BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://bec.ucla.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20090308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20091101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20100314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20101107T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20110313T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20111106T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20120311T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20121104T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110502T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110502T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204718 CREATED:20200922T214902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4171-1304294400-1304294400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Siobhán M. Mattison - Kinship and market integration among the ethnic Mosuo of Southwest China DESCRIPTION:Siobhán M. Mattison: Stanford University Department of Anthropology and Morrison Institute for Population and Resource StudiesThe study of kinship is foundational to anthropology. Though interest in kinship waned briefly\, it has recently been rekindled\, particularly in the area of evolutionary ecology. In this talk\, I review briefly the major trends in anthropological thought on kinship and\, by way of example\, explore the contributions that evolutionary and quantitative studies have made to its study. In doing so\, I consider the ethnic Mosuo of Southwest China\, a population that traditionally was matrilineal and engaged in subsistence agro-pastoralism\, but that recently has become integrated into the wider market economy. I discuss evidence for associated change in kinship practices\, arguing that such change is at least partially consistent with hypotheses from evolutionary ecology. I consider several topics of traditional interest to kinship theorists\, including marriage\, residence and inheritance and conclude by emphasizing the need to synthesize often disparate findings and by suggesting several avenues of future research.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison2.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/siobhan-m-mattison-kinship-and-market-integration-among-the-ethnic-mosuo-of-southwest-china/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110425T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110425T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204718 CREATED:20200922T214902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4170-1303689600-1303689600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Daniel M.T. Fessler - The Importance of Attending to Phylogenetic Derivation in the Study of the Mind Or Why Emotions are Kludgy Or Some Gross Conclusions from the Study of Grossness DESCRIPTION:Daniel M.T. Fessler: UCLA Department of AnthropologyThe evolutionary study of mind and behavior has benefited enormously from the functionality heuristic\, i.e.\, the assumption that mental mechanisms can usefully be understood as well-designed solutions to recurrent adaptive problems. While virtually every investigator in this area acknowledges the importance of Tinbergen’s (1963) Four Levels of Explanation\, in practice\, emphasis in evolutionary psychology is invariably placed primarily on ultimate explanations. Although this is a productive starting point\, because evolution involves the gradual modification of existing designs\, the functionality heuristic will frequently lead investigators to under-emphasize\, or even overlook entirely\, constraints on optimality entailed by phylogeny. Likewise\, even when high levels of functionality are\, in fact\, observed\, the functionality heuristic will often fail to explain many features of the adaptation at issue\, features that diminish efficiency even if they do not influence effectiveness. The study of emotions provides an opportunity to illustrate the utility of combining ultimate and phylogenetic perspectives in investigating the mind. A hybrid approach to emotions can illuminate otherwise puzzling combinations of qualia\, display\, cognition\, and behavior\, and suggests areas where we might expect constraints on optimality. Additionally\, such an approach can productively generate predictions concerning the nature of emotions across species and across taxa\, holding the promise of a broadly comparative evolutionary affective science that pinpoints both the commonalities and the divergences between our emotions and those of other organisms. These possibilities will be illustrated through a discussion of research on the evolutionary psychology of disgust. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-m-t-fessler-the-importance-of-attending-to-phylogenetic-derivation-in-the-study-of-the-mind-or-why-emotions-are-kludgy-or-some-gross-conclusions-from-the-study-of-grossness/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110418T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110418T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214901Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4169-1303084800-1303084800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Polly Wiessner - Cycles of War among the Enga of Papua New Guinea: Youths\, Elders and Indoctrinability. DESCRIPTION:Polly Wiessner: University of Utah Department of AnthropologyIndoctrinability\, the capacity to be inculcated with values or doctrines and to accept them uncritically\, poses an evolutionary puzzle because it can lead individuals to voluntarily sacrificing immediate individual interest for a belief\, cause\, or group. I will briefly explore the cognitive capacities underlying indoctrinability. Then I will propose that strong social selection for indoctrinability was an outcome of parent-offspring conflict in arranging marriage and in building cooperative cohorts. That is\, elders used their control over the marriage market\, as well as their network and information advantages\, to persuade youths to uncritically accept cultural beliefs that would to align the goals of youth with their own. I will illustrate these ideas in a case study among the Enga of PNG by: (1) outlining the different agendas of elders and youth in different periods over 250 years of Enga history and (2) showing how elders manipulated indoctrination through ritual and other means to instill norms\, values and beliefs that guided peace and war in pre-contact generations and even today when youths have the advantage of wielding high-powered weapons. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/polly-wiessner-cycles-of-war-among-the-enga-of-papua-new-guinea-youths-elders-and-indoctrinability/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110411T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110411T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214838Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4168-1302480000-1302480000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Andrew Delton - Welfare Tradeoffs: Computation\, Reciprocity\, and Social Emotions DESCRIPTION:Andrew Delton: UCSB Department of Psychology and Center for Evolutionary PsychologyMembers of social species routinely make decisions that involve welfare allocations—decisions that impact the welfare of two or more parties. These decisions often involve welfare tradeoffs such that increasing one organism’s welfare comes at the expense of another organism’s welfare. In this talk\, I present preliminary evidence that the mind computes a variable—a welfare tradeoff ratio—that is used to regulate this kind of social decision-making. By consulting this variable\, an organism can determine when it is and is not appropriate to cede personal welfare on behalf of another. I also summarize an initial empirical test of the role of welfare tradeoff ratios in reciprocity and how the emotions of anger and gratitude might function to recalibrate welfare tradeoff ratios within reciprocal relationships. The larger theme of this talk is that thinking in terms of neurocomputational variables such as welfare tradeoff ratios helps to explain how complex behaviors—such as cooperation\, generosity\, and aggression—can arise from a physical device such as the human brain. