Male Sacrifice Research Articles

Review of Alessandra Seggi’s <i>Youth and Suicide in American Cinema: Context, Causes, and Consequences</i> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

Despite the abundance of scholarly literature on the representation of suicide in various entertainment forms, few books exist on the subject. In the arena of film analysis, two books that immediately come to mind are Steven Stack and Barbara Bowman’s (2011) Suicide Movies: Social Patterns 1900-2009, a magisterial study that plumbs 1,158 feature-length films for causes or motives for suicide and Claire Sisco King’s (2012) Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma and the Cinema, which examines the cultural and ideological work done by films on heroic suicides. Whereas the former aimed for breadth, the latter aimed for depth. Though they remain relevant, the two titles are somewhat dated, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive Alessandra Seggi’s recent book, which combines breadth and depth and zeroes in on one of our most vulnerable populations: our youth. [... ]

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and genome editing to support a sustainable livestock.

This article provides an overview of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and genome engineering to improve livestock production systems for the contribution of global sustainability. Most ruminant production systems are conducted on grassland conditions, as is the case of South American countries that are leaders in meat and milk production worldwide with a well-established grass-feed livestock. These systems have many strengths from an environmental perspective and consumer preferences but requires certain improvements to enhance resource efficiency. Reproductive performance is one of the main challenges particularly in cow-calf operations that usually are conducted under adverse conditions and thus ART can make a great contribution. Fixed-time artificial insemination is applied in South America in large scale programs as 20 to 30% of cows receive this technology every year in each country, with greater calving rate and significant herd genetic gain occurred in this region. Sexed semen has also been increasingly implemented, enhancing resource efficiency by a) obtaining desired female replacement and improving animal welfare by avoiding newborn male sacrifice in dairy industry, or b) alternatively producing male calves for beef industry. In vitro embryo production has been massively applied, with this region showing the greatest number of embryos produced worldwide leading to significant improvement in herd genetics and productivity. Although the contribution of these technologies is considerable, further improvements will be required for a significant livestock transformation and novel biotechnologies such as genome editing are already available. Through the CRISPR/Cas-based system it is possible to enhance food yield and quality, avoid animal welfare concerns, overcome animal health threats, and control pests and invasive species harming food production. In summary, a significant enhancement in livestock productivity and resource efficiency can be made through reproductive technologies and genome editing, improving at the same time profitability for farmers, and global food security and sustainability.

The Book of Esther and the Typology of Female Transfiguration in American Literature, by Silver, Ariel Clark

<i>The Book of Esther and the Typology of Female Transfiguration in American Literature</i>, by Silver, Ariel Clark

The Wehrmann in Eisen: nailed statues as barometers of Habsburg social order during the First World War

Beginning in early 1915, large nailed statues appeared across Austria-Hungary. These statues, which were carved of wood and covered in nails, took different forms. The most common was a shield or medieval knight, the Wehrmann in Eisen. Often placed in prominent public spaces, these statues became focal points for ceremonies aimed at uniting the local population in support of the Habsburg war effort. The rhetoric concerning these statues, used by officials in unveiling ceremonies and reproduced in newspapers, reinforced notions of wartime sacrifice expected of all citizens. This paper examines these nailed statues in both halves of the Dual Monarchy, arguing that these statues served an important function in the Habsburg wartime project to promote widespread patriotism and in the process upheld traditional gendered social order. Ultimately, these nailed statues and the events that took place at them exemplify efforts by those in positions of authority to maintain traditional gendered social order in wartime through this symbol of male battlefront sacrifice. The varied afterlives of these statues indicate the degree to which the statues failed to unite the Monarchy around a common Habsburg wartime project and were subject to use for political ends in the successor states.

Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma, and the Cinema

Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma, and the Cinema

Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma, and the Cinema by Claire Sisco King (review)

Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma, and the Cinema by Claire Sisco King (review)

(Re)locating Gendered War Memories in the Asia Pacific

This paper explores the representation of war memory and narratives of commemoration in four war memorials/museums in Japan and Australia focusing particularly on the workings of nationalism, gender and militarism. One site, the Australian War Memorial, has been noted by some for its gender?balanced representation of World War II and subsequent conflicts, but also criticised by others for linking national identity with a masculinised memory of the failed Gallipoli Campaign during World War I. The second site, the Yasukuni Shrine and Y?sh?kan War Museum in Tokyo, is highly controversial due to bellicose representations of Japan’s military expansionism during the Asia?Pacific War (1931?1945) and sanitization of past atrocities. It will be shown that while seemingly very different both AWM and Y?sh?kan commemorate the same male?militarist version of war memory, albeit in a much more highly contested nationalistic context in the case of the latter. The other two sites, the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Okinawa and the Women’s Active Museum War Museum on War and Peace (WAM) in Tokyo, are also in the same cultural space as the Y?sh?kan, Japan, but offer a counter view of these fifteen years of conflict to varying degrees. Both have attempted to offer a ‘countermemory’ or alternative narrative of the Asia?Pacific War by articulating the histories of those who suffered the violence of theses times as young women mobilised to serve as military nurses in Okinawa, in the first instance, and as ‘comfort women’ (military sexual slaves) in a variety of locations colonised or occupied by Japan, in the second. Whereas the message of the Himeyuri Peace Museum is the futility and brutality of war, the imperialist, militarist and patriarchal power structures that contributed to the war are not fully attended to. In contrast, WAM draws links between everyday violence against women and the violent conditions that the comfort women were subjected to in war time. It will be argued that WAM in particular, with its activist approach, creates ‘effective history’ that shatters the unitary narrative of sites of memory that monumentalize the deeds of an imagined or constructed masculine hero. WAM, which is the product of the coming together of women of the former colonizing and colonized nations as well as the invading and invaded nations, stands as an example of history transcending borders in an attempt to recreate the rules that have hitherto silenced them. It is so disturbing to those wedded to monument of male sacrifice and heroic deed because the testimonies of the former comfort women (girls) exposes not only the brutality and violence of war, but also the intimate relationship between military masculinities and violence.

Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance (review)

Reviewed by: Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance Susan Broomhall Zorach, Rebecca, Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005; cloth; pp. 314; 127 b/w illustrations, 16 colour plates; R.R.P. US$45.00; ISBN 0226989372. Abundant garlands of fruits and flowers are typical of French Renaissance art, but until now their distinctive cultural meanings in sixteenth-century France have not been explored. Rebecca Zorach's lavishly illustrated study may have begun with the relatively modest aim to explore these meanings, but her monograph abounds with exciting new interpretations of an impressive range of cultural objects. As she argues, these symbols and images mattered [End Page 263] in the Renaissance, and contemporaries teased out, debated and transformed their meanings as they copied, developed and critiqued their use in new forms. The study is chiefly occupied with works created for the 'high end' of town. While it might be assumed that many of the buildings, artworks, material objects, texts and tapestries she examines have been well studied, the art of the French Renaissance has received far less attention than that of Renaissance or Baroque Italy or Reformation Germany. Although the reign of Francis I promised a glittering era of royal magnificence, the religious tensions and civil wars that followed saw a shift in the direction and type of works produced. Zorach makes up for this deficit, and further includes analysis of the transmission of the relevant ideas as they were received, replicated or reworked in more widely circulating objects such as prints and coins. Zorach's main thesis explores ideas and anxieties surrounding wealth and excess as they are conveyed in images and texts. She employs careful observation and interpretation and draws upon literary and cultural theories (sometimes adding an unnecessary level of complexity to the presentation of her ideas). She argues that under Francis I's patronage and possible guidance, artists created a vision of France as a bountiful, feminine landscape controlled by male labour and political order. The creation of diverse containers considered feminine, such as vessels and jugs, and displaying reproductive female bodies, all bellies and breasts, reflected this motif of fertility. This, Zorach argues, was a deliberate political creation of a secular mythology of Mother Nature, France, that could steer the country away from potential religious factionalism. Each of her loosely chronological chapters takes a key liquid as the leitmotif for analysis, although these do not limit her discussion from ranging much more widely beyond its framing concept. In 'Blood', Zorach identifies key associations of land, nobility, generation and Christian sacrifice. A key text for analysis in this chapter is the Galerie François Premier at Fontainebleau, a notoriously complex work. Zorach places emphasis on multiplicity – of personalities who were involved in the gallery's creation, of national and intertextual influences, and ultimately of meanings. She suggests that it conveys a range of meanings, intended to be understood by different kinds of visitors: a suggestion offered some support by the fact that even contemporaries offered no clear consensus on its interpretation. At a closer level, Zorach focuses attention on the gallery's emphatic focus on male genitalia in scenes of circumcision and castration, which, she argues, develop a wider narrative of male sacrifice and loyalty to the good of the nation. Through an intricate [End Page 264] re-reading of the gallery in the context of Francis I's personal and political motivations, the nation's religious tensions, Rosso's own biography and the (later Calvinist) printer Robert Estienne's possible influence, Zorach offers a powerful new interpretation that crosses the frescos to the stucco side panels and friezes. In 'Milk', Zorach highlights a different form of productivity, in connections between nature, production and particularly French agricultural production. This is a shift, she argues, from the masculine forms of the gallery to a more feminine iconography. Some of the artists explored here, such as sculptor Sambin and designer Thiry, trained at Fontainebleau. In these works, multiple breasts, pressed and squeezed, abound, and through them Zorach explores meanings ostensibly maternal and deeply philosophical but also highly erotic. Some of the arguments advanced...

