The overall aim of this research project was to explore and describe the significance of assistive devices in daily life. The project involves two qualitative and two quantitative studies. Three of these studies were from the perspective of persons with stroke and one from the perspective of spouses of persons with stroke. A hermeneutic phenomenological lifeworld approach was used in the qualitative studies and data was obtained through conversational interviews with the two study groups, 22 persons with stroke and 12 spouses of persons with stroke, after the devices had been used for about a year. The results indicated that the lived experiences of assistive devices in respect of the different lifeworld existentials (lived body, lived space, lived time, lived human relation) are closely interconnected in both study groups. The lived body existential included aspects of habits, feelings and the incorporation, figuratively speaking, of the devices into their own bodies. Lived space concerned the gradual development of a new view of the environment and the devices’ role as a prerequisite for being able to live at home. The devices brought about a changed relation to lived time with respect to the temporal perspectives of past, present and future. To be able to take control of one’s own time was an important experience that the devices facilitated. Assistive devices were an integral part of the lived human relation between the couples in the study groups, as well as between the disabled persons/spouses and other people, including the health-care professionals. The devices contributed either to the maintenance or the change of social roles, but they sometimes also gave rise to the experience of being stigmatised. The results in the case of both study groups showed that the use of different devices is complex and often contradictory, especially when it comes to persons with stroke. Overall the persons’ experiences of the advantages of the devices overshadowed their experiences of the disadvantages. The quantitative studies included a pre- and post-assessment design. Thirty-two persons with disabilities after stroke were included. The impact of an outdoor powered wheelchair on activity and participation (IPPA, WHODAS II) and quality of life (PIADS, EQ-5D) was measured. Statistical analysis with mainly non-parametric tests was used to determine significant within-group and between-group changes after intervention. The conceptual framework ICF was used in one of the quantitative studies when classifying the participants’ stated problems. The results showed that the outdoor powered wheelchair is an essential device for persons with disabilities after stroke with regard to overcoming activity limitation and participation restrictions in everyday life. Furthermore it mostly has a positive impact on such users’ quality of life. However, it is also important to highlight the negative experiences of a few with regard to the use of powered wheelchairs. In sum, these results will enable prescribers to better understand the individual experiences of using assistive devices and the individuals’ and the families’ need for support in connection with the prescription of assistive devices, the particular example being powered wheelchairs.

Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) is a bird species with a lek mating system found in the Palearctic boreal taiga. It is assumed that it has a continuous distribution along Scandinavia and Siberia, whereas in Central Europe it has declined during the last decades. The primary objective of this thesis was to obtain a deeper understanding of the history, systematic classification and the genetic structure of black grouse on different geographical scales using microsatellites and control region mtDNA sequences (CR). I determined how much the mating system, habitat fragmentation and historical population processes have influenced the partitioning of genetic diversity in this species. Phylogeographical results are consistent with a demographic population expansion, and the patterns of postglacial dispersal suggest that a glacial refugium was located somewhere in central Asia, and from there black grouse spread out to Europe following the retreat of glacial ice sheets. I suggest that the two European black grouse subspecies, T. t. Tetrix and T. t. britannicus correspond to only one subspecies: T. t. tetrix, and that this lineage has diverged from T.t. viridanus, a subspecies found in Kazakhstan. The British population is significantly divergent from the remaining Eurasian samples for microsatellites but it is not for mtDNA. Therefore, they should regard as a separate Management Unit and not as a subspecies. Furthermore, British black grouse occur in three independent genetic units, corresponding to Wales, northern England/southern Scotland and northern Scotland. There was also genetic structure within Sweden. Habitat fragmentation is the main cause of population genetic structure in southern Swedish black grouse. In contrast, low levels of genetic differentiation and high connectivity were found in northern Sweden due to female-biased dispersal. On a finer geographical scale, I found genetic differences between leks due to a mixture of related and unrelated individuals within leks. However, mean relatedness values hardly differed from zero. Some leks were similar to one another and I interpret this as a result of variation in local reproductive success and philopatry. These factors would cause genetic structuring but this by itself would not reveal that kin selection is operating within black grouse leks.

