News

Professor Gamble to be Editor

Lynn Gamble has been chosen as the editor of American Antiquity by the Society for American Archaeology at their annual meeting in Vancouver. She will be helping the current editor during fall quarter 2017, then taking over all responsibilities in January 2018. Congratulations!

Staff Members, Dennis and Marin, Receive Awards

Ms. Louisa Dennis received a 2017 Staff Citation of Excellence award. Louisa has been working with us in Anthropology for many years. She has distinguished herself as an amazing resource with vast knowledge of how the UC works, excellent editorial and time management skills, and a high capacity for leadership when called upon to serve. She will be honored in an official ceremony during Staff Celebration Week in May.

Ms.

Professor Gurven and Grad Student Garcia in the News

Study finds 80-year-olds in central Bolivian forager-farming population have the same arterial age as Americans in their mid-50s.

Professors VanDerwarker and Gaulin in Teaching and Learning Excellence Series (TALES) Podcasts

Steve Gaulin appears in the first video at the top and Amber VanDerwarker is in the second at the bottom.

VanDerwarker & Grad Students Present Research

UCSB scholars organize a symposium that will examine mentorship and sexual harassment in academic and private archaeology.

VanDerwarker & Grad Students Present Research

UCSB scholars organize a symposium that will examine mentorship and sexual harassment in academic and private archaeology.

Department Grad Slam Results

1^st Place and “People’s Choice Award”: Hugh Radde, et al., Sexual Harassment Among California Archaeologists

2^nd Place: Carmen Hové, Immune Modulation During Pregnancy for Women in a High Pathogen Environment

3^rd Place: Elisabeth Rareshide, Outside of the Reach of the Mission Bell: Chinigchinich Ritual Practice among the Tongva during the Mission Period in Alta California (AD 1769-1834)

Spring Proseminar: Cristine Legare

The Evolution and Ontogeny of Cultural Learning

CRISTINE H. LEGARE, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

Humans display a wide repertoire of socially acquired and transmitted behaviors that vary substantially across populations. Information is accumulated and transferred within and across generations through the process of cumulative culture. What are the evolved psychological mechanisms that underlie cultural learning and how do they develop over the course of ontogeny? In a systematic program of mixed-methodological, comparative, and cross-cultural research, I study the human capacities to learn, create, and transmit culture, to shed light on the cognitive and cultural evolution of our species. The propensity for social learning provides the foundation for cumulative culture, and is both early developing and universal. Selective social learning mechanisms also afford the capacity to flexibly respond to diverse ontogenetic contexts and cultural ecologies. I describe the global diversity in childrearing practices, and present evidence for continuity and variability in the psychological capacities that enable cultural learning.

Featured Events

All News

Professor Gamble to be Editor

Staff Members, Dennis and Marin, Receive Awards

Professor Gurven and Grad Student Garcia in the News

Professors VanDerwarker and Gaulin in Teaching and Learning Excellence Series (TALES) Podcasts

VanDerwarker & Grad Students Present Research

VanDerwarker & Grad Students Present Research

Department Grad Slam Results

Spring Proseminar: Cristine Legare

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