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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220509T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220509T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T154410Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220509T182728Z
UID:6490-1652097600-1652103000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jaimie Krems - Tackling Friendship: Appraising\, Finding\, Getting\, and Keeping Partners
DESCRIPTION:Friends have recurrently provided social\, material\, and emotional support—helping humans meet a range of recurrent challenges tributary to fitness. But friendships are not the first type of relationship that comes to mind when thinking about research in social psychology or evolutionary social science. Moreover\, when friendships are the focus\, work typically foregrounds the friendship dyad. Taking an evolutionary approach suggests a different natural ecology for friendship psychology—one that implies the challenges of friendship are more and more complex than we might typically consider them to be. Perhaps\, then\, the challenges one must solve to reap the benefits of friendship should be thought of not (only) as two-person games\, so to speak\, but (also) as n-person games. I illustrate this by exploring several major friendship challenges—identifying good friends\, competing for friends\, and maintaining friendships. I also propose and test some of the possible means by which our social minds might meet these challenges\, toward ultimately maximizing the benefits and minimizing the costs of our sociality. \nhttps://www.kremslab.com/
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jaime-krems-tackling-friendship-appraising-finding-getting-and-keeping-partners/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220502T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220502T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T154256Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220429T045735Z
UID:6487-1651492800-1651498200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Sasha Kimel - Meatborne Xenophobia: Understanding When Disgust Fuels Outgroup Hate
DESCRIPTION:Given that animal-borne pathogens pose especially high disease risks and\, moreover\, that a growing body of research suggests that the evolved function of disgust is the avoidance of disease\, it is largely unsurprising that the consumption of non-normative meat would evoke strong disgust reactions. Yet\, it is largely unclear whether and when concerns about disease can also evoke negative reactions to third-parties who engage in such norm-violations. In a series of experiments\, participants in the U.S. were randomly assigned to learn about cuisine from another culture (i.e.\, fabricated and real) that contained a meat that was either relatively neutral (i.e.\, beef)\, disgusting due to disease threat (i.e.\, rat) or disgusting due to a combination of disease threat and the immorality of causing a cared-for animal harm (i.e.\, dog\, monkey). Our results suggest that disgust may only exacerbate negative judgements and behaviors towards third-parties when the disease threat also has a strong immorality component (e.g.\, eating of dogs but not rats) and\, moreover\, that this may increase depending on how cared-for the being is. Implications for theories on disgust\, compassion and third-party punishment will be addressed.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sasha-kimel-meatborne-xenophobia-understanding-when-disgust-fuels-outgroup-hate/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220425T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220425T233000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T154100Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220420T204926Z
UID:6484-1650888000-1650929400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Luke Premo - How Cultural Evolutionary Forces Affect Regional Variation in Structured Populations and the Archaeological Assemblages They Leave Behind
DESCRIPTION:Paleolithic archaeologists have employed expectations generated from models developed in evolutionary anthropology to aid in the investigation of the origins of high-fidelity cultural transmission. Based on the notion that copying error ought to yield high levels of between-group cultural variation under unbiased cultural transmission\, archaeologists have interpreted ostensibly “lower-than-expected” levels of cultural variation among regional archaeological assemblages as evidence of widespread conformist biased transmission. But a closer inspection of cultural evolutionary theory suggests the expectation that unbiased transmission yields high between-group differentiation holds only for a narrow\, idealized set of conditions that are likely to be violated in empirical cases. Additionally\, it is unclear how or if this expectation translates to time-averaged assemblages of artifacts even under special conditions. I’ve developed a relatively simple agent-based model of cultural transmission in a structured population to improve our understanding of how cultural evolutionary forces affect between-group variation in a selectively neutral discrete trait under a wide range of conditions. My experimental design addresses how intergroup transmission and copying error affect regional cultural variation under four different mechanisms of cultural transmission (unbiased\, vertical\, conformist\, or prestige biased) and two different models of copying error (finite or infinite variants). I quantify cultural differentiation not only between groups in a structured population but also between time-averaged assemblages of culture material. The results highlight three points: 1) there are many conditions—not just widespread conformity—in which one should expect relatively low variation among semi-\, or even completely\, isolated groups (and the archaeological assemblages they create through time) despite the effects of copying error\, 2) the way in which intergroup transmission and copying error affect between-group (and between-assemblage) variation varies among cultural transmission mechanisms\, and 3) time-averaging affects between-assemblage variation differently under different cultural transmission mechanisms. Considering these findings\, I propose a list of questions one should answer before attempting to infer mechanisms of cultural transmission from time-averaged archaeological assemblages. Answers to these questions will help researchers better match expectations of regional cultural variation with the empirical case at hand. \n  \n\nLuke Premo
