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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210510T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210510T133000
DTSTAMP:20260505T103511
CREATED:20210413T002401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210516T223452Z
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SUMMARY:Agustín Fuentes - Meaning-making\, belief and world shaping as core processes in the human niche
DESCRIPTION:Meaning-making\, belief and world shaping as core processes in the human niche\nAgustín Fuentes\nDepartment of Anthropology\, Princeton University\nHumans are not unique in the world. But we are quite idiosyncratic. Across the Pleistocene the genus Homo developed a distinctive suite of cognitive\, behavioral\, ecological\, and technological processes and patterns; in short\, a human niche. This niche eventually included a core role for meaning making\, augmenting the capacity to engage with more than the “here and now” to develop novel ideas and concepts\, share them\, and convert them in material reality. Today humans represent an infinitesimally small percentage of all the life on this planet\, yet despite being such a tiny part of the great diversity of living things\, humans are among the most significant forces affecting ecosystems and all other life on this planet. Why and how this came to be are two of the most pressing questions one can ask about what it means to be human. I suggest that extensive and distinctive capacities for meaning-making\, belief and world shaping (or better put\, niche construction) are at the heart of the answers to these queries. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/agustin-fuentes-meaning-making-belief-and-world-shaping-as-core-processes-in-the-human-niche/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210513T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210513T140000
DTSTAMP:20260505T103511
CREATED:20210421T181344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210518T043635Z
UID:6230-1620907200-1620914400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Kim TallBear - Indigenous STS\, Governance\, and Decolonization
DESCRIPTION:Indigenous STS\, Governance\, and Decolonization\nKim TallBear\nCanada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples\, Technoscience & Environment\nPierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow\nFaculty of Native Studies\, University of Alberta\nLike traditional Science and Technology Studies\, the new field of Indigenous STS studies the cultures\, politics\, and histories of non-Indigenous science and technology efforts. In addition\, it studies Indigenous-led science and technology\, including knowledges classified as “traditional.” Indigenous STS refuses the purported divide between scientific and Indigenous knowledges\, yet it does not conflate knowledge traditions. It understands them as potentially sharing methods while deriving in practice from different worldviews. Indigenous STS—comprised of mostly Indigenous thinkers trained and working in a variety of disciplines and applied fields—also focuses on science and technology knowledge production for social change (since technoscience has long been integral to colonialism). Indigenous STS works with scientists and those in technology fields to change fields from within. Some Indigenous STS scholars are practicing scientists. After discussing Indigenous STS foundations and goals\, this talk showcases the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING)\, a training program founded in 2011 in the US. SING has since expanded to Aotearoa/New Zealand\, Canada\, and Australia in conjunction with Indigenous STS efforts to support global Indigenous governance via science and technology. \nCo-sponsored by BEC\, The American Indian Studies Center\, the Institute for Society and Genetics\, and the Culture\, Power\, and Social Change Group \nNote special day and time: Thursday\, May 13\, 12:15 to 1:45 PST \nAnd special Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/97160150930 \nTallBear Indigenous STS \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/kim-tallbear-indigenous-sts-governance-and-decolonization/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210517T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210517T133000
DTSTAMP:20260505T103511
CREATED:20210421T173811Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210529T002420Z
UID:6227-1621252800-1621258200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Isabelle Laumer - Physical and social cognition in a parrot (Cacatua goffiniana) and ape model species  (Pongo abelii)
DESCRIPTION:Physical and social cognition in a parrot (Cacatua goffiniana) and ape model species (Pongo abelii)\nIsabelle Laumer\nDepartment of Anthropology\, UCLA\nThe comparative approach is a powerful tool to deepen our understanding of the adaptive value of complex information processing. Modern approaches of comparative cognition are interested in how cognitive outputs are influenced on the basis of convergence (distantly related species facing similar demands) or on the basis of divergence (closely related species facing different cognitive challenges). Birds diverged from mammals around 280 million years ago resulting in highly characteristic brain structures (nuclear avian brain versus laminar mammalian brain). Since large-brained birds\, such as corvids and parrots\, often show similar skills in cognitive tasks as primates\, it was suggested that these similarities result from a convergent evolutionary trend to cope with similar environmental and social demands. Therefore\, comparing the performance of primates and birds on standardized cognitive tasks promises to be particularly telling.