L’information "identité individuelle" est essentielle chez les espèces fortement sociales car elle permet la reconnaissance individuelle et la différenciation des partenaires sociaux dans de nombreux contextes tels que les relations de dominance, les relations mère-jeunes, la défense territoriale, ou encore participe à la cohésion et coordination de groupe. Chez de nombreuses espèces, le canal audio est l’une des voies les plus efficaces de communication dans des environnementscomplexes et à longue distance. Les vocalisations sont empreintes de caractéristiques acoustiques propres à la voix de chaque individu. La combinaison entre ces signatures vocales individuelles et la connaissance sociale accumulée sur les congénères peut grandement favoriser la valeur sélective des animaux, en facilitant notamment les prises de décisions sociales les plus adaptées. Le but de ma recherche est d’étudier le codage et décodage de l’information "identité individuelle" du système vocal de communication du bonobo, Pan paniscus. Premièrement, nous avons recherché la stabilité des signatures vocales des cinq types de cris les plus courants du répertoire du bonobo. Nous avons trouvé que, bien que ces cinq types de cris aient le potentiel de coder l’information individuelle, les cris les plus forts émis dans des contextes d’excitation intense et de communication à longue distance ont les signatures vocales individuelles les plus marquées. Deuxièmement, nous avons étudié l’effet de la familiarité sociale et des liens de parenté sur les caractéristiquesacoustiques qui codent l’information individuelle dans un type de cri "bark". Nous avons mis en évidence l’existence d’une forte convergence vocale. Les individus apparentés et familiers, et indépendamment l’un de l’autre, présentent plus desimilarités vocales qu’entre des individus non apparentés et non familiers. Enfin, dans une troisième étude, nous avons testé la capacité des bonobos à utiliser l’information "identité individuelle" codée dans les vocalisations pour discriminer la voix d’anciens partenaires sociaux avec qui ils ne vivent plus. Par une série d’expériences de repasse, nous avons démontré que les bonobos étaient capables de reconnaître la voix d’individus familiers sur la seule base de l’acoustique, et cela même après des années de séparation. L’ensemble de ce travail de thèse montre que le codage et décodage de l’information "identité individuelle" chez le bonobo est un système dynamique, sujet à modification avec l’environnement social mais suffisamment fiable pour permettre la reconnaissance individuelle au cours du temps. En conclusion cette étude participe à une meilleure compréhension du système de communication vocale chez un primate non-humain forestier, au réseau social unique et complexe / Identity information is vital for highly social species as it facilitates individual recognition and allows for differentiation between social partners in many contexts, such as dominance hierarchies, territorial defence, mating and parent-offspringidentification and group cohesion and coordination. In many species vocalisations can be the most effective communication channel through complex environments and over long-distances and are encoded with the stable features of an individual’s voice. Associations between these individual vocal signatures and accumulated social knowledge about conspecifics can greatly increase an animal’s fitness, as it facilitates adaptively constructive social decisions. This thesis investigates the encoding and decoding of identity information in the vocal communication system of the bonobo, Pan paniscus. We firstly investigated the stability of vocal signatures across the five most common call types in the bonobo vocal repertoire. Results showed that while all call types have the potential to code identity information, loud calls used during times of high arousal and for distance communication have the strongest individual vocal signatures. Following the first study, we investigated if social familiarity and relatedness affect the acoustic features that code individual information in the bark call type. Overall, we found strong evidence for vocal convergence, and specifically, that individuals who are related and familiar, independently from one another, are more vocally similar to one another than unrelated and unfamiliar individuals. In a final study we tested if bonobos are capable of using the encoded identity information to recognise past group members that they no longer live with. Through a series playback experiments we demonstrated that bonobos are capable of recognising familiar individuals from vocalisations alone even after years of separation. Collectively, the results of this thesis show that the encoding and decoding of identity information in bonobo vocalisations is a dynamic system, subject to modification through social processes but robust enough to allow for individual recognition over time. In conclusion these studies contribute to a better understanding of the vocal communication system of a non-human primate species with a unique and complex social network

