Faculty Information
Shankar Aswani
Associate Professor of Anthropology & the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science
curriculum vitae
Email: aswani@anth.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-8285
Office: HSSB 2082
Shankar Aswani's webpage
Shankar Aswani's Anthropology Department webpage
Professor Aswani's research and teaching interests lie at the intersection between anthropology, human ecology, and marine science. He follows a research agenda focusing on the human and cultural ecology of insular coastal groups, property rights and common property resources, and marine indigenous ecological knowledge of populations in Melanesia and the Insular Pacific in general. Close fields of specialization include human behavioral ecology, political ecology, sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, applied anthropology, and ethnohistory. He also leads one of the largest conservation programs in the Solomon Islands (Western Solomons Conservation Program, WSCP-UCSB), which establishes community-based marine protected areas (CBMPAs), rural development projects, and educational programs for Pacific islanders.
Latest Marine Conservation Projects:
Understanding Socio-ecological Impacts and Responses to Large Scale Environmental Disturbance in the Western Solomon Islands (NSF-Human and Social Dynamics [AOF])
Community and Church-based Marine Conservation in New Georgia and Rendova Islands (Western Solomon Islands
Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, 2005: Integrating Social and Natural Science for Designing and Implementing a Marine Protected Area Network in the Western Solomon Islands
Other Projects:
Rural Development and Community-based Resource Management in the Solomon Islands
The Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons Marine Resource Management
Human Palaeoecology in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
Field School:
Human Dimensions to Marine Resource Utilization in the Solomon Islands: Fostering Pacific Island Student Participation in Research and Educational Activities
Selected Publications
Aswani, S., 2005. Customary sea tenure in Oceania as a case of rights-based fishery management: Does it work? Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 15: 285-307
Aswani, S., and M. Lauer. 2006. Incorporating fishers’ local knowledge and behavior into geographical information systems (GIS) for designing marine protected areas in Oceania. Human Organization 65(1): 80-101.
Aswani, S. and M. Lauer. 2006. Benthic mapping using local aerial photo interpretation and resident taxa inventories for designing marine protected areas. Environmental Conservation 33 (3): 263_273.
Aswani, S, S. Albert, A. Sabetian & T. Furusawa. 2007. Customary Management as Preventive and Adaptive Management for Protecting Coral Reefs in Oceania. Coral Reefs 26 (4):
Aswani, S and T. Furusawa. 2007. Do MPAs Affect Human Health and Nutrition? A Comparison among Villages in Roviana, Solomon Islands. Coastal Management 35 (5): 545-565.
Cinner. J and S. Aswani. 2007. Integrating Customary Management into the Modern Conservation of Coral Reef Fisheries in the Indo-Pacific. Biological Conservation 140 (3/4): 201_216
Aswani, S and I. Vaccaro. 2008. Lagoon Ecology and Social Strategies: Habitat Diversity and Ethnobiology. Human Ecology36: 325_341.
Steven Gaulin
Professor of Anthropology
Email: gaulin@anth.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-7402
Office: HSSB 1016
Curriculum Vitae
Steven Gaulin’s Departmental webpage
Center for Evolutionary Psychology webpage
Professor Gaulin has two cross-fertilizing research interests: the influence of sexual selection on human anatomy, physiology, cognition and behavior; and evolutionary psychology. His research has involved a wide range of field and laboratory techniques and has focused on both human and animal behavior. Professor Gaulin has studied sexual dimorphism, primate behavioral ecology, the evolutionary bases of spatial cognition, matrilateral investment biases, dowry, the evolution of voice pitch, and the evolution of female fat metabolism, and he has published in books and journals that span evolutionary theory, ecology, cultural and physical anthropology, psychology and philosophy of science. He is senior author (with Donald McBurney) of an influential textbook (Evolutionary Psychology 2nd edition, Prentice Hall), author of a reader in biological anthropology, and with William Lassek, a book on women's fat metabolism. In 2011 he completed a ten-year term as coeditor-in-chief of the leading journal covering evolutionary approaches to human behavior, Evolution and Human Behavior.
Projects
The influence of sexual selection on the human voice.
The evolution of sex differences in spatial cognition
The evolution of female fat metabolism and its effects on male mating preferences
Immune-related mate choice
Selected Publications
Recent publications: books.
Gaulin, S. J. C. (2010). Human Evolution: Processes and Adaptations. San Diego: Cognella.
Lassek, W. D. and S. J. C. Gaulin (2011). Why Women Need Fat. New York: Hudson Street/Penguin Group. In press.