REPEATED EVOLUTION OF MALE SACRIFICE BEHAVIOR IN SPIDERS CORRELATED WITH GENITAL MUTILATION

According to sexual cannibalism theory, male complicity in terminal mating can be adaptive when the male's future reproductive value is low relative to the benefits of self sacrifice. Spiders and insects that exhibit male sacrifice behavior (either complicity in cannibalism or spontaneous death associated with copulation) often also have male genitalia that stereotypically become broken or disfigured the first time they are used for copulation, potentially lowering his future reproductive value. Theoretical work on monogamy has identified male bias in the effective sex ratio as a precursor to the evolution of monogamy (including male sacrifice) as an adaptive form of paternity protection. Using phylogeny-based statistics and drawing on several phylogenetic studies of araneoid spiders, I investigate relationships between male sacrifice behavior, genital mutilation, extreme sexual size dimorphism, and the accumulation of multiple males in the female web (as an indicator of a male-based effective sex ratio). This investigation focuses on araneoid spiders because several independent origins of sacrifice behavior are known for this group and the phylogenetic structure of the lineage is relatively well studied. I report that male genital mutilation is significantly correlated with sacrifice behavior and argue that this finding is consistent with sexual cannibalism theory. Male sacrifice behavior is also correlated with male accumulation, a result that is consistent with theoretical work on the evolution of monogamy. Male accumulation and extreme sexual size dimorphism are correlated suggesting that sex-based differences in maturation time can lead to a male biased effective sex ratio. Similar patterns of correlated characters may hold for some insect taxa. Studying traits that have appeared independently in multiple lineages is a powerful method for developing general theories about the evolution of biological phenomena.

Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War

In the popular imagination, World War I stands for the horror of all wars. The unprecedented scale of the war and the mechanized weaponry it introduced to battle brought an abrupt end to the romantic idea that soldiers were somehow knights in shining armor who always vanquished their foes and saved the day. Yet the concept of chivalry still played a crucial role in how soldiers saw themselves in the conflict. Here for the first time, Allen J. Frantzen traces these chivalric ideals from the Great War back to their origins in the Middle Ages and shows how they resulted in highly influential models of behavior for men in combat. Drawing on a wide selection of literature and images from the medieval period, along with photographs, memorials, postcards, war posters, and film from both sides of the front, Frantzen shows how such media shaped a chivalric ideal of male sacrifice based on the Passion of Jesus Christ. He demonstrates, for instance, how the wounded body of Christ became the inspiration for heroic male suffering in battle. For some men, the Crucifixion inspired a culture of revenge, one in which Christ's bleeding wounds were venerated as badges of valor and honor. For others, Christ's sacrifice inspired action more in line with his teachings?a daring stay of hands or reason not to visit death upon one's enemies. Lavishly illustrated and eloquently written, Bloody Good will be must reading for anyone interested in World War I and the influence of Christian ideas on modern life.