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/luke-premo-how-cultural-evolutionary-forces-affect-regional-variation-in-structured-populations-and-the-archaeological-assemblages-they-leave-behind/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220411T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220411T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T153443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220414T202620Z
UID:6477-1649678400-1649683800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:James Higham - Insights into Life-History from the Cayo Santiago Rhesus Macaques
DESCRIPTION:We humans come from a diverse order\, the primates\, which make excellent model systems for studying the interface between the biological and the social. In this talk\, I focus on our long-running field studies of the rhesus macaques of Cayo Santiago\, Puerto Rico. Decades of individual-based demographic data allow us to explore variation in life history\, including the impacts of interbirth intervals and infant birth weights on infant survival\, and both the development and senescence of reproduction in the same individuals across the lifespan. Our studies leverage behavioral observations\, cognitive experiments\, physiological measures\, genomic and transcriptomic data from blood and tissues\, measurements of soft-tissues and skeletons\, microbiome samples\, and more. I show how long-term integrative study allows us to explore the interactions between the biological and the social from two perspectives: bottom-up and top-down. From the bottom-up perspective\, we are beginning to ask how variation in the genome and epigenome\, via the transcriptome\, constructs cellular\, tissue- and organ-level biology in individuals\, and in turn\, how individual-level behaviors structure societies and populations. From the top-down perspective\, we study how variation in the social environment can get under the skin and impact health and disease. I finish by discussing the Anthropocene\, and by demonstrating the top-down effects of climate change-linked natural disasters on rhesus macaque societies\, and on individual health via effects on the transcriptome. Combining approaches from behavioral ecology\, physiology\, quantitative genetics\, genomics and transcriptomics\, computer vision\, and comparative psychology\, this talk is part demonstration of the value of integrative research\, and part love-letter to long-term field studies. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/james-higham-insights-into-life-history-from-the-cayo-santiago-rhesus-macaques/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220404T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220404T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T153237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220420T214526Z
UID:6474-1649073600-1649079000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Kelsey McCune - Space Use\, Exploratory Behavior and Rapid Range Expansion in Great-Tailed Grackles
DESCRIPTION:Humans are rapidly changing the natural world\, leading to decreasing native fauna and increasing non-native fauna.  Problematic species range expansions are occurring across the globe\, but not all species are able to become established outside of their original range.  It is still unclear which characteristics facilitate successful invasions or native species persistence in human-modified environments.  One hypothesis is that variation in behavior may be important when certain individuals possess traits that make them more likely to succeed when venturing into new habitats and outcompeting heterospecifics.  For example\, variation in the ability (movement) and motivation (exploratory tendency) to encounter conspecifics and novel food sources could facilitate range expansions.  However\, no previous research has compared measures of exploration to the natural movement behavior of individuals along the range of a currently invading species.  In this talk I will discuss my research on movement and exploratory behaviors in a species that has rapidly expanded its range in the U.S.\, the great-tailed grackle. I consider whether individuals consistently differ in their movement behavior such that it can be considered an inherent individual trait\, whether movement relates to performance on an exploration task\, and whether movement and exploration differ between grackles in the center of the range and those on the invasion front.  Invasive species are implicated as a leading cause of biodiversity loss\, so this research will facilitate a better understanding of the importance of these behavioral characteristics in predicting potential invasions in other systems. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/kelsey-mccune-space-use-exploratory-behavior-and-rapid-range-expansion-in-great-tailed-grackles/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220328T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220328T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220323T152929Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220323T152929Z
UID:6471-1648468800-1648474200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Lisa O'Bryan - Communication and the Coordination of Collective Behavior in Non-human and Human Social Groups