Att identifiera barn som omsorgsgivande anhöriga är ett nytt sätt att förstå barns verklighet, och kunskapen och medvetenheten om den här gruppen är fortfarande begränsad både i Sverige och i andra länder. Detta gäller i ännu högre grad för unga omsorgsgivare i invandrade familjer. Det finns idag få studier som belyser situationen för den här gruppen specifikt. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att analysera forskningen om unga omsorgsgivare med fokus på de med utländsk bakgrund. Detta gjordes genom en litteraturstudie där nio vetenskapliga artiklar om situationen för invandrade unga omsorgsgivare sammanställdes och analyserades, och där resultatet diskuterades utifrån ett kunskapssociologiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att det i de studier som granskats finns en tendens att kulturalisera unga omsorgsgivare i invandrade familjer. Situationen för de invandrade unga omsorgsgivarna, oavsett etnisk tillhörighet, beskrivs vara delvis annorlunda den för unga omsorgsgivare från majoritetssamhället. Även om faktorer såsom socioekonomiska förhållanden anges spela roll är det kulturellt färgade föreställningar om att unga vill och kan ge omsorg till närstående, och att det framför allt är en uppgift för flickor, som framställs ha en avgörande betydelse för unga omsorgsgivare i invandrade familjer. Detta synsätt får också implikationer för hur stödet till den här gruppen föreslås ska utformas. Vidare visar resultatet att det finns en tendens att fokusera på de risker som kan finnas med ungas omsorgsgivande, speciellt då de unga tar över föräldrarnas ansvar och uppgifter. I det granskade materialet lyfts möjliga positiva effekter av invandrade ungas omsorgsgivande fram, men utgångspunkten är de potentiella problem som kan uppkomma i och med de invandrade familjernas anpassning till en ny kultur, vilket i sin tur anges kunna göra unga invandrare till en riskgrupp för en stor mängd omsorgsgivande. / Identifying children as carers is a new way of understanding children's reality, and the knowledge and awareness of this group is still limited in Sweden and in other countries. This applies even more to young carers in immigrant families. There are currently few studies that highlight the situation of this group specifically. The purpose of the present study was to analyse research on young carers focusing on those with a foreign background. This was done through a literature review in which nine scientific articles on the situation of immigrant young carers were compiled and analysed. The result was then discussed from a sociological perspective on knowledge. The result shows that in the articles examined, there is a tendency to culturise young carers in immigrant families. The situation of immigrant young carers, irrespective of ethnicity, is described to be somewhat different from that of young carers from the majority community. Although factors such as socio-economic conditions are stated to play a role, it is culturally coloured beliefs that children are willing and able to give care to their family, and that it is primarily a task for girls, which is stated to play a crucial role for the caregiving of immigrant young carers. This approach also has implications for how the support for this group is proposed to be designed. Furthermore, the result shows that there is a tendency to focus on the risks that may exist with children’s caregiving, especially when children take over their parents' responsibilities and tasks. The reviewed material highlight the possible positive effects of immigrant children's caregiving, but the starting point is the potential problems that may arise with the adaptation of immigrant families to a new culture, which in turn may make young immigrants a risk group for a large amount of caregiving.

