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A Distant Refuge article image-2020-02-11

A Distant Refuge

A UCSB Anthropology doctoral student studies primates at a small wildlife reserve in western Uganda


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A Distant Refuge article image-2020-02-11

A Distant Refuge

UCSB anthropology doctoral student Ronnie Bailey-Steinitz studies primates at a small wildlife reserve in western Uganda.


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Old Foes, Old Friends

Scholars study the effects of pregnancy on hookworm infections in indigenous women in the Bolivian Amazon


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On Top of the World: Human adaptation to high altitude Event Image

On Top of the World: Human adaptation to high altitude

High-altitude environments, defined as areas lying above 2,500 meters [m] sea-level, challenge the ability of humans to live and reproduce, i.e., adapt and/or acclimatize. Hypoxia is the fundamental challenge that high-altitude sojourners and residents face, necessitating physiological acclimatization and/or genetic adaptation to overcome it. Long-resident populations of high altitude, Tibetans and Andeans, show genomic evidence of adaptation and significant genotype associations with altitude-adaptive phenotypes. Ongoing research is working towards identifying the functional consequence of altitude-adaptive variation. Together, these results provide key insights into the patterns of genetic adaptation to high altitude, shed light on genetic variation contributing to complex phenotypes, and are of potential importance for public health given HIF-pathway involvement with various disease processes, e.g., chronic ischemic disease, regulation of tumor growth.

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Indigenous Cooking Techniques

Grad student Emily Johnson develops method to identify key cooking process of indigenous communities in the archaeological record


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The Evolution of Altruism: Michael Gurven

How the holidays bring out the better angels of our nature, according to evolutionary anthropology


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The Giving Season : Prof. Michael Gurven

How the holidays bring out the better angels of our nature, according to evolutionary anthropology


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UCSB Anthropology Lecturer Manasendu Kundu was ahead of the curve in linking human behavior and environmental consequences.

What do Manasendu (“Manny”) Kundu, UCSB Anthropology Ph.D. ‘94, and Al Gore have in common? The UCSB lecturer and the former US Vice President were both before their time in bringing to light an inconvenient truth about the impact of humans on the environment. 

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