DESCRIPTION:Lisa O’Bryan\, Rice University \nIn order to obtain social benefits\, individuals must remain cohesive\, coordinate their behavior\, and collectively process information. The field of collective behavior focuses on understanding how group-wide properties such as these emerge from the interactions of many individuals. Most studies of collective behavior examine how coordination is achieved through visual cues about others’ positions and behavior. However\, in many complex social and ecological environments\, communication can be critical for achieving successful outcomes since many signals have evolved to advertise location\, express motivational state and share information. My research focuses on how vocal communication both influences\, and is influenced by\, individual and group-wide properties\, with the aim of better understanding the behavioral mechanisms underlying the successful (and unsuccessful) functioning of social groups. I study this topic using technology to obtain detailed\, continuous measurements of individual behaviors and interactions in both non-human and human social groups. In this talk I will review my work using wearable dataloggers to study how vocalizations influence the collective movements of domesticated herds and wild baboons. I will also discuss current studies focused on the role conversational turn-taking plays in the decision-making and collective intelligence of human teams. The long-term goal of my research program is to gain new insights into the function and evolution of communication systems involved in the mediation of collective behaviors and how we can engineer communication systems within our own societies to produce more favorable group-wide outcomes.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/lisa-obryan-communication-and-the-coordination-of-collective-behavior-in-non-human-and-human-social-groups/
CATEGORIES:2022,Presentation,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220307T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220307T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T172927Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220304T051853Z
UID:6379-1646654400-1646659800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Federico Rossano - Interacting like a human being: a developmental and comparative perspective on calibrating requests
DESCRIPTION:In his paper on the “human interaction engine”\, Levinson famously asserted that\, in social interaction\, people’s responses “are to actions and intentions\, not to behaviors” (2006: 45). Indeed human beings attribute intentions/goals to the production of signals and parsing other’s signals means simulating others’ mental worlds\, at least to some degree.  But how do speakers calibrate their interactional moves in first position so that they are more likely to elicit their preferred response? Which variables do they take into account? \nIn this talk I present observational and experimental data on how human (children and adults) and non-human primates (chimpanzees\, bonobos and orangutans) calibrate requests for actions and for objects. I will discuss the roles of prospection\, entitlement and accountability in the calibration of requests and outline to what degree non-human primates share with humans cognitive abilities that allow for a flexible assessment of when\, how and to whom to deliver requests. I will also show where the critical differences lie. In doing so\, I will show what it means to interact like a human being. \nFederico Rossano\nUCSD Cognitive Science\nhttps://cogsci.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/federico-rossano.html
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/frederico-rossano/
CATEGORIES:2022,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220228T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220228T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T172802Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220211T170615Z
UID:6376-1646049600-1646055000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Elizabeth Hobson - Dominance hierarchies\, fight decisions\, and social support as windows into animal social cognition
DESCRIPTION:Elizabeth Hobson\nUniversity of Cincinnati\nhttp://hobsonresearch.com/
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/elizabeth-hobson/
CATEGORIES:2022,Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220214T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220214T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T172649Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220119T182626Z
UID:6373-1644840000-1644845400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Helen Davis - Culture\, Cultural Change\, and Cognitive Development
DESCRIPTION:What does cognitive development look like in a world without schools or formally educated parents or communities? What if our most fundamental measures of cognitive performance were influenced by small amounts of schooling or by having parents\, siblings or others who attended schools in one’s household or community? Growing evidence suggests that the human mind is shaped by the socially and culturally incentivized institutions it is exposed to during our unusually long childhood. Yet\, many contemporary theories of early learning capacities and cognition are drawn from samples where formal schooling\, a prolific cultural institution\, has been nearly ubiquitous for at least a century. In such novel environments\, the impact of formal schooling on cognition and learning can easily be confused with species-wide maturational processes. This talk will discuss research focused on fundamental aspects of cognition and the institutions and cultural transitions shaping them using findings from two unique\, ongoing studies in Amazonia\, Bolivia and in the Namib Desert of Namibia and Angola. Additionally\, this talk will address growing challenges associated with cross-cultural research\, as well as the need for a conscientious commitment to participant communities. \nHelen Davis\nHarvard University\nhttps://helen-elizabeth-davis.com/
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/helen-davis/
CATEGORIES:Upcoming Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220207T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220207T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220111T215734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220207T195056Z
UID:6423-1644235200-1644240600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Chris Kelty & Jessica Lynch - Pouncing on opportunities: domestic/feral cat biology and global human-mediated cat niche expansion