Bakgrund: Organdonation kan rädda människors liv när all annan möjlig behandling redan testats. Behovet av organ i Sverige överskrider idag tillgången, vilket resulterar i att människor avlider i väntan på ett organ. Förutom att möjliggöra en människas överlevnad är transplantation mer kostnadseffektivt än kontinuerlig behandling. I nuläget finns inga nationella riktlinjer i Sverige för utbildning inom organdonation för intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. Forskning har visat att intensivvårdssjuksköterskans arbete är av stor vikt för donationsprocessen. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att belysa behovet av utbildning hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskor som vårdar potentiella avlidna donatorer. Metod: Studien har utförts genom en litteraturstudie med systematisk datainsamling. Integrativ metod med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har använts då artiklar med både kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats analyserats för att besvara syftet för studien. Resultat: En stor del intensivvårdssjuksköterskor upplevde sig vara obekväma med att vårda organdonatorer. Vårdandet av en donator kan medföra att mycket känslor uppstår hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskan och upplevdes som mentalt påfrestande. Utbildning inom organdonation kan hjälpa intensivvårdssjuksköterskan att hantera dessa känslor. Utbildning kan även leda till att fler potentiella donatorer identifieras. Utbildning behöver ges regelbundet och intensivvårdssjuksköterskan behöver specifikt utbildning om donationsprocessen, bemötande och kommunikation av de närstående samt skillnader i hjärt- och hjärndöda patienter. Slutsats: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskan behöver få en djupare förståelse av vården kring organdonation och få en ökad kunskap och utbildning för att stärka sin professionella roll. Utbildning kan även förbättra donationsprocessen och möjliggöra för fler donatorer. Vidare forskning inom området anses behövas för att utveckla vården kring donatorer och närstående. / Background: Organ donation can save lives when all other treatment options have been exhausted. Today, the demand for organs in Sweden exceeds supply, resulting in people dying in wait for an available organ for transplantation. In addition to saving a person’s life, transplantations are more cost-effective than continuous treatment. Currently, there are no national guidelines for the provision of training in the area of organ donations for intensive care nurses. Research has shown that the efforts of intensive care nurses play a major role in the donation process. Aim: The aim of this study is to shed light on the need for training of intensive care nurses caring for potential deceased donors. Methodology: The study was conducted through a literature review with systematic data collection. An integrative method with qualitative content analysis was employed, as articles with both qualitative and quantitative approaches were analysed to shed light on the aim of the study. Findings: A large proportion of intensive care nurses felt uncomfortable caring for organ donors. Caring for a donor can be a very emotional and mentally trying experience for intensive care nurses. Organ donation training can help intensive care nurses cope with these feelings. Training can also result in the identification of more potential donors. Regular training is necessary, and intensive care nurses require specific training on the donation process, treatment and communication with next of kin as well as differences between donation after cardiac death patients and donation after brain death patients. Conclusion: The intensive care nurses needs to gain a deeper understanding of the care surrounding organ donation. To increase the professional role of the nurse there is a need to strengthen the knowledge and education. The donation process could be improved by education, which can lead to more organ donations. Further research within this area of expertise needs to be done to be able to develop the care for the donors and their families.