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-delton-welfare-tradeoffs-computation-reciprocity-and-social-emotions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110404T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110404T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214837Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4167-1301875200-1301875200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Christopher von Rueden - Why do men seek positions of status or leadership? DESCRIPTION:Christopher von Rueden: UCSB Department of AnthropologyThe relationship between social status and reproductive success in small-scale societies can provide insight into how natural selection may have acted on status-seeking behavior in ancestral human environments. With data from the Tsimane horticulturalists of Bolivia and other small-scale societies\, I show that high male status increases lifetime fitness\, and I analyze the factors responsible for increases in surviving offspring among high status men. Interview data from the Tsimane suggest that mate acquisition and social support mediate the status-fitness relationship. Some of the fitness benefits of high status may accrue in the context of leadership within collective actions. However\, observation and experimental induction of collective action suggest that Tsimane leaders do not differentially benefit from the division of spoils (although leadership may improve team efficiency). Identifying the proximate pathways by which status and leadership generate current fitness sheds light on the kinds of social relationships evolution has motivated men to maintain.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/VonRueden1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christopher-von-rueden-why-do-men-seek-positions-of-status-or-leadership/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110328T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110328T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214836Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4166-1301270400-1301270400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Edward H. Hagen - Drugs are bad...for pathogens. Testing an alternative to the DESCRIPTION:Edward H. Hagen: Washington State University Vancouver Department of AnthropologyCurrent neurobiological theory of recreational drug use is based on the observation that all addictive drugs induce changes in activity of dopaminergic circuitry\, interfering with reward processing\, thus enhancing drug seeking and consumption. On this view\, recreational drugs “hijack” evolved reward circuitry. \nCurrent theory of drug origins\, in contrast\, views almost all major drugs of abuse\, including nicotine\, cocaine and opiates\, as plant neurotoxins that evolved to punish and deter herbivores. According to this latter view\, plants should not have evolved compounds that reward or reinforce plant consumption. Mammals\, in turn\, should not have evolved reinforcement mechanisms easily triggered by toxic substances. Situated in an ecological context\, drug reward is a paradox. \nOne potential resolution of the paradox is that humans\, like other animals\, might have evolved to exploit plant neurotoxins to defend against pathogens. Psychoactive substances\, by definition\, interfere with neural function. Psychoactivity is thus a potential cue of efficacy against pathogens with nervous systems. Specifically\, recreational drug use could be a form of chemoprophylaxis (preventative medicine) or chemotherapy (palliative medicine) against pathogens such as fleas\, ticks\, and helminths. \nThe chemoprophylaxis and chemotherapy hypotheses were examined in a population of Aka foragers in the Central African Republic. The Aka have high levels of helminth infection yet little access to Western anti-worm medicines\, and so might be motivated (consciously or unconsciously) to consume readily available substances that are effective against worms. The plant defensive chemical nicotine\, in particular\, is an effective anthelmintic. Hence\, “recreational” tobacco use\, which is widespread at the study site\, might be a form of self-medication against helminths or other pathogens. \nThe chemoprophylaxis hypothesis predicts that smoking should protect against helminth infection\, an hypothesis tested in a cross sectional study of nicotine exposure vs. worm burden. The chemotherapy hypothesis predicts that smoking should increase upon helminth infection\, and decrease when the infection abates. The latter prediction was tested in a randomized\, double-blind\, placebo-controlled trial involving treatment with albendazole\, a commercial anthelmintic. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/edward-h-hagen-drugs-are-bad-for-pathogens-testing-an-alternative-to-the/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110309T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110309T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214836Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4165-1299628800-1299628800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Michael McCullough - Cognitive Systems for Revenge and Reconciliation DESCRIPTION:Michael McCullough: University of Miami Department of PsychologyExploitation—the targeted infliction of fitness costs on another organism for the purpose of capturing benefits for the self—is a fact of life for social organisms. Because of its pervasiveness in social life\, natural selection gives rise to deterrence mechanisms (e.g.\, thorns\, toxins\, defensive weaponry) designed to alter potential exploiters’ estimates of the net benefits to come from exploitation. In this talk\, I situate humans’ (and other social animals’) propensities to seek revenge among other naturally selected deterrence mechanisms. Revenge-based deterrence\, however\, can create additional costs\, including those associated with lost access to valuable relationship partners. Consequently\, natural selection gives rise to subsidiary mechanisms designed to (under a fairly restricted set of circumstances) inhibit revenge-based deterrence and signal a willingness to re-establish positive relations. I conceptualize these subsidiary systems as reconciliation (or forgiveness) systems. In this talk\, I introduce several lines of research in which we have: (a) searched for the social conditions that revenge and forgiveness/conciliatory behavior evolved to address\, (b) searched for the computations that underlie these systems\, and (c) sketched out their endocrinological substrates. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-mccullough-cognitive-systems-for-revenge-and-reconciliation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110307T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110307T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4162-1299456000-1299456000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ivy Pike - Embodying Violence and the Biocultural Approach: What can nomadic herders from Northern Kenya teach us about linking context to global health disparities? DESCRIPTION:Ivy Pike: University of Arizona Department of AnthropologyGrowing efforts to carefully link social environments to biological experiences have emerged in many disciplines; Anthropology is no exception. This integrative perspective aims to place bodies in context with a strong awareness of the role gradients of inequality play in shaping population variation in health. While much anthropological research contributes to our understanding of extreme inequality on health (e.g. Farmer 1999\, 2003) less attention has been paid to the precise mechanisms that allow context to be embodied. The most precise mechanisms derive from evolutionary biology with an emphasis on environment / biology interactions\, especially as they unfold across growth and development. In this paper\, I draw on a case study of nomadic herders from Northern Kenya to examine the benefits of an evolutionary informed approach to studying global health disparities. The herding communities experience geopolitical marginalization with endemic violence in the form of AK-47 raids. Such a backdrop comes with a suite of predictable health indicators but with some noteworthy differences. These differences are linked to the sociocultural environment and to the community responses to violence. As such\, they create an opportunity to link context to the biology of inequality in more nuanced ways as an integrative model for global health policy. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ivy-pike-embodying-violence-and-the-biocultural-approach-what-can-nomadic-herders-from-northern-kenya-teach-us-about-linking-context-to-global-health-disparities/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110228T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110228T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214829Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4161-1298851200-1298851200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Sarah Mesnick - Sperm whale social structure: kith and kin. Implications for behavior\, culture and conservation DESCRIPTION:Sarah Mesnick: Southwest Fisheries Science Center\, NOAA Fisheries ServiceKnowledge of the genetic structure of social groupings provides the basis for understanding the relative influences of kin selection and reciprocity in the evolution of individual behavior and for understanding the basis of population structure\, which is important for conservation. Sperm whale\, Physeter macrocephalus\, groups comprised of females and dependent young were once thought to be strictly matrilineal\, with a social structure similar to that of African elephants. We investigated this hypothesis using samples from 3 completely sampled mass strandings in Tasmania (n = 11\, 37\, 64 individuals respectively) and 55 partially sampled groups from the eastern North Pacific. We used mitochondrial (400 bp of the hypervariable control region) and nuclear (six microsatellites and 36 single nucleotide polymorphisms) markers and the sex of individual sperm whales to estimate genetic relatedness within and among groups. The preliminary results indicate that sperm whale groups were not purely matrilineal in structure. Rather\, groups were comprised both of individuals that had no close relations and of individuals accompanied by potential first and second order relations\, some potentially related through their fathers and others through their mothers. Groups were composed of mixed matrilines\, as evidenced by the presence of 1 – 5 mtDNA haplotypes (maternally inherited) per group. The mean coefficient of relatedness for the completely sampled groups ranged from 0.15-0.27. The groups were comprised of small clusters of related individuals although in all groups there were several individuals with no relations closer than those expected by chance. Pairs of individuals with high coefficients of relatedness\, but different mtDNA haplotypes\, were consistent with patterns of paternal half sibs. Three subadult males with unique mtDNA haplotypes were found among a group of adult females indicating that their mothers were not present\, an unexpected finding. Some old (and very old) females\, some of whom were accompanied by close relatives and others not\, were lactating. These results cause us to rethink the relative influences of kin selection and reciprocity in the evolution of individual behavior (e.g.\, babysitting\, communal defense). We suggest that for the sperm whale\, and other cetacean species that live\, raise young and contend with predators in the open ocean\, the integrity of the bonds developed through association\, cooperation and lactation\, are as strong as blood relations. \nFor this presentation\, I will summarize what is known about sperm whale social and population structure from recent genetic work in our laboratory and observations of social interactions at sea. Additional insights from the acoustic research of colleagues provide the background for cross disciplinary\, cross- taxa discussion on three topics: (a) social structure within females groups and observations during an attack by killer whales; (b) social transmission of a novel foraging behavior (depredation on demersal long lines) among adult males in Alaska; and (c) population structure – geographically defined stocks and culturally defined clans – for conservation and management.\nhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper2.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper3.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sarah-mesnick-sperm-whale-social-structure-kith-and-kin-implications-for-behavior-culture-and-conservation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110225T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110225T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214835Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4164-1298592000-1298592000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ádám Miklósi - Dog-human social interaction: Old wine in new bottles? DESCRIPTION:Ádám Miklósi: Eötvös University Department of EthologyFor longer than we can remember dogs and humans have been friends. While both humanity and dogs benefited from this relationship\, science has not shown any interest in the “Whys” and “How-s” until recently. However\, the last 15 years have pushed the dog into the middle ground\nof comparative investigations that aim to understand the evolution and mechanisms of social behavior. \nIn this presentation I will present a simple descriptive model for convergent\nbehavioral evolution of dog social behavior in the anthropogenic environment. The central\nexample will describe how in a very simple way dogs may have adapted to the pedagogical\nnature of humans. We have good experimental evidence that dogs can be attracted to human\ncommunicative intent\, to human referential signals\, and may learn about the referent. Parallel\nwork has shown that this ability shows strong parallels to early pedagogical interaction\nbetween human infants and caregivers but rests probably on different mechanisms. In any\ncase\, the dogs’ receptiveness to human social signals enhances their survival in our social\nniche. \nBased on these findings we can put forward a more general model of social behavior in the\ncase of inter-specific relationships\, introducing the concept of social competence. It turns out that\nthis may be particularly useful in recent research which is aimed to envisage a “new world” of\nhuman-artificial agent social interaction.\nhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MiklosiPaper.