DESCRIPTION:Why are cats everywhere? Grounded on research into the controversy around feral or community cats and ‘TNR’ (Trap\, Neuter\, Return) in Los Angeles\, we posit that the modern domestic/feral cat has demonstrated abilities toward multidimensional “niche expansion” and “niche space saturation” that allow it to succeed and increase in population density through behavioral diversification\, where other creatures (including its felid relatives) might not be able to.  This niche expansion is also a story of human collaboration with cats throughout history\, not just a story of human “domestication.”  Niche expansion and collaboration allow us to think beyond the stories of human intentionality (at the heart of theories of domestication\, as well as those of the “Anthropocene”) which overlook distinctive aspects of feline biological and evolutionary capacity\, and overestimate human capacities for control. 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/chris-kelty-jessica-lynch-alfaro-pouncing-on-opportunities-domestic-feral-cat-biology-and-global-human-mediated-cat-niche-expansion/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220131T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220131T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T171849Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220211T041909Z
UID:6364-1643630400-1643635800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jenny Tung - The social genome and primate evolution
DESCRIPTION:Jenny Tung\nDuke University\nhttp://www.tung-lab.org/
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jenny-tung/
CATEGORIES:2022,Past Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220124T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220124T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T171712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220127T225519Z
UID:6361-1643025600-1643031000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Gerry Carter - Cooperative Relationships in Vampire Bats
DESCRIPTION:Several birds and mammals form affiliative relationships with both kin and nonkin that involve multiple forms of cooperation. When individuals form these long-term cooperative relationships\, both the causes and consequences of each individual’s cooperative investments are difficult to study. To understand how individuals form and maintain cooperative relationships\, one must ultimately manipulate both associations and interactions to experimentally test for predicted changes in relationship dynamics. In this talk\, I will review what we have learned so far from 10 years of experiments with common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). These blood-feeding vampire bats regurgitate food to help unfed bats in need\, and these costly donations occur reciprocally among both related and unrelated adult females. My work to date suggests that such food sharing has origins in extended maternal care and kin selection\, but now provides multiple kinds of direct and indirect fitness benefits through some combination of reciprocity and interdependence. New reciprocal food-sharing relationships form between strangers initially through escalating reciprocal allogrooming\, and new allogrooming relationships can be experimentally “seeded” by forcing bats into close spatial proximity. A key concept is that the amount of fitness interdependence in social relationships can change continuously over time\, blurring the lines between categorical models of cooperation such as reciprocity and ‘pseudo-reciprocity’. \n\nGerry Carter\nOhio State University\nhttps://eeob.osu.edu/people/carter.1640
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/gerry-carter/
CATEGORIES:2022,Past Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220110T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220110T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20220102T175847Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220117T225052Z
UID:6390-1641816000-1641821400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Ed Hagen - Homo medicus: The transition to meat eating\, increased pathogen pressure\, and the constitutive and inducible use of pharmacological plants in Homo
DESCRIPTION:Homo medicus: The transition to meat eating\, increased pathogen pressure\, and the constitutive and inducible use of pharmacological plants in Homo\n\n\n\nEdward H. Hagen\, Aaron D. Blackwell\, Aaron D. Lightner\, Roger J. Sullivan\n\n\n\nClick here for link to manuscript pre-print\n\n  \nThe human lineage entered a more carnivorous niche 2.6 mya. A range of evidence indicates this increased zoonotic pathogen pressure. This evidence includes increased zoonotic infections modern hunter-gatherers and bushmeat hunters relative to others living in the same environments\, exceptionally low stomach pH compared to other primates\, human-specific down-regulation in ANTXR2 that would have protected against increased exposure to zoonotic anthrax\, exceptional human immune responses to LPS compared to other primates\, and other divergent immune genes. These all point to change\, and likely intensification\, in the disease environment of Homo compared to earlier hominins and other apes. At the same time\, the brain\, an organ in which inflammatory immune responses are highly constrained\, begins to increase\, eventually tripling in size. \n\nWe propose that the combination of increased zoonotic pathogen pressure and the challenges of defending a large brain and body from pathogens across what would eventually become the longest lifespan of any mammal\, selected for intensification of the self-medication strategies already in place in apes and other primates\, resulting in a variety of plant-based pathogen defenses. In support\, there is evidence of medicinal plant use by hominins in the middle Paleolithic\, and all cultures today have sophisticated\, plant-based medical systems\, incorporate plant components high in secondary compounds (spices) into food\, and regularly consume psychoactive substances that are harmful to helminths and other pathogens in the CNS and other tissues. The computational challenges of discovering effective plant-based treatments\, and the economic challenges of benefiting from costly-to-acquire medical knowledge that would be more often useful to others than oneself\, were selection pressures for increased cognitive abilities and unique exchange relationships in Homo. In the story of human evolution\, which has long featured hunters\, shamans and healers had an equal role to play.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ed-hagen/
CATEGORIES:2022,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220103T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220103T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211129T171521Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220106T235313Z
UID:6358-1641211200-1641216600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Daniel Sznycer - Value Computation in Humans
DESCRIPTION:Valuing things comes naturally to us. But valuing things would be a forbidding task if we lacked the information-processing machinery that enables value computation and that needs to be understood. How does the human brain compute the value of things\, events\, and states of affairs? Things afford positive\, neutral\, or negative long-run effects on the replicative probability of the focal individual’s genes. At the most general level\, values are internal estimates of those effects. Value information steers physiology and behavior in the right direction: approach apple; avoid enemy. Therefore\, value computation is of paramount biological importance. In the first part of the talk\, I will discuss shame\, pride\, and other social emotions. These emotions function to recalibrate the social valuations held by self and others. For example\, shame functions to minimize the likelihood and cost of being devalued by others when negative information about the self spreads into the community. I will discuss findings my collaborators and I have published showing functionality and regularity in emotion across mass societies and small-scale societies and throughout history. The emotion–valuation nexus regulates interpersonal interactions. This nexus may also form the core of\, e.g.\, justice-making institutions. For example\, the shame laypeople report if they committed each of various offenses echoes the legal thinking of lawmakers—shame intensities retrodict the punishments provided for offenses by actual laws\, including laws from radically unfamiliar cultures (e.g.\, the Tang Code\, China CE 653; the Laws of Eshnunna\, Mesopotamia ca. 1770 BCE). In the second part of the talk\, I will focus on value computation. One wants to know: What features does a computational system need to be equipped with in order to value anything and everything that humans are known to value?—true friendship and self-transcendence\, but also: water\, rice\, honey\, obsidian\, harpoons\, the Cessna 172\, fire\, fire extinguishers\, double-entry bookkeeping\, sleeping\, explanations\, allies\, mates\, etc. I will present recent findings indicating accuracy and adaptive integration in value computation. For example\, the subjective food value imputed to a hot dog reflects the protein and carbohydrate content of the hot dog (accuracy); the intensity of gratitude aroused if someone gave you a hot dog reflects the food value imputed to the hot dog (integration). Task analysis suggests many additional features are involved in human value computation\, some of which have been mapped out (e.g.\, common neural representation of value) and some of which have not. More research is needed!
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-sznycer/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211129T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211129T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054806
CREATED:20211003T163754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180155Z
UID:6310-1638187200-1638192600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Dominic Cram - Cooperation\, health and ageing: lessons from weaver-birds\, meerkats and honeyguides
DESCRIPTION:Cooperation in the natural world can\, at first glance\, appear puzzling: why should an animal cooperate when doing so is costly\, and would benefit a competitor? In this talk\, I will address this question by investigating links between cooperation and animal health using field studies of wild birds and mammals. I will first test whether cooperatively breeding societies (whereby ‘helpers’ forego breeding and instead assist raising others’ young) are maintained because cooperation lightens overall workloads\, improves health\, slows ageing\, and extends lifespans. I will focus on my studies of white-browed sparrow weavers (Plocepasser mahali) and meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in the Kalahari Desert. I will then contrast these findings with inter-species cooperation in greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) in the Mozambican wilderness. In a remarkable human-wildlife mutualism\, these birds actively call to humans searching for honey and lead them to the location of bees’ nests in return for a beeswax meal. I will explore how this unique case of human- wildlife cooperation is resilient to cheating honeyguides that scrounge a free piece of wax\, and whether honeyguide cooperation is related to variation in individual health. Overall\, these results suggest that cooperation can influence\, and be driven by\, variation in animal health\, but that these effects must be viewed in the light of other ecological and social factors.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dominic-cram-cooperation-health-and-ageing-lessons-from-weaver-birds-meerkats-and-honeyguides/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211122T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211122T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211118T014552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180221Z
UID:6337-1637582400-1637587800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Bernard Koch - White Supremacist Trees in An Academic Forest: Does Anybody Hear Them?
