Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

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Indigenous philosophy and world politics: cosmopolitical contributions from across the Americas

Description
The call for an Inter-Civilizational Dialogue informed by cosmopolitical forms of Comparative Political Theory as a way to address our unprecedented global challenges is among the most laudable projects that students of politics and related fields across the world have put forth in centuries. Unfortunately, however, up until this point…

The call for an Inter-Civilizational Dialogue informed by cosmopolitical forms of Comparative Political Theory as a way to address our unprecedented global challenges is among the most laudable projects that students of politics and related fields across the world have put forth in centuries. Unfortunately, however, up until this point the actual and potential contributions of the Indigenous or 'Fourth' World and its civilizational manifestations have been largely ignored. This has clearly been the case in what refers to Indigenous American or Abya-Yalan cultures and civilizations. The purpose of this dissertation is to acknowledge, add to, and further foster the contributions of Indigenous American cultures and civilizations to the emerging fields of Comparative Political Theory and Inter-Civilizational Relations. Guided by a cosmopolitical concern for social and environmental justice, this work adds to the transcontinental and transdisciplinary effort to decolonize knowledges and practices by offering socio-ecologically balanced alternatives beyond the crisis of globalized Western modernity. This work draws on three broad Indigenous traditions, Mesoamerican, Andean, and Native North American, to offer some historical and contemporary examples of the many possible ways in which the recovery, revalorization, and revitalization of Indigenous modes of thought, practice, organization and planning can contribute to foster forms of comparative political theorizing that address the challenges of a global age bedeviled by the confluence of social and environmental crises of an unprecedented scale and scope. The dissertation first introduces comparative political theory as a framework for the inter-civilizational dialogue, arguing that Indigenous contributions have been marginalized and must be considered. Part I then focuses and elaborates on specifically Mesoamerican contributions; Part II is dedicated to Andean contributions; and Part III to Native North American contributions. The dissertation closes with a brief reflection of how Indigenous American contributions can help us address some of our most crucial contemporary global challenges, especially in what concerns the construction of cosmopolitical alternatives built on post-anthropocentric forms of socio-ecological justice.
ContributorsFigueroa Helland, Leonardo Esteban (Author) / Doty, Roxanne L (Thesis advisor) / Ashley, Richard K. (Committee member) / Mitchell, Michael J. (Committee member) / Killsback, Leo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Mating Biology, Social Structure, and the Evolution of Reproductive Conflict in Ants

Description
In many social groups, reproduction is shared between group members, whocompete for position in the social hierarchy for reproductive dominance. This reproductive conflict can lead to different means of enforcing reproductive differences, such as dominance displays or limited control of social hierarchy through antagonistic encounters. In eusocial insects, archetypal colonies contain a single,…

In many social groups, reproduction is shared between group members, whocompete for position in the social hierarchy for reproductive dominance. This reproductive conflict can lead to different means of enforcing reproductive differences, such as dominance displays or limited control of social hierarchy through antagonistic encounters. In eusocial insects, archetypal colonies contain a single, singly-mated fertile queen, such that no reproductive conflict exists within a colony. However, many eusocial insects deviate from this archetype and have multiply-mated queens (polyandry), multiple queens in a single colony (polygyny), or both. In these cases, reproductive conflict exists between the matrilines and patrilines represented in a colony, specifically over the production of sexual offspring. A possible outcome of reproductive conflict may be the emergence of cheating lineages, which favor the production of sexual offspring, taking advantage of the worker force produced by nestmate queens and/or patrilines. In extreme examples, inquiline social parasites may be an evolutionary consequence of reproductive conflict between nestmate queens. Inquiline social parasitism is a type of social parasitism that is usually defined by a partial or total loss of the worker caste, and the “infiltration” of host colonies to take advantage of the host worker force for reproduction. It has been hypothesized that these inquiline social parasites evolve through the speciation of cheating queen lineages from within their incipient host species. This “intra- specific” origin model involves a foundational hypothesis that the common ancestor of host and parasite (and thus, putatively, the host at the time of speciation) should be functionally polygynous, and that parasitism evolves as a “resolution” of reproductive conflict in colonies. In this dissertation, I investigate the hypothesized role of polygyny in the evolution of inquiline social parasites. I use molecular ecology and statistical approaches to validate the role of polygyny in the evolution of some inquiline social parasites. I further discuss potential mechanisms for the evolution and speciation of social parasites, and discuss future directions to elucidate these mechanisms.
ContributorsDahan, Romain Arvid (Author) / Rabeling, Christian (Thesis advisor) / Amdam, Gro V (Committee member) / Fewell, Jennifer H (Committee member) / Pratt, Stephen C (Committee member) / Rüppell, Olav (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021