A lot of children grow up in families with a parent suffering from mental or physical illness, a substance abuse or with a diseased parent. Being a next of kin can result in various health risks, struggles in school and in social life. This study aims to examine professionals’ experiences of working with children as next of kin. The study is based on a qualitative, inductive premise with a sample of fourteen people from eight different municipalities in Sweden. The participants were chosen through means of convenience sampling and the analysis was performed using thematic analysis. The results highlight important conditions for municipalities work with children as next of kin: proper framework, organizational prerequisites, and knowledge. The study offering a new perspective on children as next of kin, which is to consider children as carers using Twigg and Atkin’s (1994) model. The study concludes that children as next of kin need to be considered as carers to be properly recognized in their role and in extension offered support. Therefore, there is a need to recognize this group of children both in law and in policies. It requires organizational commitment, intermunicipal cooperation as well as clear routines in different functions of society. Lastly, this study concludes that awareness of and knowledge regarding children as next of kin, and what support they require, need to be more comprehensive in all parts of society. / Många barn växer upp med en förälder med psykisk eller fysisk sjukdom, ett missbruk eller med en förälder som avlider. Anhörigskapet kan föra med sig risker för barnets hälsa, skolgång och sociala liv. Denna studie ämnar undersöka yrkesverksammas upplevelser och erfarenheter av arbete med barn som anhöriga. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ, induktiv ansats där fjorton personer från åtta olika kommuner i Sverige utgör urvalet. Intervjupersonerna valdes utifrån ett målinriktat bekvämlighetsurval och materialet har analyserats utifrån tematisk analys. Resultatet visar på viktiga förutsättningar för kommunernas arbete med barn som anhöriga: tydliga ramar, organisatoriska förutsättningar och kunskapsbildning. Studien bidrar med ett nytt sätt att se på barn som anhöriga, nämligen att betrakta barn som just anhöriga utifrån användandet av Twigg och Atkins (1994) teori om anhörigskap. Studien konkluderar att barn som anhöriga behöver betraktas som just anhöriga för att synliggöras och erbjudas stöd. För detta krävs ett erkännande av gruppen i lagstiftning och i styrdokument. Det krävs organisatoriskt engagemang, gränsöverskridande samverkan samt tydliga rutiner och riktlinjer för hur barn ska uppmärksammas i olika verksamheter. Slutligen fastslås att medvetenhet och kunskap om barn som anhöriga och vilket stöd de kan få behöver bli mer omfattande på alla nivåer i samhället.

This thesis concentrates on literary works written by writers belonging to the resident Korean minority in Japan (zainichi Koreans). Through the use of postcolonial methodology, this work attempts to monitor the development and changes in the complex concept of "identity" in works written between the 1960s and 2010. The thesis is divided into two major parts. The first, theoretical part, explains the birth of the minority, the conflicts that influenced it and the changes it went through during its history. Postcolonial methodology is also explained, with focus put on the parts that are relevant to Japan. The second, practical part of the thesis, shortly explains the history of zainichi literature and then concentrates on five important postwar resident Korean writers - Ri Kaisei, Kin Kakuei, Yi Yang-ji, Kaneshiro Kazuki and Yu Miri. It analyzes between one and four works by each author and attempts to identify changes in the perception of "identity". It also takes into account female characters and the way they are portrayed by the authors and also the language the book is written in, focusing on whether the author chooses to incorporate the Korean language into the text.

Der Einfluß der mütterlichen Verwandtschaft auf das soziale Verhalten ist eingehend für viele Primatenarten untersucht worden, es ist jedoch schwierig die Bedeutung der Verwandtenselektion auf die Evolution von sozialem Verhalten zu bewerten, wenn Studien auf die mütterliche Verwandtschaft begrenzt sind und die väterliche Verwandtschaft dabei völlig ignorieren. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation war die Untersuchung des Ausmaßes der väterlichen Verwandtschaft und ihr Einfluß auf die sozialen Beziehungen zwischen adulten Weibchen in einer freilebenden Gruppe von Rhesusaffen (Macaca mulatta) auf der Insel Cayo Santiago. Die wichtigsten Resultate können folgendermaßen zusammengefaßt werden: Erstens, zur Beurteilung des Ausmaßes der väterlichen Verwandtschaft wurde die Vaterschaft der zwischen 1993 und 1998 geborenen Kindern der Studiengruppe bestimmt. Die Resultate zeigten, dass die Reproduktion der Männchen innerhalb der Untersuchungszeit nicht gleich verteilt war, einige wenige Männchen zeugten viele Nachkommen, aber die Mehrzahl der potentiellen Väter reproduzierten sich gar nicht oder nur wenig. Dies führte zu einer