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/adam-miklosi-dog-human-social-interaction-old-wine-in-new-bottles/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110214T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110214T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214829Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4160-1297641600-1297641600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Brian Wood - Household and Kin Provisioning by Hadza Males DESCRIPTION:Brian Wood: Stanford Department of AnthropologyIn this research\, we use newly collected data describing how Hadza men’s foods were produced\, shared\, and consumed in order to elucidate the general motivations underlying\, and consequences of\, Hadza male foraging strategies. We test predictions of the showoff\, costly signaling\, household provisioning\, and kin provisioning hypotheses\, finding strong support for the latter two. We find that Hadza men foraged for a range of food-types\, including fruit\, honey\, small game\, and large game. Our data indicate that men shared the foods they produced in ways that directly benefitted their own households as well as their consaguineal and affinal kin living in other households. Our work indicates that large game hunting was one important element of men’s foraging strategies but not an exclusive specialization. These results differ from prior investigations of the Hadza\, in which it was argued that men specialized in hunting large game for its status benefits\, rather than pursuing other types of foods and more effectively feeding their households. We discuss how and perhaps why our studies differ. We also explore how camp demographics\, seasonality\, and men’s marital status influenced their food production and sharing. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/brian-wood-household-and-kin-provisioning-by-hadza-males/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110207T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110207T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214828Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4159-1297036800-1297036800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Derek E. Lyons - The social roots of artifact culture: Overimitation and the development of children’s causal understanding DESCRIPTION:Derek E. Lyons: Post-Doctoral Scholar; UC Irvine Department of InformaticsChildren are generally masterful imitators\, both rational and flexible in their acquisition of knowledge from the observation of others. A phenomenon that we have termed overimitation (Lyons\, Young\, & Keil\, 2007)\, however\, initially seems a curious exception to this rule. After observing an adult intentionally operating an unfamiliar object with a sequence of relevant and irrelevant actions\, children will frequently imitate not only the actions that were causally necessary\, but also those that were clearly superfluous. Indeed\, children will overimitate irrelevant actions that even chimpanzees readily ignore (Horner & Whiten\, 2005). Prior explanations for overimitation tended to see it as a byproduct of social motivations (e.g. a desire to “be like” the adult or to accommodate inferred task demands)\, but we have argued that the phenomenon may have deeper significance. Our hypothesis is that when children observe an adult intentionally acting on a novel object\, they may automatically encode all of the adult’s actions as causally meaningful\, restructuring their causal beliefs about the object accordingly. This process of automatic causal encoding (ACE) would generally guide children to accurate beliefs about even highly opaque objects; however\, in the case where some of the adults’ intentional actions were unnecessary\, it would also lead to stubborn overimitation. In this talk I will undertake a thorough examination of the ACE hypothesis\, reviewing prior evidence as well as offering three new experiments to further test the theory. Our new data show that children will persist in overimitating even when doing so imposes a direct and motivationally salient cost\, thus underscoring the involuntary nature of the effect. At the same time\, however\, overimitation is not unbounded: the effect is strictly coupled to intentionality in a manner consistent with its posited learning function. Overimitation may offer an important window not only on the structure of children’s causal understanding\, but also on the social learning processes that help to support our species’ artifact-centric culture. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/derek-e-lyons-the-social-roots-of-artifact-culture-overimitation-and-the-development-of-childrens-causal-understanding/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110131T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110131T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214819Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4158-1296432000-1296432000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Sarah Mathew - Warfare and the collective action problem in acephalous societies DESCRIPTION:Sarah Mathew: UCLA Department of AnthropologyKnowledge of the nature and scale of cooperation in acephalous societies is important for understanding the evolution of human sociality. I will present data showing that the Turkana\, an acephalous pastoral society in East Africa\, sustain costly large scale cooperation in warfare through informal sanctions against free riders\, and that Turkana norms regulating warfare benefit the ethno-linguistic group\, not smaller social units. The findings shed light on the equilibrium selection processes that have shaped human sociality and suggest that large scale cooperation may have been common for a long period of human evolutionary history. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sarah-mathew-warfare-and-the-collective-action-problem-in-acephalous-societies/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110124T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110124T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4157-1295827200-1295827200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jason A. Clark - Serial homologies of psychological traits: the case of emotions DESCRIPTION:Jason A. Clark: University of Osnabrueck Institute for Cognitive ScienceWithin emotion theory\, it is common for theorists to order emotions along phylogenetic and developmental scales. ‘Basic emotions’ (such as fear and joy) are seen as having a longer evolutionary history that we share with other animals\, and as emerging earlier in development. Higher-cognitive emotions (such as shame and pride) are often seen as arising de novo in the human line\, and late in development\, and both their evolution and development are seen as arising from uniquely human higher-cognitive capacities.\nHowever\, an increasing number of emotion theorists are converging on the idea that higher-cognitive emotions in humans are homologous to simpler forms of these emotions in nonhuman animals\, and branch off from developmentally earlier and simpler precursors. One problem faced by such theories is the fact that the more basic forms of emotions appear to persist as such\, despite the emergence of higher-cognitive forms. This is inconsistent with the standard view of homology according to which ancestral traits are transformed into derived traits in a continuous series in which the original form of the trait is lost or modified.\nOne solution to this problem which reconciles evolutionary and developmental transformations with the persistence of the original forms is to construe these homologies as serial homologies. In serial homology a trait is duplicated\, and while the original trait usually remains in place and functions as before\, the duplicate trait is allowed to vary independently in response to potentially distinct evolutionary pressures. According to this model\, ancestral ‘basic’ forms of emotions (or some of their components) are duplicated. The basic forms of these emotions are retained\, while the duplicates are allowed to vary within uniquely human evolutionary\, cultural and cognitive contexts. This thesis is illustrated using a variety of emotions\, including shame\, pride\, disgust\, and laughter. Finally\, while serial homologies are often invoked to explain behaviors\, they are not typically applied directly to psychological capacities. I consider some of the general issues involved in such applications\, including some potential brain mechanisms that might underlie them. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jason-a-clark-serial-homologies-of-psychological-traits-the-case-of-emotions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110110T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110110T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4156-1294617600-1294617600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Bruce Winterhalder - Behavioral ecology models of habitat in-fill and the evolution of prehistoric despotism DESCRIPTION:Bruce Winterhalder: UC Davis Anthropology & Graduate Group in EcologyMy topic is the evolution of despotism and oligarchies in prehistoric societies. I begin by covering ground that is theoretically well understood\, the novelty rests in the empirical analysis and methods. Prehistoric settlement of the Northern Channel Islands (Santa Barbara) follows a pattern predicted by the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD). I establish this by comparing the resource suitability of 46 watersheds to a well-studied archaeological record using a Gibbs sampler to assess model fit. As population on the islands grew\, habitat quality in settled sites declined and sites of decreasing desirability were colonized. The second part of the talk is more theoretical and speculative. Reproductive skew models make the prediction that opportunities for socio-economic exploitation would expand concurrently with habitat in-fill. This hypothesis is consistent with the archaeological data\, in that Late Prehistoric Chumash residents of the region were characterized by hereditary chiefdoms\, wide-ranging economic exchange\, declines in stature and endemic conflict. But\, it is not yet well understood in model form. Acknowledging the influences of both Boserup and Carneiro\, I conclude by describing briefly our effort to develop population ecology models focused directly on the evolution of despotism.papers/WinterhalderPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/bruce-winterhalder-behavioral-ecology-models-of-habitat-in-fill-and-the-evolution-of-prehistoric-despotism/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110103T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110103T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214816Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4154-1294012800-1294012800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Moshe Hoffman - Biological Basis of Sex Differences in Risk Aversion and Competitiveness DESCRIPTION:Moshe Hoffman: UCSD Rady School of ManagementWe review the evidence regarding a biological basis for sex differences in risk aversion and competitiveness. We present the relevant literature in evolutionary theory\, and animal behavior\, endocrinology and neuroscience\, as well as the literature relating human risk aversion and competitiveness to handedness\, 2D:4D (a proxy of prenatal testosterone exposure)\, facial masculinity (a proxy of pubertal testosterone exposure)\, as well as circulating testosterone. While the results are thus far somewhat mixed\, the evidence suggests that biological factors explain part of the sex gap in these economic preferences.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/HoffmanPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/moshe-hoffman-biological-basis-of-sex-differences-in-risk-aversion-and-competitiveness/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101208T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101208T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4155-1291766400-1291766400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Christophe Boesch - Ecology of Cooperation and Altruism in Humans and Chimpanzees DESCRIPTION:Christophe Boesch: Director of the Department of Primatology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyFieldwork studies have revealed with much detail the sophisticated levels of cooperation and altruism in the social domain seen in many animal species. Now\, recently some psychologists and economists are loudly claiming that cooperation and altruism are uniquely human abilities. How can such divergences originate? In my eyes\, a very strong underestimation of ecology is at the origin of such a situation. I review in my talk some of the recent evidence showing the importance of ecology on the development of intelligence in humans and in chimpanzees and how that affects the performance of cooperation and altruism in these two species. The evolution of cooperation and altruism is decisively affected by the ecological conditions and this explains why under some contexts the level of cooperation and altruism might strongly differ within one species. In conclusion\, I ask for more sensitivity to ecological conditions when making cross- species comparisons and suggest that at present no data support a species difference in cooperation and altruism tendency\, but all point to a strong ecological component. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christophe-boesch-ecology-of-cooperation-and-altruism-in-humans-and-chimpanzees/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4147-1290988800-1290988800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jennifer Smith - Kinship structures patterns of cooperation and social network dynamics in the spotted hyena DESCRIPTION:Jennifer Smith: UCLA Center for Society & Genetics and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCooperation is pervasive in the societies of humans and other animals\, yet the current body of evolutionary theory often fails to fully explain its persistence. Because spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) live in complex societies\, this species provides an interesting opportunity to elucidate the evolutionary forces favoring patterns of cooperation in a group-living carnivore. Unlike most social carnivores\, which live only with their kin\, hyenas reside in social groups\, called ‘clans’\, comprised of both kin and non-kin. In fact\, hyena clans are strikingly similar in their size and hierarchical structure to troops of Old World monkeys. Like groups of humans and other apes\, hyena societies are further structured by fission-fusion dynamics. That is\, individual hyenas regularly separate from and rejoin members of their permanent social group on an hour-to-hour basis. Here\, I apply social network theory to analyze the effects of kinship and resource distribution on the social relationships among these ‘primate-like’ carnivores. This work is part of a long-term study in the Masai Mara\, Kenya. The results indicate that hyenas associate most often with their kin\, and that although resource competition constrains the strength of social network ties among all hyenas\, kin always sustain the strongest relationships. Moreover\, when forming coalitions\, hyenas bias agonistic support towards kin and take the greatest risks when helping kin. Finally\, I show that hyenas regularly reinforce social ties with kin\, and closely associating non-kin\, through ritualized reunion displays\, called greetings. Overall\, this work reveals the central role of kinship and signaling in the maintenance and coordination of cooperation among social allies living in dispersed social groups.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper2.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper3.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/posters/JenSmithPaper4.