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Category Archives: Evolution and Scientific Method
Reflections on the Costs of Evolved Self-Awareness: Comparing Trajectories of Davids—Foster Wallace & Insurgent
I’m going to be writing on the costly implications of self-awareness in a forthcoming book & was walking around listening to Reagan Youth on Spotify & David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest on Audible when some parallels occurred to me. I’ll … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Evolution & Pop Culture, Evolution and Psychology, Evolution in Arts, Exaptation, Hypotheses, Literary Darwinism
Tagged CBGB's, Dave Insurgent, Dave Rubenstein, David Foster Wallace, depression, heroin addiction, Infinite Jest, Kurt Cobain, Lunachicks, marijuana addiction, New York Scum Rock, Nirvana, punk rock, Reagan Youth, self-awareness, self-obsession, suicide
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Is Cunnilingus an Adaptation to Increase Intercourse Length & Increase the Probability of Fertilization?
Several years ago a student of mine (Christy McGee) in my “Anthropology of Sex” class was studying highly promiscuous women with the hypothesis that they would be averse to cunnilingus. She suggested that cunnilingus was a male means of detecting infidelity. … Continue reading
Posted in Adaptation, Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Hypotheses, Mating and Sexuality
Tagged bats, bonobos, cunnilingus, Flying Fox, Gordon Gallup
2 Comments
Thinking Like an Anthropologist from Mars: Crucial for Good Human Science
Don’t worry, just as I promised you recently that the odds of an all-out zombie apocalypse are very low, I seriously doubt that there are any anthropologists from Mars among our ranks. This said, as a behavioral scientist, I think it may actually be very useful to think like an anthropologist from Mars. And this blog explains why! Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Evolution and Scientific Method, Glenn Geher
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Fireside Trance drives Selection for Enhanced Attention & Working Memory via Baldwin Effect
Fireside hypnotizability Following up on a previous post tracking down the original sources for the December Smithsonian piece about hearth fires & cognitive evolution, evolutionary psychologist Matt Rossano’s “Did Meditating Make Us Human?” spins out a model similar to & … Continue reading
Posted in Adaptation, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Hypotheses
Tagged Baldwin effect, fireside relaxation, Matt Rossano
2 Comments
Signaling Religious Commitment in Brazilian Candomble
I was critiqued in a recent NSF grant proposal review that, while I elegantly integrated signaling & cultural consensus theories in my research design, my statements that (1) signaling theory derives from evolutionary biology & (2) that no one has … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Theory
Tagged Bria Dunham, Candomble, Joseph Bulbulia, Lee Cronk, Montserrat Soler, Religious ecology study, Richard Sosis, Signaling theory
2 Comments
Magicians are Scientists with Street Smarts
In his conservationist plea to fundamentalist Christian religious leaders, The Creation, E.O. Wilson reminds me of a recent essay by Teller (of prestidigitator duo extraordinaire Penn & Teller). On page 104, Wilson says The successful scientist thinks like a poet, … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution and Scientific Method
Tagged E.O. Wilson, magic, Neuroscience, science, self-deception, Smithsonian, Teller
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The Campfire as a Social Nexus
Wrangham (2009) & McClenon (2006) describe the campfire in evolutionary history as something like a social nexus. Wrangham says it’s where hominids came to & learned to tolerate each other. McClenon says it’s where hominids developed their relaxation skills, by … Continue reading
Posted in Biological Anthropology, Primates, Theory
Tagged australopithecines, bonobos, chimps, E.O. Wilson, fireside relaxation, habilines, James McClenon, Richard Wrangham
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Parasites & Religion in Costa Rica
I really don’t have anything to report about parasites in Costa Rica yet, or religion for that matter, but we did arrive yesterday to begin preliminary data collection for the Costa Rican Religious Ecology Study, as I’ve been calling it. … Continue reading
The Adaptiveness of Gossip re HIV in Africa
I was listening to an old This American Life podcast from 2011 the other day & heard a great piece about the work of sociologist Susan Watkins. Watkins runs the Malawi Journals Project, thru which she has been studying gossip … Continue reading
Posted in Adaptation, Hypotheses, Mating and Sexuality
Tagged Africa, gossip, HIV, Malawi, Robin Dunbar, Susan Watkins
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HBES 2012 Roundup 4: Father’s Day & the Parasite-Driven Wedge
So I blew Father’s Day. Totally didn’t realize I’d booked myself to go to HBES on Father’s Day. And much as I love my dad, it wasn’t because I wasn’t going to be with him. It was because my wife … Continue reading
Posted in Adaptation, Cultural Evolution, Evolution and Psychology, Hypotheses
Tagged behavioral immune system, Corey Fincher, Costa Rica, Father's Day, HBES, Human Behavior & Evolution Society, Karen Wynn, Li Mate Value Inventory, parasite-driven wedge, Randy Thornhill, Religious ecology study
4 Comments