Verwandtschaftsstruktur in der fast alle im Untersuchungszeitraum geborenen Kinder mindestens ein väterliches Halbgeschwister mit geringer Altersdifferenz hatten, d.h. entweder im selben Alter (74%) oder maximal zwei Jahre jünger oder älter als es selbst (15%). Wenn auch bei anderen Primatenarten die Reproduktion auf einige wenige Männchen beschränkt ist, dann sollte die Bedeutung der väterlichen Verwandtschaft für Primaten neu bewertet werden. Eine der wichtigsten Konsequenzen der ungleichen Reproduktion der Männchen wäre nämlich, dass viele Individuen mehr väterliche, als mütterliche Halbgeschwister in ihrem Leben haben. Zweitens, um den Einfluß der väterlichen Verwandtschaft auf die sozialen Beziehungen unter adulten Weibchen zu bewerten, wurden affiliative und aggressive Interaktionen von 34 Fokusweibchen und ihren sozialen Partnern beobachtet, die entweder ihre mütterlichen Halbschwestern, ihre väterlichen Halbschwestern oder nichtverwandte Weibchen waren. Die vorliegende Untersuchung bestätigte, dass mütterliche Halbschwestern die engsten affiliativen Beziehungen haben. Das wahrscheinlich wichtigste Resultat dieser Studie ist der Befund, dass adulte Weibchen deutlich häufiger affiliativ mit ihren väterlichen Halbschwestern als mit Nichtverwandten interagierten. Die Erkennung der väterlichen Halbschwestern war deutlicher unter Weibchen gleichen Alters als unter Weibchen unterschiedlichen Alters, wobei die affiliativen Interaktionen mit zunehmender Altersdifferenz (gemessen in Jahren) abnahmen. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass Altersnähe einen zusätzlichen regulierenden Einfluß auf affiliatives Verhalten hatte. Beweise dafür, dass sich väterliche Verwandte erkennen können, sind nur in Bezug auf affiliative Interaktionen, nicht aber auf dyadische Aggression gefunden worden, was eine kontextabhängige Verwandtenerkennung annehmen läßt. Drittens, bei der Einbeziehung weiterer Verwandtschaftskategorien zeigten die Daten, dass mütterliche Verwandte auch bei konstant gehaltenem Verwandtschaftsgrad deutlich gegenüber väterlichen Verwandten bevorzugt wurden. Dies weist darauf hin, dass die mütterliche Verwandtschaft in der untersuchten Gruppe einen größeren Einfluß auf die sozialen Beziehungen adulter Rhesusaffenweibchen hatte als die väterliche Verwandtschaft. Affiliative sowie aggressive Interaktionen nahmen mit sinkendem Verwandtschaftsgrad ab, aber entfernte Verwandte unterschieden einander immer noch von Nichtverwandten, was der Existenz einer Verwandschaftsschwelle widerspricht. Viertens, schließlich wurde die väterliche Verwandtschaft in Bezug auf Koalitionsbildungen untersucht. Eine Koalition wird gebildet, wenn ein Individuum in ein laufenden Konflikt zwischen zwei Kontrahenten eingreift, um eine Partei gegen die andere zu unterstützen. Weibliche Rhesusaffen unterstützten am häufigsten ihre mütterliche Halbschwestern. Außerdem unterstützten sie Nichtverwandte gleichen Alters häufiger als Nichtverwandte unterschiedlichen Alters. Weibchen unterstützten ihre väterlichen Halbschwestern nicht häufiger als Nichtverwandte, aber die Daten könnten auf einen indirekten Beweis der väterlichen Verwandtenerkennung hinweisen, da Weibchen dazu tendierten gegen ihre väterlichen Halbschwestern seltener zu intervenieren als gegen Nichtverwandte. Dieser Befund könnte durch die Tatsache bedingt sein, dass väterliche Halbschwestern sehr unterschiedliche Dominanzränge einnehmen können, währenddessen mütterliche Halbschwestern immer benachbarte Dominanzränge haben, was zur Folge hat, dass ein rangtiefes Weibchen ihrer väterlichen Halbschwester nicht wirklich helfen kann, da sie ein viel höheres Vergeltungsrisiko auf sich nimmt, wenn sie in einen Konflikt zwischen zwei ranghöhere Kontrahenten interveniert. Als einen Kompromiß könnten Weibchen statt dessen vermeiden gegen ihre väterlichen Halbschwestern zu intervenieren, was darauf hindeuten könnte, dass individuelle Zwänge bezüglich der eigenen Konkurrenzfähigkeit eine bedeutende Rolle bei der Koalitionsbildung spielen. Mütterliche und väterliche Halbschwestern zeigten zudem einen stärkeren Trend zu "reciprocity" und "interchange" als Nichtverwandte und gaben einander einen höheren Anteil an kostenintensiven Unterstützungen. Schließlich unterstreichen die Ergebnisse dieser Studie deutlich, dass Vertrautheit zwischen Individuen durch frühkindliche Bindungen mindestens auf zwei Wegen erfolgen kann: (i) Mütter vermitteln Vertrautheit zwischen ihren Kindern (die mütterliche Halbgeschwister sind) aufgrund der durch die Laktation bedingten engen Mutter-Kind Bindung und (ii) Altersnähe vermittelt mehr Vertrautheit zwischen Altersgenossen (die entweder väterliche