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jennifer-smith-kinship-structures-patterns-of-cooperation-and-social-network-dynamics-in-the-spotted-hyena/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4146-1290384000-1290384000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Parry Clarke - Infanticide and Reproductive Restraint in the Archetypical Polygynous Primate DESCRIPTION:Parry Clarke: UC Davis Department of AnthropologyClassic sexual selection theory\, exemplified by the work of Bateman and Trivers\, has played and continues to play a central role in the study of primate mating systems. As a result\, most theorizing within the field is premised on the assumption that males have been selected to maximize competitive ability at the point of conception and are largely immune to variance in infant survivorship. This perspective runs contrary to more recent theoretical treatments of sexual selection\, however\, which point out that males will rarely\, if ever\, be able to compensate for infant mortality through re-mating and should therefore be sensitive to infant survivorship. Using data on male reproductive success in wild chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) I will argue that males do act to augment their offspring’s survivorship and they do so at the expense of their maximum potential reproductive output. Specifically\, I will show data suggesting that dominant males willingly cede reproductive opportunities to subordinates in an effort to encourage them to remain in the group. I conclude that this is because by doing so they afford their infants a greater level of protection from infanticide\, a significant source of infant mortality in chacma. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/parry-clarke-infanticide-and-reproductive-restraint-in-the-archetypical-polygynous-primate/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4145-1289779200-1289779200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Dominic Johnson - Adaptive Politics: The Strategic Advantages of Psychological Biases DESCRIPTION:Dominic Johnson: University of Edinburgh Reader in Politics & International RelationsA recent explosion of work suggests a key role for human physiology and evolutionary psychology in understanding political behaviour\, from genes to hormones to cognition. However\, the entire notion of an evolutionary basis for human behavior meets a traditional skepticism in the social sciences\, and political science in particular. One common conception is that psychological biases are “mistakes” or “errors” that cause policy failures\, disasters\, or wars. The book sets out the argument that psychological biases have their roots in the evolution and biology of the human brain. Consequently\, they are far from “mistakes”\, but rather they are adaptive heuristics that were favoured by natural selection because they brought important advantages in our evolutionary past. The question that remains is whether (and when) they continue to be triggered in appropriate contexts today. Given the social and political differences between the environment of our past and the environment of today (mismatch)\, an evolutionary approach offers fresh predictions for when\, why and how psychological biases will worsen\, or at other times improve\, contemporary political decision-making. The book examines five common psychological phenomena that have commonly been used to explain decision-making failures in political science: (1) overconfidence\, (2) cognitive dissonance\, (3) the fundamental attribution error\, (4) prospect theory\, and (5) in-group/out-group bias. It is argued that all of them can equally be adaptive rather than maladaptive in some contexts. The idea is that in doing so\, political scientists will be forced to rethink whether biases may have a functional rather than destructive role\, implying an evolutionary origin. The book is intended to be provocative\, showing that false beliefs can paradoxically lead to more effective decision-making–”just as they were “designed” to do by natural selection. But effectiveness depends on context\, because behavioral mechanisms are contingent\, not fixed. An evolutionary approach therefore offers us the tools to improve our understanding and predictions of political phenomena. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dominic-johnson-adaptive-politics-the-strategic-advantages-of-psychological-biases/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101108T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101108T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214749Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4144-1289174400-1289174400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Michael Alvard - Social structure\, cultural kinship\, and cooperation among the Lamalera whale hunters of Indonesia DESCRIPTION:Michael Alvard: Texas A&M University Department of AnthropologyThe human ability to form large\, coordinated groups is among our most impressive social adaptation. Larger groups facilitate synergistic economies of scale for cooperative breeding\, economic tasks like group hunting\, and success in conflict with other groups. In many organisms\, genetic relationships provide the structure for sociality to evolve via the process of kin selection\, and this is the case\, to a certain extent\, for humans. But assortment by genetic affiliation is not the only mechanism that can bring like-minded people together. Affinity based on symbolically mediated and socially constructed identity or cultural kinship structures much of human sociality. \nThis talk will examine how genetic kinship and various kinds of cultural kinship–affinal\, descent\, moiety–structure the network of cooperating whale hunters in the village of Lamalera\, Indonesia. The people of Lamalera are among the last subsistence whale hunters on the planet. The village of 1\,200 people rely largely on the sperm whales\, other marine mammals\, manta and other rays that the community’s men cooperatively hunt from a fleet of traditional\, 11m long\, whaling vessels called tèna. \nUsing data from 853 hunts\, network analyses show that each mechanism of assortment produces characteristic networks of different sizes\, each more or less conducive to the task of hunting whales. The results are discussed in the context of the evolution of cooperation and group identity. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-alvard-social-structure-cultural-kinship-and-cooperation-among-the-lamalera-whale-hunters-of-indonesia/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101101T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101101T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214804Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4153-1288569600-1288569600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:James Holland Jones - Contact Networks\, Models of Infectious Disease\, and Epidemic Simulation DESCRIPTION:James Holland Jones: Stanford University Department of AnthropologyInteraction networks shaped by social processes constitute the substrate on which various phenomena of interest to evolutionary anthropologists and human biologists occur. Examples of such phenomena include epidemics\, diffusion of ideas or information\, and the exertion of social and political influence. Understanding the structure of network formation is thus crucial to our understanding of how relational human interactions mediate key biosocial outcomes. Research in this area has been hampered by an acute lack of (1) high-quality data on the formation and structure of contact networks and (2) realistic models for the social processes that shape networks. In this talk\, I present results from two recent papers that address these deficits. First\, I will show the consequences for epidemic behavior of networks that exhibit strong community structure. Such hierarchical social interaction is