Behavioral Ecology
Behavioral ecology is a relative new field that examines human behavior from the perspective of evolutionary theory. As such, it has strong ties to evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and biological anthropology. Patricia Draper and Raymond Hames are two of our faculty who have long been involved in this area. Patricia Draper's publications have focused on how family structure affects reproductive strategies, the biocultural bases of sex roles, and other topics among the !Kung (Ju/'hoansi) hunter-gatherers of Botswana. Raymond Hames' research had dealt with kin selection and reciprocal altruism in labor and food exchange among the Yanomamö and Ye'kwana of Amazonas, Venezuela, hunting and conservation, and polygyny. In addition, they have co-authored two articles on !Kung focusing on the reproductive outcomes of birth-order and helpers at the nest. Their recent students in behavioral ecology have written theses on Ye'kwana meal sharing, !Kung naming practices, fertility in polygynous households among the Wolof of Senegal, and parental investment in families with adoptive and biological children in Nebraska. This thesis research has been published in leading journals. For example, Hames and McCabe in Human Nature (2007). Finally, both Draper and Hames have strong involvement in human evolutionary societies. Draper is president of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society of the American Anthropological Association and Hames is the treasurer of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, publisher of Evolution and Human Behavior.
Other faculty in our program who have an interest in evolutionary approaches. Archaeologist Peter Bleed is interested in the evolution of domestication (see his recent publication in Evolutionary Anthropology) and biological anthropologist Daniel Osborne has a research interest in evolutionary medicine and is currently analyzing the relationship between pigmentation and bone strength.
Recent Graduates in Behavioral Ecology
Carl McCabe (MA 2004) is currently a doctoral student at the University of California Davis where he is studying market vendors from the perspective of behavioral economics. Carl's homepage at Davis
Kyle Gibson (MA 2005) is currently a doctoral student in the anthropology department at the University of Utah with a thesis topic on suicide terrorism and the motivations people have in volunteering for suicide missions.
Ben Purzycki (MA 2006) is currently a doctoral student in the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut where he studies religion from a cognitive evolutionary perspective.
