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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Characterization Of Swine Behavior And Production Using Measurements Collected Via Indoor Positioning System, Shaun Perisho, Alen Hajnal
Characterization Of Swine Behavior And Production Using Measurements Collected Via Indoor Positioning System, Shaun Perisho, Alen Hajnal
Faculty Publications
© 2020 Legislative and market initiatives are requiring that gestating sows move from individual housing to group settings. Little information is known about coping of individual sows in these more socially complex environments and thus the impact of different behaviors on sow reproductive success was investigated. The movements of 70 sows during periods of reintroduction into large pen gestational housing following insemination was measured using Smartbow indoor positioning technology (Smartbow, Smartbow GmbH, Weibern, Austria) that tracked animal location and accelerations. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to establish composite variables characterizing each animal's behavioral response to social reintroduction and revealed …
Groundhog Oracles And Their Forebears, Daniel S. Capper
Groundhog Oracles And Their Forebears, Daniel S. Capper
Faculty Publications
Groundhog Day animal weather forecasting ceremonies continue to proliferate around the United States despite a lack of public confidence in the oracles. This essay probes religio-historical and original ethnographic perspectives to offer a psychological argument for why these ceremonies exist. Employing Paul Shepard’s notion of a felt loss of sacred, intimate relationships with nonhuman nature, as well as Peter Homans’ concept of the monument that enables mourning, this essay argues that groundhog oracles serve as monuments that allow humans experientially to attempt to heal lost sacred relationships with animals like weather forecasting bears, hedgehogs, and badgers
The Friendly Yeti, Daniel S. Capper
The Friendly Yeti, Daniel S. Capper
Faculty Publications
Most images of yetis in Western popular culture and scholarly literature portray them as secular, predatory monsters. These representations overlook important religious dimensions of yetis that are hidden in the current literature, so I take a new look at yetis in Tibetan religions in order to clarify our understanding of these legendary creatures. Following a phenomenological approach that sets aside the issue of the ontological existence of yetis, I examine texts, art, ritual, and folklore in order to propose four yeti personal ideal types: the Buddhist practitioner, the human religious ally, the friendly yeti, and the mountain deity yeti. These …