ubiquitous in human populations\, making it important that we understand the behavior of epidemics in community-structured networks. We show that the degree of community structure has a pronounced impact on the final size of simulated epidemics\, even in the absence of any changes in the basic reproduction number of the epidemic. We use our results to design network-informed vaccination strategies that generally outperform comparable existing strategies. \nOur finding that community structure can affect epidemic behavior qualitatively highlighted the acute lack of high-quality data on network structure for relations relevant to disease transmission and motivated our collection of such data. Using Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology\, we measured the temporal dynamics of close-proximity interaction networks during a typical school day in a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants wore small wireless sensors which send and receive radio signals to and from other sensors nearby. This technology allowed us to collect dynamic contact network data with unparalleled precision. At a 94% coverage\, we collected 762\,868 CPIs at a maximal distance of 3 meters among 788 individuals. The data revealed a high density network with typical small world properties and a relatively homogenous distribution of both interaction time and interaction partners among subjects. Computer simulations of the spread of an influenza-like disease on the weighted contact graph are in good agreement with absentee data during the most recent influenza season. Analysis of targeted immunization strategies suggested that contact network data are required to design strategies that are significantly more effective than random immunization. Immunization strategies based on contact strength were generally most effective and the effects were seen most acutely at high vaccination coverage. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/james-holland-jones-contact-networks-models-of-infectious-disease-and-epidemic-simulation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101025T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101025T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214803Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4152-1287964800-1287964800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Robert Wayne - Evolution and diversification of the domestic dog DESCRIPTION:Robert Wayne: UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyThe domestic dog is one of our most remarkable inventions. The behavioral and functional diversity of the dog far surpasses that of its wild progenitor\, the gray wolf. Similarly\, in size and proportion\, dogs exceed the diversity of the entire carnivore order. The dog genome project and recent advances in biotechnology have enabled a new understanding of the process of domestication and diversification. I discuss our recent molecular findings concerning the origin of the dog and present a new evolutionary tree of dogs that leads to a better understanding of the nature of artificial selection and how it has shaped the diversity of our closest animal companion. \n*(Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics) URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/robert-wayne-evolution-and-diversification-of-the-domestic-dog/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101018T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101018T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214803Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4151-1287360000-1287360000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Thomas Flamson - Encryption Theory: The evolution of humor as an honest signal DESCRIPTION:Thomas Flamson: Santa Monica College Department of Earth Science / UCLA Department of AnthropologyThe Encryption Theory of Humor proposes that humor evolved as a means of signaling similarity in locally variable personal features in order to facilitate assortment with the most compatible peers within the local group. It claims that a necessary component of humorous production is the presence of multiple\, divergent understandings of speaker meaning\, some of which are dependent on access to implicit information. Because of this dependence\, only those listeners with access to this background knowledge can “decrypt” the implicit understandings\, which further entails the inference that the speaker shares that access. This provides a channel for the honest signaling of personal features\, which enables within-group assortment for compatible long-term interaction partners such as friends or mates. \nThis talk will present a range of data supporting various aspects of this hypothesis\, obtained both through online studies with literate Western participants\, and ethnographic observation and studies conducted in rural northeastern Brazil. It will be shown that (a) prior knowledge interacts with information provisioning to impact individual humor preferences\, (b) these preferences reflect closeness in real-world social networks\, and (c) evaluations of the sense of humor of other individuals also reflect social closeness. These findings support the hypothesis that humor evolved as a subjective\, interdependent signaling system for compatibility matching\, and not simply as an index of objectively-evaluated traits\, such as intelligence. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/thomas-flamson-encryption-theory-the-evolution-of-humor-as-an-honest-signal/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101011T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101011T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214802Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4150-1286755200-1286755200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Erol Akcay - Evolution of motivations and behavioral responses: Integrating the proximate and ultimate causes of behavior DESCRIPTION:Erol Akcay: University of Tennessee National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)There is extensive work on the evolutionary causes of social behaviors\, but integration of this theory with the proximate mechanisms of behavior has lagged behind. Here\, I will present a new modeling approach to achieve such integration. The model rests on goal-oriented motivations\, or preferences\, as the proximate determinants of behavior and describes the dynamics of a social interaction at the behavioral time scale. During these behavioral dynamics\, individuals can respond to each other’s actions\, and these responses ultimately drive the evolution of the proximate motivations. \nWe first apply this framework to the question of other-regarding motivations. We find that other-regarding motivations can evolve even when there is complete conflict of interests between the individuals\, and in the absence of group- or kin-selection. We then turn our attention to the evolution of conformist motivations\, and explore conditions that facilitate their evolution. Finally\, we generalize our framework to include the joint effects of behavioral responses trough proximate mechanisms and selection in structured populations. The resulting model illuminates the interplay between behavioral responses and relatedness in the evolution of social behaviors. In particular\, we find that behavioral responses can facilitate the evolution of group-optimal behaviors\, and result in transitions between levels of selection. