Evolution and Ethnoecology of Human Behavior

An evolutionary perspective provides a unifying lens for understanding animal behavior. Modern humans are the products of an evolutionary process stretching across billions of years, though the last few million years have been perhaps some of the most interesting. Building on preexisting physiological substrates, our hominin ancestors have undergone important shifts in subsistence, coalitions, mating behavior, parenting, and much more. Here in the Lab, we’re interested in addressing, within an overarching evolutionary perspective, how human cognition, behavior and physiology play out across various socio-ecologies in the world today. We believe that the best of this kind of integrative research attempts to combine the latest in interdisciplinary evolutionary theory; findings from comparative animal research; naturalistic observational studies and behavioral methods; places human behavior in social context, also employing life history theory to do so; and considers function in addition to physiological mechanisms, development, and phylogeny.

Dr. Peter Gray engages in evolutionary-inspired research on human reproduction. In practice, this means devoting much of his teaching and research to central concerns in human sexuality, parenting, and family dynamics, both in the Caribbean (Jamaica and St. Kitts) and the U.S. As more pets have been viewed as family members, this has opened new avenues for human-animal interaction possibilities too. Gray engages in work on human behavioral endocrinology, with limited capacity for salivary steroid assays at UNLV.

Please email Dr. Gray if you are a prospective student with overlapping areas of interest in graduate school, or you are a current graduate student at UNLV and would like to participate in a weekly, informal, interdisciplinary lab reading group. The interests of past and present lab members run a wide gamut, including PCOS among women in Delhi, India; sexuality of postpartum nursing mothers in Manila, Philippines; women’s responses to infidelity in Jamaica; adaptive and endocrine aspects of boys’ social development; cross-cultural approaches to human-pet dynamics; impacts of illness on women’s sociosexual behavior; men’s testosterone responses to poker competition; and mate preferences among single parents, among other topics.

The UNLV Ethnoecology and Experimental Studies Laboratory was established by Liam Frink in 2005. The lab is located in Room 107 on the first floor of Wright Building C on the main campus. This lab supports ongoing interdisciplinary ethnoecological and experimental research projects. The lab has computers as well as ample space and technologies for conducting individual experiments.

Lab Director: Diana Ewing, UNLV Department of Anthropology Ph.D. student

A number of other UNLV Anthropology faculty provide expertise contributing to an understanding of evolution and human behavior. Dr. Alyssa Crittenden conducts research with the Hadza, hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, and addresses a variety of research topics on childhood, nutrition, and social behavior within an evolutionary scope. Dr. Pierre Lienard conducts research on the evolution of human cognition, with emphases on ritual, risk and social behavior. Dr. Bill Jankowiak employs an evolutionary perspective to help integrate findings from long-term ethnographic field research in urban China and within a US polygynous Mormon community, in addition to a variety of Las Vegas projects related to human sex differences, romantic love, and sexuality. Dr. Dan Benyshek has conducted research concerning the etiology and ethnographic context of metabolic health problems among Native American communities in addition to lab-based experimental rodent studies designed to address causal mechanisms and developmental pathways underlying metabolic disorders. Dr. Brian Villmoare engages in research on hominins, particularly Australopithecus in Ethiopia, and also has interests in the evolution of hominin social behavior. Other faculty such as Dr. Deb Martin (bioarchaeology), Dr. Levent Atici (origins of agriculture), and Dr. Liam Frink (hunter-gatherers) offer courses that contribute to an integrative training program focused on the evolution of human behavior.

Dr. Peter Gray teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses:

ANT 102: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
ANT 469/669: Evolution and Biology of Human Behavior
ANT 471/671: Evolution of Human Sexuality
ANT 475/675: Evolutionary Medicine
ANT 360: Dogs, Cats, and Other Beasts: Anthropology of Animals
ANT 361: Making Mankind: Sex, Status, and Male Studies
ANT 761: Current Thoughts in Physical Anthropology(e.g., Evolution and Human Reproduction)
ANT 702: Core Seminar
ANT 472/672: Hormones and Human Behavior
ANT 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Other courses within Anthropology and other Divisions (e.g., Psychology, School of Life Sciences, School of Public Health) have topical emphases on the evolution and physiology of human behavior. Some of these Anthropology courses include:

ANTH 403: Anthropology of Women and Men (by Bill Jankowiak)
ANTH 417/617: Evolution and Culture: ‘Darwinian’ Models of Culture
ANTH 422/622: Psychological Anthropology (by Bill Jankowiak)
ANTH 426: Medical Anthropology (by Dan Benyshek)
ANTH 444/644: Bioarchaelogy (by Deb Martin)
ANTH 460: Primate Evolution (by Brian Villmoare)
ANTH 466/666: Nutritional Anthropology (by Dan Benyshek)
ANTH 467/667: Health and Disease in Antiquity (by Deb Martin)

An Experimental Examination of Central Canadian Arctic Hunter-Gatherer Pottery and Soapstone Containers

Liam Frink and Karen Harry (UNLV) continue to conduct interdisciplinary research and experiments on Arctic ceramics and soapstone cooking technologies. Our initial foray into the study of ceramic production of northern North America was stimulated by our profound respect at the ability of western Alaskan women to produce even "ugly" pottery under environmental conditions that can be characterized only as a potter’s nightmare. Here we turn our attention to ceramic containers found even farther north, in the Central Canadian Arctic. Environmental constraints (fuel shortages and poor weather conditions) on ceramic production are similar to those seen in Alaska, but even more extreme. In addition to facing problems in making the pottery, the people of the Central Canadian Arctic faced unique problems associated with their maintenance and use. Unlike the western coast, in this area an alternative cooking technology was present in the form of soapstone containers. We are conducting experiments to explore how these two materials compare in terms of engineering principles and performance characteristics. We also consider the broader social setting in which the technologies were employed in order to examine how social and technological factors interacted to shape material culture.

Ethnoarchaeological and experimental examination of the Alaskan seal poke storage system

(National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs #1106362 $232,750, IRB approved, two years of funding with graduate research assistant—UNLV Department of Anthropology Ph.D. Celeste Giordano)

The Arctic seal poke storage system is a highly innovative and efficient subsistence storage technique, yet little scholarly research has been devoted it. The primary goal of this interdisciplinary study is to document how the storage features and pokes are made, used, and maintained, as well as the health implications of changes in the storage of traditional foods. This research will impact how archaeologists understand storage in the past as well as potential health implications of traditional and contemporary storage techniques.

Anthropology Department of Anthropology

Anthropology

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