates.

Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2006

, Habil--Universität Heidelberg, 2006.

Zugl.: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 2007

Tesis--Universidad Central del Ecuador.

No description available.

Centrée sur les rapports de Zhu Xi (1130-1200) et Lu Jiuyuan (1139-1193), lettrés-fonctionnaires de la dynastie Song généralement perçus comme des représentants majeurs de ce qu’on appelle le « néoconfucianisme », cette étude fait fond sur les acquis de l’histoire intellectuelle de la période pour proposer une perspective nouvelle sur les formes de controverse dans la Chine traditionnelle. En partant d’une description pragmatique des propos et actions de ces lettrés, ainsi que d’une traduction originale de certains des textes que ceux-ci produisent et pratiquent, on s’y efforce, à rebours des approches objectivantes, de s’en tenir strictement au point de vue indigène. La description des règles présupposées par les acteurs permet de dégager un système de valeurs conscientes, qui hiérarchise le sens autour de l’idée de « savoir » et interroge en retour notre conception moderne du savoir. La compréhension profonde de cet ordre du sens réclame la formulation d’une anthropologie adéquate, dont on trouve l’inspiration dans les concepts et la méthode de Louis Dumont et qui conduit ici à un essai d’anthropologie du savoir. Au plan analytique, cette perspective d’ensemble manifeste sa productivité dans le surcroît d’intelligibilité qu’elle apporte quant à la relation de Zhu Xi et Lu Jiuyuan, et plus largement quant aux dynamiques collectives qui traversent leurs rapports. Au plan disciplinaire, elle confirme l’importance du regard anthropologique pour l’histoire de la Chine, et en retour le caractère précieux de la sinologie pour l’anthropologie. / By focusing on the relations between Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, two scholar-officials of the Song dynasty generally seen as major representatives of what is often called “neoconfucianism”, this dissertation uses the insights of the intellectual history of the period to propose a new perspective to study the patterns of controversy in traditional China. Taking as a starting point both a pragmatic description of the words and deeds of these two literati and an original translation of some texts they produce and put into practice, it attempts to stick to an emic point of view against any objectivist bias. The description of the assumptions of the actors (i.e., the rules that pattern their speech and actions) enables us to reconstruct a system of conscious values hierarchized under the idea of “knowledge”, and thereby puts into question our modern conception of knowledge. In order to achieve a deep understanding of this order of meaning, one needs to elaborate a suitable anthropology, for which the concepts and method developed by Louis Dumont have proved to be of fundamental value, leading to an attempt at an anthropology of knowledge. On an analytical level, the overall perspective we propose contributes to the intelligibility of the relation between Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, and, more generally, to the collective dynamics underlying this relation. On a disciplinary level, it confirms both the importance of an anthropological approach for the understanding of Chinese history and, in return, the importance of sinology as a source of precious insights for anthropology.