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/erol-akcay-evolution-of-motivations-and-behavioral-responses-integrating-the-proximate-and-ultimate-causes-of-behavior/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101004T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101004T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214801Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4149-1286150400-1286150400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Uri Gneezy - Gender differences in preferences DESCRIPTION:Uri Gneezy: UCSD Rady School of Management Arthur Brody Endowed Chair in Management Leadership\, Professor of Management and StrategyIn this talk I will discuss some recent findings regarding gender differences in economic experiments. The discussion will focus on gender differences in competitiveness\, but will also touch on differences in risk preferences and social preferences. I will also speculate on the source of these differences\, as well as on their implications.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/GneezyPaper.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/uri-gneezy-gender-differences-in-preferences/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100927T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100927T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4148-1285545600-1285545600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Aaron Blackwell - Life history\, immune function\, and helminths: The behavioral and immunological ecology of the Shuar of Ecuador DESCRIPTION:Aaron Blackwell: UCSB Department of AnthropologyThe Shuar are a large and semi-autonomous indigenous group from the Amazonas region of Ecuador. Most Shuar subsist on a mixture of foraging and horticulture\, but increasingly Shuar in many areas are becoming integrated with market economies. This talk presents fieldwork conducted amongst the Shuar between 2005 and 2009\, with comparative data from the Shiwiar of Ecuador\, non-indigenous Ecuadorian colono children\, the Tsimane of Bolivia\, and the 2005-2006 U.S. NHANES. I examine how growth and immune function are affected by market integration\, household composition\, and changes in pathogen exposure. Compared to the more traditionally living but closely related Shiwiar\, Shuar show a higher prevalence of growth stunting. Between individuals\, growth stunting is related to markers of immune activation\, particularly as related to helminth infection. Biomarkers of helminth infection are associated with poorer growth in children\, lower stature in adults\, and decreases in inflammatory biomarkers. These results suggest that infection with parasites\, such as helminths\, may have hidden costs associated with changes in the allocation of resources between the competing demands of immune function and growth. In addition\, higher biomarkers of helminth infection are associated with the presence of additional children in a household\, suggests children in large families may face increased pathogen transmission as well as potential competition for limited parental resources.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/BlackwellPaperFinal.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/aaron-blackwell-life-history-immune-function-and-helminths-the-behavioral-and-immunological-ecology-of-the-shuar-of-ecuador/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100601T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100601T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214735Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4143-1275350400-1275350400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Quentin Atkinson - The Cultural Evolution of Human Languages DESCRIPTION:Quentin Atkinson: University of Oxford Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary AnthropologyLanguages\, like species\, evolve. Words and phrases compete for our favour in a struggle for existence that is analogous to natural selection. Words that survive are passed on from generation to generation in a process of descent with modification. This process has generated the thousands of languages we see in the world today. In this talk I will discuss how methods and theory from evolutionary biology can be applied to linguistic data to shed light on the ancestry of extant languages and the processes that have given rise to modern human language diversity. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/quentin-atkinson-the-cultural-evolution-of-human-languages/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100524T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100524T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214735Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4142-1274659200-1274659200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Carlos Navarrete - Sexual Selection and the Psychological Architecture of Race Prejudice DESCRIPTION:Carlos Navarrete: Michigan State University Department of Psychology & Evolution\, Ecology\, and Behavior ProgramIntergroup aggression perpetrated by men has been a persistent feature of human societies for centuries\, and may have been common enough over evolutionary time to have allowed selection to shape the neural circuitry underlying the psychology of prejudice. Because intergroup aggression poses different adaptive challenges for men and women\, the psychological adaptations that operate to cope with such threats may differ between the sexes as well. Because racial categories are often mentally represented as group-like entities\, modern race bias should be understandable within this general framework. Results from several studies are consistent with this perspective\, and show that (a) race bias is primarily directed at male exemplars of racial-outgroups\, (b) men are more likely to be aggressively prejudiced than women\, and (c) women are more likely to be fearfully prejudiced than men\, particularly during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Illustrations of how these systems may be operative in political attitudes and voting preferences for Barack Obama are presented. These results are consistent with the notion that the psychology of intergroup prejudice is generated by different psychological systems between men and women. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/carlos-navarrete-sexual-selection-and-the-psychological-architecture-of-race-prejudice/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100517T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100517T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T204719 CREATED:20200922T214734Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4141-1274054400-1274054400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Elizabeth Pillsworth - Is Female Choice Overemphasized in the Evolutionary Psychology of Human Mating? Evidence from the Shuar of Ecuador DESCRIPTION:Elizabeth Pillsworth: CSU Fullerton Department of AnthropologyDarwin’s theory of sexual selection emphasizes the role of female mate choice in shaping male morphology and behavior. In evolutionary psychology\, the model of female choice has served as one organizing feature of research on human mating. However\, in many human societies women are reported to have very little influence over their own mating decisions; rather\, parents or other kin often control the marriage decisions of daughters. This has led to the claim by some that female choice has been overestimated as a selective force in human evolution\, based upon the evolutionarily novel context of modern Western sexual practices. I will present data from the Shuar\, a hunter-horticulturalist society in the Amazon basin of Ecuador\, to highlight the ways in which women exert mate choice within a paternalistic and highly controlling environment\, and demonstrate that choice need not be “free” to have an evolutionary impact. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/elizabeth-pillsworth-is-female-choice-overemphasized-in-the-evolutionary-psychology-of-human-mating-evidence-from-the-shuar-of-ecuador/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR