Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab
Department of Anthropology | University of California, Santa Barbara
Welcome!
Our research applies evolutionary models of behavior to better understand conflicts and trade-offs in human family relationships, and inform related public/global health practice. We carry out field research in Mwanza, Tanzania, and using secondary demographic surveys, online surveys, and on campus with UCSB students.
Projects and Lab Members
1. How does social learning influence gender ideology?
Beliefs about how genders should behave differ across cultures, typically favoring male privilege. But how do we acquire these beliefs, and does social learning prevent or promote positive change in gender ideology? With support from the Cultural Evolution Society, and the National Science Foundation, we are investigating these questions in rural Tanzania and on campus at UCSB. This work builds on our observation that market integration is shifting gender norms, and that individuals can misrepresent private beliefs in public settings, complicating patterns of social influence.
2. What role does 'gendered conflict' play in human family life?
For biologists 'sexual conflict' occurs when the optimal value of a trait differs between the sexes, leading to sex-specific adaptations and counter-adaptations as each sex attempts to gain the upper hand. Translating this framework to human behavior, we use the term 'gendered conflict' emphasizing that human sex/gender roles and accompanying conflicts are both subject to natural selection and culturally determined. This research foci builds on a long standing interest in the relationship between women's wellbeing and marriage customs, such as child marriage and polygynous marriage.
3. Why do some children receive more parental care than others?
Parental care in humans is both remarkably extended and plastic compared to our primate cousins, with the form and level of care varying widely across contexts and between individuals. In past work, we have investigated the role of family size, birth order, gender and relatedness in influencing the allocation of parental care in the UK, Sweden, and Tanzania. In current work, we are examining the escalation of parental care among high-income nations, asking if it is ever possible for parents to care too much?
Project Co-Investigator
Lotty is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Exeter. She is interested in the evolution of cognition, social learning, decision making, cultural evolution, and dedicated to transparent, reproducible, open science.
Email: c.brand@sheffield.ac.uk
Twitter: @lottybrand
Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa
Project Co-investigator
Alexander is a postdoctoral scholar at the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania. He is interested in sexual and reproductive health, men and masculinities, mixed methods research, and health systems and policy.
Email: mwijagealexander2014@yahoo.com
Twitter: @Kanyawera21
Graduate Student
Joseph is a PhD candidate in Anthropology. He is interested in gendered conflict, gender equality and the role of social norms, sanctions and punishments in driving behavior change.
Email: jkilgallen@ucsb.edu
Twitter: @JosephKilgallen
Graduate Student
Zhian is an MA student in Anthropology. He is broadly interested in human behavioral ecology & social learning, but especially shifts in parental investment and patterns of norm misperception (i.e. when the beliefs of others are inaccurately perceived).
Email: zhian@ucsb.edu
Twitter: @ZhianChen4
Tara Zahraie
Undergraduate Student
Tara is an undergraduate majoring in Sociology with a minor in Applied Psychology. She has assisted us in running focus groups on men's support for gender equality on campus, and in analyzing transcripts from Tanzania.
Mascot
Pietro's research interests include food, more food, long walks on the beach and chasing geckos. Emotional support hugs available on request.
Instagram: @pietro_enriquezlawson
We have a long list of collaborators (see publications below). Featured below are key collaborators at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mwanza, Tanzania, along with recent graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
Fieldwork
Anthropology is vital for understanding human diversity. It also has a troubled history of extractive research that fails to benefit participants and host nations. Best practice will vary by context, but in addition to ensuring ethical standards for human subjects research, our lab is committed to the following principles: (i) only conducting primary data collection overseas in collaboration and co-authorship with local researchers; (ii) whenever possible, allocating grant funding via local institutions with appropriate overheads; (iii) combining research with investment in mentoring and capacity-building activities. Below are some pictures of fieldwork in Mwanza, north western Tanzania - where we have been working since the mid 2010s with rural communities to better understand relationships between family structure, living arrangements and wellbeing. More recently, we have begun to study shifting gender norms in the face of market integration.
