“To bee or not to bee”
Had so much fun at the poster session this evening, but my voice is all gone 😪 Thanks for everyone who stopped by!
#IUSSI26
GutMichaelBiome
@gutmichaelbio.me
1.2K followers 504 following 667 posts
Gut microbiome scientist & stickerer 🐝 Postdoc in Liberti Lab at UniGe🇨🇭 • Microbiome-gut-brain axis of eusocial bees • 💩👨🏻🔬🧪🧫👨🏻💻📊📈🤯 Science: MichaelSieler.com Stickers: GutMichaelBio.me
![Against this backdrop, it would be reasonable to predict that in naïve knot-tying populations, the granny knot would appear more often than the reef knot (Scanlon et al. Reference Scanlon, Lobb, Tehrani and Kendal2019). Yet in our sample the exact opposite is the case. We document the reef knot in 23 cultures and the granny knot in only 8 (Fig. 5). Evidently, people around the world have knowingly preferred the secure reef knot over the insecure granny knot. This may also be indicated in some ethnographical descriptions. For instance, Navajo knot-tying traditions even involve a tabooFootnote 1 for using the granny knot for anything other than ceremonial purposes (Kluckhohn et al. Reference Kluckhohn, Hill and Kluckhohn1971, 232):
The granny knot … was currently known as the ‘knot of the dead,’ and was avoided except in connection with preparation and dressing of the corpse prior to burial. … ‘This knot should never be found on a living person. … There are really two knots, one for the living [the reef knot] and one for the dead [the granny knot].’
A recent experimental study has indicated that individuals without prior knotting experience tend to have poor intuition when judging the strength or physical behaviour of knots (Croom & Firestone Reference Croom and Firestone2024). Given that our data suggest a preference for secure knots, we might infer that experienced string users have a refined cognitive ability to assess knots and/or that cumulative cultural knowledge can surpass individual cognition](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jgia4pru5b23ethanenjwy6d/bafkreiayupvuzz5ojll3vriyu3p2vlepifoeht2xje3vt57ukcb636djji)