Pattern of sperm transfer in redback spiders: implications for sperm competition and male sacrifice

Many sperm competition studies have identified copulation duration as an important predictor of paternity. This result is often interpreted as a sperm transfer effect—it is assumed that sperm transfer is limited by copulation duration. Here we test the assumption of duration-dependent sperm transfer in the Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti, in which a correlation betweencopulationdurationandpaternityhasbeenimplicatedintheevolutionofararemaleself-sacrificebehavior.Maleredbacks facilitate sexual cannibalism by females during copulation. Sexual cannibalism is apparently adaptive for redback males, in part because it results in longer copulations (25 versus 11 min.), and copulation duration is positively correlated with paternity. We assessed sperm transfer in normal copulations and in copulations that we terminated at 5, 10, or 20 min. Our results show that the paternity advantage of sexual cannibalism is not owing to time-dependent sperm transfer, as redback males transfer the majority of their sperm within the first 5 min of copulation. This suggests that the link between copulation duration and paternity may instead be owing to cryptic female choice or the transfer of nongametic ejaculatory substances. Results further indicate that the act of cannibalismitselfmightplayaroleinmediatingspermtransfer.Thisstudyhighlightstheimportanceofunderstandingmechanisms of sperm transfer when attempting to interpret the outcome of sperm competition studies. Key words: copulation duration, Latrodectus hasselti, redback spider, sexual cannibalism, sperm competition, sperm transfer. [Behav Ecol 15:785–792 (2004)]

Risky mate search and male self-sacrifice in redback spiders

Male redback spiders twist their abdomens onto the fangs of their mates during copulation and, if cannibalized (65% of matings), increase their paternity relative to males that are not cannibalized. The adaptive male sacrifice hypothesis proposes that this increased reproductive payoff from a single mating outweighs the residual reproductive value of a cannibalized male, because high mortality during mate searching restricts alternative mating opportunities. It has been reported that redback male residual reproductive value is low because males are functionally sterile after one mating—a putative intrinsic constraint that could arguably favor self-sacrifice in the absence of ecological restrictions on multiple mating. However, sterility and self-sacrifice may both arise as aspects of a terminal investment strategy if the probability of multiple mating is sufficiently low. Here I report field data that support the adaptive male sacrifice hypothesis. More than 80% of redback males die without finding a potential mate in nature. Data from two observational field studies and one release experiment suggest that in the absence of cannibalism, male redbacks would expect fewer than one mating opportunity in a lifetime. This expectation was not significantly higher for a large male or one in good condition. A simple quantitative analysis confirms that even if males are assumed to be fertile throughout life, the measured mortality rate during mate search in combination with previously documented paternity benefits of cannibalism is sufficient to ensure that self-sacrifice is adaptive for male redback spiders.

Value of male remating and functional sterility in redback spiders

In the Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti, males typically use their paired copulatory organs (palps) to copulate twice with a single female then sacrifice themselves to their cannibalistic mates in a strategy that increases their paternity in that one mating, but leads to death. This type of terminal investment in one mating is predicted only if the expected value of future matings is low for males relative to the value of repeated mating with the same female. In this laboratory study, we quantified the reproductive value of mating more than once with the same female (repeated mating) and mating with more than one female (multiple mating) for male redback spiders. We tested two natural selection hypotheses for repeated mating, sperm limitation and reproductive insurance, but found no support for either hypothesis. We show that, in the absence of sperm competition or cannibalism, male lifetime reproductive output is the same whether a male copulates once, twice, or several times with a given female. Repeated mating does not increase the probability of successful fertilization, nor does it increase the number of offspring produced in successful matings. Although male repeated mating is not favoured because of increased fertility of mates, other studies suggest it may be important in sperm competition. Here we show that the relative reproductive value of the first two copulations is very high for redback males because they are functionally sterile after each palp has been used once; nonvirgin males are unable to father offspring. Functional sterility and repeated mating by male redbacks may be favoured by the same factors that lead to male sacrifice behaviour: ecological constraints on multiple mating combined with competitive benefits of maximal investment in the first mating. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Female hunger can explain variation in cannibalistic behavior despite male sacrifice in redback spiders