DESCRIPTION:Bernard Koch\, UCLA Sociology\nIn this paper\, we quantify the enduring legacy of scientific racism both within academia and online. Hereditarian arguments correlating race and IQ have been used to justify regressive social policies since the 1950s\, and this literature remains active within academia today. We characterize a tight collaboration community of authors promoting these arguments within academia over decades\, and show that they are diverse with respect to gender\, age\, race\, and geography. Moreover\, while their papers are cited at lower rates than similar psychology papers\, we find that they have much broader public engagement\, as measured through Google searches\, Reddit\, and other social media platforms. Possible interventions for academics to better contain influential pseudoscience are discussed.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/bernard-koch-white-supremacist-trees-in-an-academic-forest-does-anybody-hear-them/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211115T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211115T120000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211004T170000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180246Z
UID:6316-1636977600-1636977600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Melissa Emery Thompson - The Gray Ape: What Can Chimpanzees Tell Us About Human Aging?
DESCRIPTION:Melissa Emery Thompson \nEvolutionary Anthropology\, University of New Mexico \nGiven their close evolutionary relationship to humans and lifespans that can extend into their 60s\, chimpanzees are a uniquely informative comparative model for the evolution of human aging. Here\, I will review early findings of the first focused study of aging in wild chimpanzees. Chimpanzees share key similarities in physiological\, physical\, and social aging with humans\, but they show a remarkable lack of evidence for aging pathologies. This evidence helps support and contextualize recent cross-cultural evidence from humans which suggests that common diseases of aging may be novel products of post-industrial environments.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/melissa-emery-thompson-the-gray-ape-what-can-chimpanzees-tell-us-about-human-aging/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211108T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211108T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211003T163656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211118T021218Z
UID:6307-1636372800-1636378200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:David Raichlen - Evolutionary links between physical activity and brain health
DESCRIPTION:Recent work suggests physical activity can have important beneficial effects on the aging brain\, however the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. An evolutionary-neuroscience approach may help us better understand these mechanisms and can provide a foundation for developing novel interventions to improve brain aging. Here\, we suggest that\, from an evolutionary perspective\, physical activity mainly occurred during foraging\, which combines aerobic activity with cognitively demanding tasks (e.g.\, spatial navigation and executive cognitive functions). Thus\, mechanisms linked to neuroplasticity\, including hippocampal neurogenesis\, may be triggered by physical activity as a way to enhance cognitive needs during foraging tasks. If correct\, simultaneous physical and cognitive challenges may lead to the strongest brain benefits. Using this evolutionary approach to brain health\, we can form a foundation for novel interventions to improve brain aging today.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/david-raichlen-evolutionary-links-between-physical-activity-and-brain-health/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211101T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211101T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211003T163615Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211118T021147Z
UID:6304-1635768000-1635773400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Cody Ross - Social networks\, network-structured economic games\, and a toolbox for fine-scale\, comparative research
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, I review challenges of collecting and analyzing human social network data. I first discuss trade-offs between the use of roster-based and name-generator-based tools for studying cooperative networks\, and highlight the potential of roster-based\, network-structured economic games (e.g.\, the RICH economic games introduced by Gervais 2017) to address anthropological questions. I then introduce the DieTryin R package\, and illustrate its improved scalability over roster-based methods. In cases where network data are collected via self-reports\, rather than via experimental games\, reported ties may be seriously biased. Individuals may\, for example\, report making cooperative transfers that did not really occur\, or forget to mention real transfers. Many network-level properties are exquisitely sensitive to these biases\, and there remains a dearth of easily deployed statistical tools that account for them. To address this issue\, I introduce a latent network model\, and associated R package\, STRAND\, that allows one to jointly estimate parameters measuring reporting biases and a latent\, underlying true social network. Finally\, I present a case study in the use of these tools in a study investigating how inequality and perceptions of inequality influence expression of parochialism versus magnanimity in two mutli-ethnic Colombian communities.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/cody-ross-social-networks-network-structured-economic-games-and-a-toolbox-for-fine-scale-comparative-research/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211025T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211025T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211003T163502Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180310Z
UID:6301-1635163200-1635168600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Sarah Hill - Cytokines as a mediator of condition-dependent behavioral strategies