Recent publications: selected articles and book chapters.
Lassek, W. D., and S. J. C. Gaulin (2006) “Changes in body fat distribution in relation to parity in American women: A covert form of maternal depletion.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131: 295-302.
Puts, D. A., S. J. C. Gaulin, S. M. and Breedlove (2006) “Sex differences in spatial ability: Evolution, hormones and the brain.” In S. Platek, ed. Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience. pp. 329-379, John Wiley, New York
Gaulin. S. J. C. (2006) “Evolutionary Psychology.” In J. H. Kaas, ed. Evolution of Nervous Systems. Vol 4: 497-502, Elsevier, Oxford.
Lassek, W. D. and S. J. C. Gaulin (2007) “Menarche is related to fat distribution.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133: 1147-1151 (DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20644).
Puts, D. A., C. R. Hodges, R. A. Cárdenas and S. J. C. Gaulin (2007) “Men’s voices as dominance signals: Vocal fundamental and formant frequencies influence dominance attributions among men.”; Evolution and Human Behavior 28: 340-344.
New, J., M. M. Krasnow, D. Truxaw and S. J. C. Gaulin (2007) “Spatial adaptations for plant foraging: Women excel and calories count.” Proc. Royal Soc. B. 274: 2679-2684. (DOI:10.1098/rspb.2007.0826).
Krasnow, M., D. Truxaw, J. New and S. J. C. Gaulin (2007). “Shopping for Explanations: Response.” Science 318: 745.
Lassek, W. D. and S. J. C. Gaulin (2008) “Waist-hip ratio and cognitive ability: Is gluteofemoral fat a privileged store of neurodevelopmental resources?” Evolution and Human Behavior 29: 26-34.
Lassek, W. D. and S. J. C. Gaulin (2009) “Costs and benefits of fat-free muscle mass in men: relationship to mating success, dietary requirements, and native immunity.” Evolution and Human Behavior 30: 322-328.
Perilloux, H. K., G. D. Webster and S. J. C. Gaulin (2010) Signals of genetic quality and maternal investment capacity: The dynamic effects of fluctuating asymmetry and waist-to-hip ratio on men’s ratings of women’s attractiveness. Social Psychological and Personality Science 1: 34-42.
Hodges-Simeon, C. R., S. J. C. Gaulin & D. A. Puts (2010) “Voice correlates of mating success in men: Examining ‘contests’ versus ‘mate choice’ modes of sexual selection.” Archives of Sexual Behavior Archives of Sexual Behavior 40: 551-557.
Hodges-Simeon, C. R., S. J. C. Gaulin & D. A. Puts (2010) “Different vocal parameters predict perceptions of dominance and attractiveness.” Human Nature 21: 406-427.
Krasnow, M., D. Truxaw, S. J. C. Gaulin, J. New, H. Ozono, S. Uono, T. Ueno, and K. Minemoto (2011) “Cognitive adaptations for gathering-related navigation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior 32: 1-12.
Lassek, W. D. and S. J. C. Gaulin (2011). “Sex differences in the relationship of dietary fatty acids to cognitive measures in American children.” Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience 3: In press.
Michael Gurven
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Email: gurven@anth.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-2202
Office: HSSB 2059
Curriculum Vitae
Michael Gurven’s webpage
Michael Gurven’s Departmental webpage
Human Behavioral Ecology Lab webpage
Michael Gurven focuses his research in two principal areas: human social behavior and life history evolution. He studies how members of small-scale societies organize inter-personal relations to solve salient, recurrent economic problems. This includes the sharing of food and labor among foragers and horticulturalists, which can help reduce the chance of daily food shortages as well as signal important information about a donor's status or intentions. He has intensively researched the economics of exchange and food production, small-scale collective action, and social norms of trust and fairness, with the Ache of Paraguay and the Tsimane of Bolivia, two groups of South American Amazonian forager-horticulturalists.
Since 2002, Gurven has directed (with Hillard Kaplan) the Tsimane Life History and Health Project, funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to further develop theory and test models of human life history evolution. This project attempts to explain extended childhood, large brains, long lives, extensive cooperation and family formation among hunter-gatherers, and implications for understanding processes of development, aging and intergenerational resource transfers across the lifespan. Dr. Gurven emphasizes observational, experimental, and ethnographic methodologies.