Halbgeschwister oder Nichtverwandte sind), die wichtige Lebensabschnitte wie z.B. Kindheit, Menstruationsbeginn, Schwangerschaft oder Mutterschaft zu ähnlichen Zeiten durchlaufen, während Weibchen unterschiedlichen Alters dies nicht tun. In jedem Fall brauchen väterliche Halbgeschwister neben der Vertrautheit zu ihren Altersgenossen noch einen zusätzlichen Mechanismus wie z.B. das "phenotype matching" um innerhalb ihrer Altersgenossen wirklich zwischen väterlichen Halbgeschwistern und Nichtverwandten zu unterscheiden. / The impact of maternal kinship on social behaviour has been studied in detail for many primate species, but it is difficult to assess the importance of kin selection in shaping the evolution of social behaviour when studies are limited to maternal kin, completely ignoring paternal kinship. This thesis aimed to investigate the extent of paternal kinship and its impact on the social relationships among adult females in one group of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) living on the island of Cayo Santiago. The main findings can be summarised as follows: Firstly, in order to access the extent of paternal kinship, paternity has been analysed for all infants of the study group born between 1993 and 1998. Results revealed that male reproduction was highly skewed over the study period as few males have sired a high number of offspring, but the majority of potential sires have sired no or few offspring. This created a kinship structure in which nearly all animals born during the study period had at least one paternal half-sibling in close age proximity, i.e., either of the same age (74%) or within a two-year age difference of themselves (15%). Assuming that male reproductive success is also skewed in other primate species, then the importance of paternal kinship in primate societies should be re-emphasised. One of the most important consequences of male reproductive skew is that many individuals will have more paternal than maternal half-siblings during their life time. Secondly, in order to access the impact of paternal kinship on the social relationships among adult females, focal data on affiliation and aggression have been collected on 34 adult females with respect to their social partners who were either their maternal half-sisters, paternal half-sisters or unrelated females. The present study confirmed that the closest affiliative relationships characterise maternal half-sisters. Probably the most important result of this study was the finding that adult females were significantly more affiliative with their paternal half-sisters than with their non-kin. The recognition of paternal sisters was more pronounced among females of the same age than among females of different age, with a decrease in affiliation as the exact age difference (measured in years) increased among paternal half-sisters. This indicates that age proximity had an additional regulatory effect upon affiliative behaviour. However, evidence for paternal kin discrimination was only found with respect to affiliation, but not with respect to dyadic aggression suggesting context-dependent kin discrimination. Thirdly, when more kin categories were included in the analysis, adult females showed a strong bias towards maternal kin in comparison to paternal kin. This bias towards maternal kin when the degree of relatedness was held constantly suggests, that maternal kinship had a larger impact on the social relationships among adult female rhesus macaques than paternal kinship at least in the study group. Both affiliation and aggression declined with decreasing degrees of relatedness, but distant kin still differentiated each other from non-kin contradicting the existence of a relatedness threshold. Fourthly, paternal kinship was finally investigated with respect to coalition formation. A coalition is formed when an individual intervenes in an ongoing conflict between two opponents in order to support one party against the other. Female rhesus macaques intervened most often on behalf of their maternal half-sisters. In addition, unrelated female peers supported each other more often than unrelated female non-peers. Females did not support their paternal half-sisters more often than non-kin, but data may indicate indirect evidence for paternal kin discrimination as females tended to target their paternal half-sisters less often than non-kin. This finding might be due to the fact, that paternal half-sisters can be very different in rank, while maternal half-sisters are of adjacent rank, implying that a low-ranking female cannot provide actual help to her paternal half-sisters, as she may risk a higher probability of retaliation when intervening in a conflict between two higher-ranking opponents. As a compromise, females may instead avoid to target their paternal half-sisters, suggesting that constraints to an individuals own competitive ability play an important role in coalition formation. Maternal and paternal half-sisters showed a stronger trend in reciprocity and interchange than non-kin and also provided a higher proportion of costly interventions towards each other. Finally, the results of the present study strongly suggest that familiarity among individuals can arise through association in early development by at least two alternatives: (i) mothers mediating familiarity among their offspring (which are maternal half-siblings) caused by the close mother-offspring relationship during lactation and (ii) age proximity is mediating familiarity among age mates (including both paternal related and unrelated peers) as peers go through important life history stages such as infancy, menarche, pregnancy or motherhood at similar times while females of different age do not. In any case, paternal half-siblings additionally need a mechanism such as phenotype matching to discriminate paternal half-siblings from non-kin even within their peer group.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the mutual impact which social relations and entrepreneurship had in relation to the success of four actors in a rural area in northern Sweden at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Many Swedish scholars have studied the process of social differentiation, before the industrial revolution. However, we still know very little about the forces behind this process, why some peasant households became more successful than others, especially during the first half of the nineteenth century when the economic differences were increasing. To grasp this process, the notion of social position has been used as a tool to grade the population on a scale from low- to high-ranked households in an economic and political sense. The fact that households were more or less successful turns our attention to the ability among individuals and households to change their social position. A theoretical concept chosen to investigate such change is the notion of entrepreneur, which implies a focus on the actor working for personal profit in a changing economic world. The main question has been how important social relations connected to entrepreneurship are in order to promote success among peasant households in the pre-industrial society. The empirical investigation has been conducted on two different levels. The first level is a structural study analysing the physical landscape of the court district of Rödön, the economic stratification and the political activity of the population in the area and, finally, their economic behaviours as peasants and rural businessmen. The second is a qualitative study emphasising on four individual actors: the businessman Per Wikström in the town of Östersund and three of the most successful peasant households in the region. The four case studies reveal that the rural elite had a pragmatic and dynamic approach to choosing social relations outside the family. Many acquaintances grew persistent and embedded in family or kinship relations, whereas others were short-lived or sacrificed for a calculated economic gain.

This dissertation focuses on the status of women in Central Asian society, particularly in Kyrgyzstan, and the phenomena of the Kyrgyz family that is the central part of daily living of Kyrgyz people. We provide an introduction to the region, followed by an analysis of a social stratification of Kyrgyz society and a various types of families. The next chapter describes the three major historical periods and changes in women's position in the society. The first period spans up to 1917, its end marked by the Bolshevik coup. Until that time, The Kyrgyz society was nomadic, organized into tribes, clans, and large patriarchal families. The 1920's were tumultuous times for the Central Asian region, at that time newly dominated by the Soviet rule, undergoing industrialization, public education, experiencing improvements in health care, but on the other hand also confiscation, forced resettlement, and russification. New rights have been granted to women, however local patriarchal and feudal traditions persisted and continued in the local societies. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kyrgyz people started returning to their national traditions and discrimination against women started to be openly discussed in the society. Our historical retrospective analysis explores the major types of Kyrgyz...