The relationship between the Greek goddess Athena and her father Zeus, together with the competitive hostility she displays towards other females, is presented as illustrating some previously neglected aspects of triangular developmental conflicts in the little girl. Literature on "the Oedipus complex in the female" is reviewed and discussed. The mythological early histories of both Athena and ...

Freud proposed that the processes which occurred in the primal horde are essential for understanding superego formation and therefore, the successful dissolution of the Oedipus complex. However, Freud theorized superego formation in the primal horde as if it is an instant, all-or-none achievement. The present paper proposes an alternative model aiming to explain gradual development of superego ...

Within the vocal repertoires of many species, both males and females produce acoustic variants of the same call type. Despite the relative salience of the acoustic features that correlate with the caller’s sex, little is known about the functional significance of this acoustic cue. Specifically, do conspecifics use this information when making behavioural decisions, implying that it is meaningf...

The DRB region of the human and great-ape major histocompatibility complex displays not only gene but also haplotype polymorphism. The number of genes in the human DRB region can vary from one to four, and even greater variability exists among the DRB haplotypes of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Accumulating evidence indicates that, like gene polymorphism, part of the haplotype polymorp...

Hormonal changes during non-maternal infant care have been demonstrated in many cooperatively breeding bird species, some monogamous rodents and two species of New World primates. Coevolution of hormones and social traits may have provided for the different breeding systems that occur today. Several hormones have been shown to covary with the breeding systems of vertebrates. Elevated levels of ...