Male Australian redback spiders (Latrodtctus hasselti Thorell: Theriidae) place their abdomens directly over their mate's mouthparts during copulation, increasing the likelihood of sexual cannibalism. Male sacrifice may be adaptive because cannibalized males increase their paternity relative to those that are not eaten. Despite male sacrifice behavior, however, up to 50% of laboratory matings may end without sexual cannibalism. Here, I report a similar pattern in the field, where males were not cannibalized in 35% of observed matings (6/17). I examined variation in female cannibalistic behavior by evaluating the following three hypotheses for the occurrence of cannibalism from the female perspective: (1) the mistaken identity hypothesis proposes that females sometimes cannibalize males because they mistake them for prey, (2) the mate rejection hypothesis predicts that females cannibalize males who are unacceptable as mates, and (3) the feeding opportunism hypothesis predicts that hungry females are more likely to be cannibalistic Field observations refuted die first two hypotheses: females recognized males as potential mates (i.e., nonprey), and cannibalized and noncannibalized males were not phenotypically different. The feeding opportunism hypothesis was supported. In staged field matings, cannibalistic females were hungrier than their noncannibaUstic counter-parts. Moreover, a logistic regression analysis indicated that hunger was a significant predictor of cannibalism. Because redback males are below the typical prey size that females accept, well-fed females are less likely to consume their mates, despite the vulnerable mating posture. These results indicate that, although males facilitate sexual cannibalism, their fate may depend on the female's physical condition.

Sperm numbers, their storage and usage in the flyDryomyza anilis

In the fly Dryomyza anilis females have two kinds of sperm storage organs: one bursa copulatrix and three spermathecae (two spermathecae with a common duct form the doublet, and the third is a singlet spermathecal unit). At the beginning of a mating the male deposits his sperm in the bursa copulatrix. After sperm transfer the male taps the female's abdomen with his claspers. This behaviour has been shown to increase the male's fertilization success. After mating, the female discharges large quantities of sperm before oviposition. To find out where the sperm remaining in the female are stored, I counted the number of sperm in the droplet and in the female's sperm storage organs after different types of mating. I carried out three mating experiments. In experiment 1, virgin females were mated with one male and the matings were interrupted either immediately after sperm transfer or after several tapping sequences. The results show that during male tapping more sperm moved into the singlet spermatheca. In addition, the total number of sperm correlated with sperm numbers in all sperm storage organs, and male size was positively related to the number of sperm remaining in the bursa. In experiment 2, females mated with several males. The number of sperm increased with increasing number of matings only in the doublet spermatheca. No increase in the number of sperm in the singlet spermatheca during consecutive matings suggests that sperm were replaced or did not reach this sperm storage organ. In experiment 3, virgin females were mated with a single male and half of them were allowed to lay eggs. The experiment showed that during egglaying, females primarily used sperm from their singlet spermatheca. The results from the three experiments suggest that sperm stored in the singlet spermatheca is central for male fertilization success and male tapping is related to sperm storage in the singlet spermatheca. The different female's sperm storage organs in D. anilis may have separate functions during sperm storage as well as during sperm usage.

Sexual Selection for Male Sacrifice in the Australian Redback Spider

During copulation, male redback spiders ( Latrodectus hasselti : Theridiidae) position themselves above the female's jaws. This apparent male complicity in sexual cannibalism is favored by sexual selection because cannibalized spiders receive two paternity advantages. First, cannibalized males copulated longer and fertilized more eggs than those that survived copulation. Second, females were more likely to reject subsequent suitors after consuming their first mate. These results represent empirical evidence for male copulatory suicide as an adaptive behavior.