Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cul... more Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health. Current information shows the existence of 504 species in 79 genera distributed in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Alarmingly, ~60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and ~75% have declining populations. This situation is the result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats-mainly global and local market demands, leading to extensive habitat loss through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks in primate range regions. Other important drivers ...
The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmen... more The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmental change in the earth system, reshaping the global landscape. The rapid rate of environmental change is disrupting the ability of millions of people around the globe to live their everyday lives and maintain their human niche. Evidence suggests that we have entered (or created) a new epoch, the Anthropocene, which is defined as the period in which humans and human activities are the primary drivers of planetary change. The Anthropocene denotes a global shift, but it is the collective of local processes. This is our frame for investigating local accounts of human-caused disruptive environmental change in the Pampana River in Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2002, the country has experienced a rapid increase in extractive industries, namely mining. We explored the effects of this development by working with communities ...
Medical anthropology, given its diversity of practical and historical entanglements with (and out... more Medical anthropology, given its diversity of practical and historical entanglements with (and outside of) numerous threads of anthropology, is a key site for productive theoretical and methodological confluences in the Anthropocene. Multispecies approaches, ethnographically, theoretically and methodologically, are developing as central locations for the hybridization and mingling of diverse and innovative research questions, particularly those engaging the processes, patterns, and constructs of health.
ABSTRACT Any study of the world, including that of the human, is a move toward and into complexit... more ABSTRACT Any study of the world, including that of the human, is a move toward and into complexity not away from it. Human action and perception are as evolutionarily relevant as are human genes, bones, and muscles. As an anthropologist interested in behaviour and evolution my focus is the interface of biological histories and systems with the social and cultural lives of humans and the other animals we share close relations with. In this essay influenced by, and following from, Tim Ingold’s ‘From Science to Art and Back Again: The Pendulum of an anthropologist’ I chart my history as a scholar via the patterns and changes in the anthropological, primatological, and evolutionary approaches that I have witnessed and have taken part in. I conclude with a call for an integrative anthropology that draws from contemporary evolutionary theory and biology along with a deep connection with the humanities and the arts.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Dec 26, 2017
The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group... more The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group size (W), conflict casualties (C), and overall group conflict deaths (G), have declined with respect to growing populations, implying that states are less violent than small-scale societies. We argue that these trends are better explained by scaling laws shared by both past and contemporary societies regardless of social organization, where group population (P) directly determines W and indirectly determines C and G. W is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent X [demographic conflict investment (DCI)]. C is shown to be a power law function of W with scaling exponent Y [conflict lethality (CL)]. G is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent Z [group conflict mortality (GCM)]. Results show that, while W/P and G/P decrease as expected with increasing P, C/W increases with growing W. Small-scale societies show higher but more variance in DCI and CL th...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017
The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group... more The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group size (W), conflict casualties (C), and overall group conflict deaths (G), have declined with respect to growing populations, implying that states are less violent than small-scale societies. We argue that these trends are better explained by scaling laws shared by both past and contemporary societies regardless of social organization, where group population (P) directly determines W and indirectly determines C and G. W is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent X [demographic conflict investment (DCI)]. C is shown to be a power law function of W with scaling exponent Y [conflict lethality (CL)]. G is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent Z [group conflict mortality (GCM)]. Results show that, while W/P and G/P decrease as expected with increasing P, C/W increases with growing W. Small-scale societies show higher but more variance in DCI and CL th...
Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews
When and where hominins became human is a key question in human evolutionary studies. Current sch... more When and where hominins became human is a key question in human evolutionary studies. Current scholarship suggests that the success of Homo sapiens relative to other members of the genus Homo was not solely a result of physical differences, but rather a suite of behavioral changes, although specifically when and how these changes occurred is an open question. The ability to create something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention is often seen as a key capacity that allowed our direct ancestor’s success over other populations or species in the genus Homo. As our knowledge of the human fossil record expands, the Middle and Late Pleistocene ( 1 million to 50,000 years ago) appears to have been a core time of major transitions in the biology and behavior of the genus Homo, setting the stage for the later emergence of Homo sapiens. The traditional behavioral modernity model, which argues that anatomical and behavioral modernity were separate events in human evolution, has been forcefully questioned by recent work. However, it is still common for scholars outside of evolutionary anthropology to suggest that the major “human revolution” occurred well after the initial appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. There is a critical need to understand exactly which data from the paleoanthropological record can enable us to distinguish elements and patterns that reflect the material evidence of such a capacity. Currently, most attempts to examine this question rely on inferences from incomplete records, which are a result of a limited focus on only one region and/or the disparate nature of where the published data are available.
Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cul... more Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health. Current information shows the existence of 504 species in 79 genera distributed in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Alarmingly, ~60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and ~75% have declining populations. This situation is the result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats-mainly global and local market demands, leading to extensive habitat loss through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks in primate range regions. Other important drivers ...
The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmen... more The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmental change in the earth system, reshaping the global landscape. The rapid rate of environmental change is disrupting the ability of millions of people around the globe to live their everyday lives and maintain their human niche. Evidence suggests that we have entered (or created) a new epoch, the Anthropocene, which is defined as the period in which humans and human activities are the primary drivers of planetary change. The Anthropocene denotes a global shift, but it is the collective of local processes. This is our frame for investigating local accounts of human-caused disruptive environmental change in the Pampana River in Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2002, the country has experienced a rapid increase in extractive industries, namely mining. We explored the effects of this development by working with communities ...
Medical anthropology, given its diversity of practical and historical entanglements with (and out... more Medical anthropology, given its diversity of practical and historical entanglements with (and outside of) numerous threads of anthropology, is a key site for productive theoretical and methodological confluences in the Anthropocene. Multispecies approaches, ethnographically, theoretically and methodologically, are developing as central locations for the hybridization and mingling of diverse and innovative research questions, particularly those engaging the processes, patterns, and constructs of health.
ABSTRACT Any study of the world, including that of the human, is a move toward and into complexit... more ABSTRACT Any study of the world, including that of the human, is a move toward and into complexity not away from it. Human action and perception are as evolutionarily relevant as are human genes, bones, and muscles. As an anthropologist interested in behaviour and evolution my focus is the interface of biological histories and systems with the social and cultural lives of humans and the other animals we share close relations with. In this essay influenced by, and following from, Tim Ingold’s ‘From Science to Art and Back Again: The Pendulum of an anthropologist’ I chart my history as a scholar via the patterns and changes in the anthropological, primatological, and evolutionary approaches that I have witnessed and have taken part in. I conclude with a call for an integrative anthropology that draws from contemporary evolutionary theory and biology along with a deep connection with the humanities and the arts.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Dec 26, 2017
The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group... more The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group size (W), conflict casualties (C), and overall group conflict deaths (G), have declined with respect to growing populations, implying that states are less violent than small-scale societies. We argue that these trends are better explained by scaling laws shared by both past and contemporary societies regardless of social organization, where group population (P) directly determines W and indirectly determines C and G. W is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent X [demographic conflict investment (DCI)]. C is shown to be a power law function of W with scaling exponent Y [conflict lethality (CL)]. G is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent Z [group conflict mortality (GCM)]. Results show that, while W/P and G/P decrease as expected with increasing P, C/W increases with growing W. Small-scale societies show higher but more variance in DCI and CL th...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017
The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group... more The proportions of individuals involved in intergroup coalitional conflict, measured by war group size (W), conflict casualties (C), and overall group conflict deaths (G), have declined with respect to growing populations, implying that states are less violent than small-scale societies. We argue that these trends are better explained by scaling laws shared by both past and contemporary societies regardless of social organization, where group population (P) directly determines W and indirectly determines C and G. W is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent X [demographic conflict investment (DCI)]. C is shown to be a power law function of W with scaling exponent Y [conflict lethality (CL)]. G is shown to be a power law function of P with scaling exponent Z [group conflict mortality (GCM)]. Results show that, while W/P and G/P decrease as expected with increasing P, C/W increases with growing W. Small-scale societies show higher but more variance in DCI and CL th...
Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews
When and where hominins became human is a key question in human evolutionary studies. Current sch... more When and where hominins became human is a key question in human evolutionary studies. Current scholarship suggests that the success of Homo sapiens relative to other members of the genus Homo was not solely a result of physical differences, but rather a suite of behavioral changes, although specifically when and how these changes occurred is an open question. The ability to create something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention is often seen as a key capacity that allowed our direct ancestor’s success over other populations or species in the genus Homo. As our knowledge of the human fossil record expands, the Middle and Late Pleistocene ( 1 million to 50,000 years ago) appears to have been a core time of major transitions in the biology and behavior of the genus Homo, setting the stage for the later emergence of Homo sapiens. The traditional behavioral modernity model, which argues that anatomical and behavioral modernity were separate events in human evolution, has been forcefully questioned by recent work. However, it is still common for scholars outside of evolutionary anthropology to suggest that the major “human revolution” occurred well after the initial appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. There is a critical need to understand exactly which data from the paleoanthropological record can enable us to distinguish elements and patterns that reflect the material evidence of such a capacity. Currently, most attempts to examine this question rely on inferences from incomplete records, which are a result of a limited focus on only one region and/or the disparate nature of where the published data are available.
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