DESCRIPTION:Sarah E. Hill \nDepartment of Psychology\, Texas Christian University \nA growing body of research finds that the activities of the immune system – in addition to protecting the body from infection and injury – also influence how we think\, feel\, and behave. Although research on the relationship between the immune system and psychological and behavioral outcomes has most commonly focused on the experiences of those who are acutely ill (i.e.\, sickness behavior)\, theory and research in the evolutionary sciences suggests that the immune system may also play a key role in modulating condition-dependent behavioral strategies. In this presentation\, I will go over recent research that suggests that inflammation – a key component of the immune response to pathogens and stressors – may play an important modulatory role in shaping emotions\, motivation\, cognition\, and behavior\, even among those without symptoms of acute illness. I close by discussing potential opportunities for integrating psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) into evolutionary approaches to human behavior.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sarah-hill-cytokines-as-a-mediator-of-condition-dependent-behavioral-strategies/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211018T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211018T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211003T163349Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180333Z
UID:6297-1634558400-1634563800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Idan Blank - The relationship between language and executive functions
DESCRIPTION:Idan Blank \nUCLA Department of Psychology \nTwo cognitive capacities that “make us human” are our ability to communicate via language and our executive functions (working memory\, cognitive control\, inhibition\, etc.)\, both unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Language comprehension is mainly carried out by specialized mechanisms that are language-specific and are not engaged in other high-level cognitive functions; in contrast\, executive functions constitute a general resource that is shared across diverse cognitive domains. Are these two capacities related to one another? On the one hand\, much research has found that comprehension\, in addition to its reliance on domain-specific mechanisms\, is critically supported by executive functions. On the other hand\, those studies are overwhelmingly based on cleverly designed artificial tasks\, which effectively turn language into an “IQ test” and do not mimic real-world comprehension “in the wild”. In this talk\, I will describe studies that instead employ naturalistic paradigms in fMRI to test how executive functions contribute to comprehension. Through a combination of data-driven analyses\, psycholinguistic constructs\, and brain-behavior correlations\, the findings challenge two decades of research about the role of executive resources in comprehension.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/idan-blank-the-relationship-between-language-and-executive-functions/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211011T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211011T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20211004T152117Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180355Z
UID:6313-1633953600-1633959000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Damian Caillaud - Behavioral ecology: an important tool to protect threatened gorilla populations
DESCRIPTION:Behavioral ecology: an important tool to protect threatened gorilla populations. \nDamian Caillaud\, UC Davis \nConservation measures are often based on survey data and demographic projections\, rather than behavior ecology studies. However\, animal behavior research often provides key information explaining why some populations are threatened with extinction. For example\, aspects of the ranging behavior and social structure of mountain gorillas strongly reduce population growth\, even in the absence of feeding competition. In other studies\, we found that home range persistence hinders the recovery of low-density gorilla populations. Lastly\, the impact of infectious disease on gorilla populations cannot be explained without taking into account gorilla social organization and social behavior. We hope these examples (and others) contribute to make behavioral ecology a more systematic conservation tool.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/damian-caillaud-behavioral-ecology-an-important-tool-to-protect-threatened-gorilla-populations/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211004T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211004T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20210922T152300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180423Z
UID:6293-1633348800-1633354200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:James Holland Jones -- Cultural Evolutionary Dynamics Under Structural Uncertainty and the Consequences for Coupled Diffusion Processes
DESCRIPTION:Cultural Evolutionary Dynamics Under Structural Uncertainty and the Consequences for Coupled Diffusion Processes\nJames Holland Jones\nEarth Systems Science\, Stanford University\nThe COVID-19 Pandemic has laid bare the social vulnerabilities that make epidemics larger\, more deadly\, and more difficult to control\, both within the US and internationally. Differential vulnerability by social attributes (e.g.