Projects:
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project
Human Behavioral Ecology Lab
Inheritance of Inequality in Preindustrial Societies Project
Selected Recent Publications:
Gurven, M., Kaplan, H., Crimmins, E., Finch, C., Winking, J. 2008. Lifetime Inflammation in Two Epidemiological Worlds: the Tsimane of Bolivia and the United States. Journal of Gerontology Biological Sciences 63A(2):196-199.
Gurven, M., Kaplan, H., Zelada Supa, A. 2007. Mortality experience of Tsimane Amerindians: regional variation and temporal trends. American Journal of Human Biology 19:376-398.
Gurven, M., Kaplan, H. 2007. Hunter-gatherer longevity: cross-cultural perspectives. Population and Development Review 33: 321-365.
Gurven, M. 2006. The evolution of contingent cooperation. Current Anthropology 47(1):185-192.
Gurven, M., Walker, R. 2006. Energetic demand of multiple dependents and the evolution of slow human growth. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences 273:835-841.
Gurven, M. 2004. To give or not to give: an evolutionary ecology of human food transfers. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.27(4):543-583
John Tooby
Professor of Anthropology
Co-Director, Center for Evolutionary Psychology
Email: tooby@anth.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-8720
Office: HSSB 1010
Curriculum Vitae
John Tooby’s webpage
John Tooby’s Departmental webpage
Center for Evolutionary Psychology webpage
John Tooby has three principal interests: establishing evolutionary psychology as a rigorous science; seeing to what extent the social sciences can be unified around a new generation of more precise models of human nature and the mechanisms that comprise it; and working on various unresolved issues at the foundations of evolutionary biology.
With Leda Cosmides, Tooby is co-director of UCSB's Center for Evolutionary Psychology. Tooby was co-editor of The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, served as president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society from 1999-2001, and was elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 2007.
More specifically, Tooby works on:
1) understanding certain key evolutionary phenomena and the adaptive problems they impose, including cooperation, sexual recombination, intragenomic conflict, coalitions, inbreeding and its avoidance, aggression, bargaining, kin selection, status, Mendelism, n-person strategic interactions, counter-entropic development, and communication;
2) exploring how the designs of our evolved psychological/neural programs and physiological regulators derive from the enduring action of these adaptive problems operating in ancestral environments;
3) combining experimentation, neuroscience methods, and field investigations with knowledge of how natural selection operated in ancestral hunter-gatherer contexts in order to produce high resolution maps of the psychological, neurocognitive, physiological, and genetic adaptations that comprise human nature;
4) exploring how these evolved adaptations organize (and were shaped by) social behavior, cultural processes, economic phenomena, and other population-level phenomena;
5) exploring how this approach can help pave the way for an eventual theoretical unification of the behavioral and social sciences, and their integration with the (rest of the) natural sciences.
Within anthropology, Tooby’s work crosscuts evolutionary anthropology, evolutionary psychology, scientific sociocultural anthropology, human behavioral ecology, and biological anthropology. Tooby also publishes in psychology, evolutionary biology, economics, neuroscience, political science, and philosophy.
Selected research projects (with Leda Cosmides):
Reasoning and ecological rationality: Tooby works on mapping evolved specializations for human reasoning, including social exchange, precautionary reasoning, statistical inference, and coalitions.
Emotion: Tooby works on mapping the evolved functional logics built into motivational and emotion programs, such as anger, guilt, shame, gratitude, and disgust.
Groups: Tooby works on mapping the evolved programs underlying human coalitional psychology and ingroup-outgroup psychology and their expressions in war, ethnocentrism, and racism.
Kinship: Tooby works on mapping the circuit structure of evolved programs underlying the psychology and social organization of human kinship, including specializations for the detection of relatedness, and the downstream consequences of this detection process on altruism and incest avoidance.
Selected Publications (Online versions of most papers can be found here.)
Lieberman, D., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. The architecture of human kin detection. Nature, 445, 727-731.
New, J., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2007) Category-specific attention for animals reflects ancestral priorities, not expertise. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (42), 16593-16603.
Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2005). Social exchange: The evolutionary design of a neurocognitive system. In Michael S. Gazzaniga, (Ed.), The New Cognitive Neurosciences, III (pp. 1295-1308). Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
Sugiyama, L., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2002). Cross-cultural evidence of cognitive adaptations for social exchange among the Shiwiar of Ecuadorian Amazonia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(17), 11537-11542.
Kurzban, R., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2001). Can race be erased?: Coalitional computation and social categorization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(26), 15387-15392. |
