anthropology

#362 Manvir Singh: Shamanism, Witchcraft, Religion, and Music

Sep 7, 2020

Dr. Manvir Singh just graduated with a PhD in human evolutionary biology from Harvard University, with a focus on cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. His research program aims to explain why societies develop complex, recurrent traditions such as shamanism, witchcraft, origin myths, property rights, sharing norms, lullabies, dance, music, and gods, as these have appeared in all types of societies across the globe, from nomadic hunter-gatherer bands to complex, industrial, mega-urbanized states. More»
#361 Joseph Henrich: The WEIRDest People in the World

Sep 4, 2020

Dr. Joseph Henrich is Professor and chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is interested in the question of how humans evolved from "being a relatively unremarkable primate a few million years ago to the most successful species on the globe", and how culture affected our genetic development. He is also the author of The Secret of Our Success and The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. More»
#354 Agner Fog: Warlike and Peaceful Societies

Aug 13, 2020

Dr. Agner Fog is associate professor of computer science at Technical University of Denmark. Dr. Fog does research in Evolutionary Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Social systems and Computer Science. His current project is 'Theory of cultural change based on evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, and cultural evolution.' He’s the author of “Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture”. More»
#351 H. Clark Barrett: Consciousness, Moral Judgment, and Cross-cultural Studies

Aug 3, 2020

Dr. H. Clark Barrett is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Director of the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at UCLA. He is a biological anthropologist specializing in evolutionary psychology, the study of the mind’s evolved mechanisms and processes. In his work he uses methods from anthropology and psychology to examine universals and variation in how thinking develops across cultures. He conducts field research among the Shuar, an indigenous culture in southeast Ecuador, as well as in Los Angeles. His research has focused on learning and conceptual development in several domains, including “theory of mind,” or the ability to make inferences about others’ thoughts and intentions, and learning about danger. He has also collaborated with a variety of anthropologists, psychologists, and other social scientists on a variety of topics ranging from infant-directed speech to the evolution of morality, and supervise graduate projects on the evolution of cognition. He’s the author of the book The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve. More»
#344 Joseph Henrich: Cultural Evolution, Human Cooperation, and WEIRD Psychology

Jun 19, 2020

Dr. Joseph Henrich is Professor and chair of The Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is interested in the question of how humans evolved from "being a relatively unremarkable primate a few million years ago to the most successful species on the globe", and how culture affected our genetic development. He is also the author of The Secret of Our Success and The WEIRDest People in World. More»
#342 H. Clark Barrett: On Mental Adaptations And Modularity Of Mind

Jun 8, 2020

Dr. H. Clark Barrett is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Director of the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at UCLA. He is a biological anthropologist specializing in evolutionary psychology, the study of the mind’s evolved mechanisms and processes. In his work he uses methods from anthropology and psychology to examine universals and variation in how thinking develops across cultures. He conducts field research among the Shuar, an indigenous culture in southeast Ecuador, as well as in Los Angeles. His research has focused on learning and conceptual development in several domains, including “theory of mind,” or the ability to make inferences about others’ thoughts and intentions, and learning about danger. He has also collaborated with a variety of anthropologists, psychologists, and other social scientists on a variety of topics ranging from infant-directed speech to the evolution of morality, and supervise graduate projects on the evolution of cognition. He’s the author of the book The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve. More»
#336 Melinda Zeder: Domestication, And The Origins and Dispersal of Agriculture

May 21, 2020

Dr. Melinda Zeder is Curator Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Her zooarchaeological research has revolutionized the understanding of animal domestication. She has conducted extensive fieldwork throughout the Near East, including in Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Syria. Her research focuses on the origins of plant and animal domestication, and the impacts of agriculture on human prehistory. She has also pioneered approaches that combine archaeological and genetic analyses of plant and animal remains from archaeological sites. More»
#334 Brian Hayden: Cultural Ecology, Feasting, Ritual Sanctuaries, And Funerals

May 15, 2020

Dr. Brian Hayden is Retired Professor in the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University, and he also holds a research position at the University of British Columbia. His research topics include Cultural ecology and political ecology; Hunting and gathering societies; transegalitarian societies; Aggrandizer strategies, especially feasting and secret societies; Prehistory of religion & early ritual structures; and lithic technology. More»
#333 Bernard Wood: Paleoanthropology, Human Systematics, And Human Evolution

May 14, 2020

Dr. Bernard Wood is University Professor of Human Origins at the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences at George Washington University. He is a medically trained paleoanthropologist. His research interests are all related in one way or another to a long-standing pre-occupation with hominin systematics. How can we improve our ability to recognize species in the fossil record, and how can we do a better job of reconstructing their phylogenetic relationships? His current research interests are phylogeny reconstruction, hominin systematics, dental evolution, evolvability within the hominin clade, and diet reconstruction. He’s the author of several books, including Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction, and Human Evolution: A Guide to Fossil Evidence. More»
#326 Cristine Legare: Child Development, Culture, and Scientific Reasoning

Apr 27, 2020

Dr. Cristine Legare is a professor of psychology and the director of the Evolution, Variation, and Ontogeny of Learning Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines how the human mind enables us to learn, create, and transmit culture. She conducts comparisons across age, culture, and species to address fundamental questions about cognitive and cultural evolution. More»