\, race\, socioeconomic status\, gender) leaves the overall population at greater risk for severe outbreaks than would be the case in less unequal populations. While health researchers have noted the societal vulnerability brought about by structural inequality for years\, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed other surprising sources of structural vulnerability that exacerbate transmission and complicate control. In particular\, socio-political polarization has proven to be a pernicious problem for epidemic control. I will present results from a simple model that show how two social processes\, homophily and out-group aversion\, in a polarized population\, can produce complex transmission dynamics that qualitatively resemble the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. I will then present a cultural-evolutionary framework for understanding why such polarization arises in the context of a pandemic. At the outset of a pandemic of a novel pathogen\, people are suffused with uncertainty about the nature of the threat\, its origin\, the severity of disease\, the effectiveness of control\, timelines\, etc. We hypothesize that uncertainty is a key variable underlying increased socio-political polarization on the one hand\, and the response to crises such as pandemics on the other. Uncertainty is a fundamental feature not just of epidemics but of any existential crisis facing humanity more generally. Understanding how people respond to uncertainty\, and crucially\, what the aggregate effects of these responses are is therefore a critical need for research into existential threats. Conventional wisdom tells us that people employ social heuristics when faced with uncertainty. This is important since aggregation itself becomes a major source of structural uncertainty\, as the behavior of ensembles of decision-makers is characterized by substantial nonlinearity\, feedback\, and often surprising threshold effects. I will present new work on modeling decision-making under uncertainty and the aggregate effects for “coupled-contagion” processes of social learning and pathogen diffusion.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/james-holland-jones-cultural-evolutionary-dynamics-under-structural-uncertainty-and-the-consequences-for-coupled-diffusion-processes/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210927T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210927T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20210921T175935Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220102T180451Z
UID:6290-1632744000-1632749400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Herman Pontzer - Evolution\, Activity\, and Aging in Human Energy Expenditure
DESCRIPTION:Evolution\, Activity\, and Aging in Human Energy Expenditure\nHerman Pontzer\nDuke University\nMetabolic energy expenditure\, the combined activity of our 37 trillion cells\, and shapes our daily energy requirements and affects our health. Conventional wisdom\, born largely from clinical studies in industrialized populations\, has held that daily energy expenditures are similar for closely related species\, increase at a constant rate with body size through growth and development\, and are strongly affected by physical activity levels. Recent work\, including research with small-scale societies around the globe\, has challenged each of these views. In this talk\, I discuss these new insights and their implications for understanding human energy expenditure.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/herman-pontzer-evolution-activity-and-aging-in-human-energy-expenditure/
CATEGORIES:2021,Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210524T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210524T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
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:20210517T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210517T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210513T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210513T140000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
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:20210510T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210510T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20210413T002401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210516T223452Z
UID:6220-1620648000-1620653400@bec.ucla.edu
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210426T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210426T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T054807
CREATED:20210403T181448Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210521T210816Z
UID:6199-1619438400-1619443800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Sheina Lew-Levy - Learning to forage in hunter-gatherer societies
DESCRIPTION:Learning to forage in hunter-gatherer societies\nSheina Lew-Levy\nDepartment of Psychology\, Simon Fraser University & Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies\, Aarhus University\nStudying how contemporary hunter-gatherer children learn to forage can help shed light on the evolution of human cognition\, life history\, and social organization. Still\, our species’ developmental plasticity and socioecological diversity complicates the applicability of single-population findings to our understanding of human evolutionary processes. In this presentation\, I draw upon systematic literature reviews and empirical research with Tanzanian Hadza and Congolese BaYaka hunter-gatherer children and adolescents to outline cross-cultural similarities and differences in contemporary hunter-gatherer children’s learning. I first show how play\, teaching\, participation\, and imitation biases contribute to children’s acquisition of skill and cooperative norms. One striking cross-cultural similarity is the primacy of learning with and from peers in the mixed-sex multi-age playgroup. I argue that peer learning may contribute to more rapid\, and potentially less costly\, knowledge transfers in humans\, and may also lead to the innovation of new social norms and subsistence practices. I discuss the implications of these findings to cumulative cultural evolution. Second\, I outline how cultural beliefs\, ecology\, settlement structure\, and subsistence opportunities contribute to cross-cultural variation in hunter-gatherer children’s economic work and learning. I argue that these contextual factors can help us understand the selection pressures which have shaped our long childhood and the age-graded division of labour. \n 
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sheina-lew-levy-learning-to-forage-in-hunter-gatherer-societies/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR