Meaning-making, belief and world shaping as core processes in the human niche Agustín Fuentes Department of Anthropology, Princeton University Humans 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. […]
Indigenous STS, Governance, and Decolonization Kim TallBear Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta Like 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 […]
Physical and social cognition in a parrot (Cacatua goffiniana) and ape model species (Pongo abelii) Isabelle Laumer Department of Anthropology, UCLA The 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 […]
The social minds of humans and other apes Chris Krupenye Department of Psychology, Durham University and Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Few 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 […]
Microbiomania, rewilding, and the threat of bioprospecting: How anthropologists can help to set a more ethical research agenda in microbiome sciences Alyssa N. Crittenden Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Scientific knowledge and commercial interest in the human microbiome are growing exponentially. As our understanding of the vital role of microbes increases, so […]
Evolution, Activity, and Aging in Human Energy Expenditure Herman Pontzer Duke University Metabolic 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, […]
Cultural Evolutionary Dynamics Under Structural Uncertainty and the Consequences for Coupled Diffusion Processes James Holland Jones Earth Systems Science, Stanford University The 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 […]
Behavioral ecology: an important tool to protect threatened gorilla populations. Damian Caillaud, UC Davis Conservation 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 […]
Idan Blank UCLA Department of Psychology Two 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 […]
Sarah E. Hill Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University A 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 […]