\nIn a series of experiments\, I investigated the cognitive abilities of Goffin´s cockatoos and orangutans in the physical domain by the use of decision-making paradigms\, novel test designs and by using tests that have previously been conducted in children. My studies use carefully controlled comparative procedures that provide first insights into similarities in tool-related problem solving and innovation between these two distantly related species. As both species tested are important model species for physical cognition and tool-use\, aside from the comparative perspective my studies additionally provide important information within the subject of tool-related cognition\, as within-species designs. Furthermore\, I will present my findings on tool manufacture\, memory and social cognition\, inequity aversion and prosociality\, in the Goffin´s cockatoo in light of recent findings in primate research. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/isabelle-laumer-physical-and-social-cognition-in-a-parrot-cacatua-goffiniana-and-ape-model-species-pongo-abelii/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T133000
DTSTAMP:20260505T103511
CREATED:20210403T182522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210529T040435Z
UID:6202-1621425600-1621431000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Chris Krupenye - The social minds of humans and other apes
DESCRIPTION:The social minds of humans and other apes\nChris Krupenye\nDepartment of Psychology\, Durham University and Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences\, Johns Hopkins University\nFew traits characterise humans more profoundly than the complexity of our social lives\, and the depth of our insights into the social and mental lives of others. To predict behaviour and make decisions in a dynamic and uncertain social world\, we track others’ social relationships\, evaluate others based on their behaviour or identity\, and even attempt to infer their thoughts and emotions. That our potential social partners possess these skills\, too\, is precisely what makes the social world so complex. In turn\, we must manage our reputation and relationships\, adhere to the norms of our group\, and strategically navigate manifold cooperative and competitive interactions. Cognition is at the heart of what makes social life so demanding and thus\, to characterize the origins of human social complexity\, we must understand the origins of our social cognition. I will present a series of comparative experiments with humans and our closest phylogenetic relatives\, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus)\, aimed at identifying shared traits that were likely present 6-9 million years ago in our last common ancestor\, as well as spotlighting unique features of the human mind. This work demonstrates that great apes\, like humans\, possess impressive knowledge of their social world: they remember social partners for decades\, encode their dispositions and relationships\, and even track their perspectives in surprisingly rich ways. Together\, this body of research suggests that the roots of our social minds are discernible in the minds of our closest relatives\, and extend deep into our evolutionary history. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/chris-krupenye-the-social-minds-of-humans-and-other-apes/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210524T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210524T133000
DTSTAMP:20260505T103511
CREATED:20210408T220044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210913T234039Z
UID:6213-1621857600-1621863000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Alyssa Crittenden - Microbiomania\, rewilding\, and the threat of bioprospecting: How anthropologists can help to set a more ethical research agenda in microbiome sciences
DESCRIPTION:Microbiomania\, rewilding\, and the threat of bioprospecting: How anthropologists can help to set a more ethical research agenda in microbiome sciences\nAlyssa N. Crittenden\nDepartment of Anthropology\, University of Nevada\, Las Vegas\nScientific knowledge and commercial interest in the human microbiome are growing exponentially. As our understanding of the vital role of microbes increases\, so does “microbiomania” – the fervor in which microbes are lauded in popular media and scientific press as capable of revolutionizing human health in the Global North. This wholescale shift from viewing bacterial species as primarily threatening to critical and endangered symbionts\, has led to a reconsideration of the mismatch hypothesis and the urge to repopulate the gut microbiome to its “natural” state. This has meant that cross-cultural research on the microbiomes of small-scale communities is increasingly pursued by microbiologists and commercial biotech companies in an attempt to sequence “traditional” or “lost” microbes\, prized commodities extoled as a potential panacea for many common ailments. Using a framework grounded in the political ecology of the body (sensu Guthman and Mansfield)\, I interrogate the “rewilding” movement and propose that it is based on scientific inaccuracies and is rooted in dangerous colonial perspectives that identify which bodies such “ancestral species” can be found on and in. I argue that this movement is the noble savage paradigm reimagined\, where outmoded and persistent ideas are finding renewed expression across scientific domains. I reflect on my past research failures\, my current community-based and community-inclusive approaches to human biological research\, and call for the implementation of data collection and management practices (e.g. power sharing\, profit sharing) that will mitigate human rights infractions and make for stronger science in the arena of human microbiome research. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/alyssa-crittenden-microbiomania-rewilding-and-the-threat-of-bioprospecting-how-anthropologists-can-help-to-set-a-more-ethical-research-agenda-in-microbiome-sciences/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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