Dr. Raymond B. Hames

Ph.D. University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), 1978

Professor of Anthropology

Graduate Advisor

Website: http://www.unl.edu/rhames

Office: 836 Oldfather Hall
Email: rhames@unl.edu
Phone: (402) 472-6240
Fax: (402) 472-9642

Subfield:

Cultural Anthropology

Major Research Interests:

Behavioral ecology, economic exchange, time allocation

Dr. Raymond Hames conducted his initial field work 1975-1976 among the Ye'kwana and Yanomamö Indians of Venezuela aspart of a Penn State-based research team investigating political evolution and ecology among the Yanomamö. He also spent 6 weeks in 1980 doing ethnographic reconnaissance on foragers in southeastern Paraguay. In 1985 he returned to Venezuela to continue research on the Yanomamö where he completed four winters of further field research (1985-1988) focusing on parental investment, the exchange of goods and services, and social interaction in relation to kinship. His most recent Yanomamö field research occurred in the summer of 1998 under the sponsorship of the LSB Leakey Foundation. His main interests are in human and behavioral ecology, economics, time allocation, and behavioral interaction from an evolutionary biological perspective.

In recent years he has held a variety of administrative posts including associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, one year (1992-93) as director of the Cultural Anthropology Program at NSF, and he was chair of the Department of Anthropology from 1989-1992 and 1993-1996. He plans to return to field research among the Yanomamö to investigate the biogeographical dimensions of highland and lowland Yanomamö adaptations.

Recent and Representative Publications:

The Ecologically Noble Savage Debate Annual Review of Anthropology 36 (in press for fall 2007)

Meal Sharing among the Ye'kwana (With Carl McCabe). Human Nature 18 (1):1-22 (2007)

Growth rates and life histories in 22 small-scale societies (Robert Walker senior author with 12 co-authors!) American Journal of Human Biology 18:295-311 (2006)

Some Final Thoughts on What Separates and Unites Us. In Robert Borofsky, ed., Ethical Issues in Darkness in El Dorado, Pp. 233-243. University of California Press: Berkeley (2004).

Informed Consent and Telling it Like it is. In Robert Borofsky, ed., Ethical Issues in Darkness in El Dorado, Pp. 168-175 University of California Press: Berkeley (2004).

On The Political Uses of Ethnographic Description. In Robert Borofsky, ed., Ethical Issues in Darkness in El Dorado, pp. 119-125. University of California Press: Berkeley (2004).

Women's work, child care and helpers at the nest in a hunter-gatherer society. (With Patricia Draper) Human Nature, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 319-341 (2004)

The Nexus of Yanomamö Growth, Health, and Demography
In Lost Paradises and the Ethics of Research and Publication, Salzano and Hurtado, eds. Oxford University Press. Pp. 110-146. (With Jennifer Kuzara) (2004)

Human Behavioral Ecology. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Pergamon, Oxford. Pp. 6946-695 (2001)

Parental Investment and Child Health in a Yanomamö Village Suffering Short-term Food Stress. Edward H. Hagen, Raymond B. Hames, Nathan M. Craig, Matthew T. Lauer, and Michael E. Price Journal of Biosocial Sciences. (2001)

Birth Order, Sibling Investment, and Fertility among the Ju/'hoansi (!Kung) (With Patricia Draper, first author) Human Nature Vol. 11, No. 2: 117-156 (2000)

Ye'kwana Behavioral and Locational Data Base. Visit this experimental web page devoted to analyzing quantitative data Amazonian village behavior and location in a Ye'kwana village

Reciprocal Altruism in Yanomamö Food Exchange. Chagnon, N., L. Cronk, and W. Irons, eds. Human Behavior and Adaptation: An Anthropological Perspective, Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, NY. Pp. 297-316 (2000).

Courses Taught:

Hunters and Gatherers (Anthropology 477/877) [course website]
Advanced Current Topics: Contentious Issues in Anthropology (488/888) [course website]
Social Structure: Anthropology 412/812 [course website]
Anthropology 212: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology [course website]