Overview

Human behavioral ecology (HBE) applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimisation to the study of human behavioural and cultural diversity. Among other things, HBE attempts to explain variation in behaviour as adaptive solutions to the competing life-history demands of growth, development, reproduction, parental care, and mate acquisition. This book is a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical orientation and specific findings of HBE. It consolidates the insights of evolution and human behaviour into a single volume that reflects the current state and future of the field. It brings together leading scholars from across the evolutionary social sciences to provide a comprehensive and thought-provoking review of the state of the topic. Throughout, the authors explain the latest developments in theory and highlight critical debates in the literature, while also engaging readers with ethnographic insights and field-based studies that remain at the core of human behavioral ecology.

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9781108434348

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Jeremy Koster is an external faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He conducts research among indigenous Nicaraguans and co-directs a collaborative project that examines the social determinants of wealth inequality. His interdisciplinary work on the behavior and demography of domestic dogs helps to advance understandings of the mechanisms for artificial selection. Brooke Scelza is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-director of the Kunene Rural Health and Demography Project in Namibia, where she has been working with Himba pastoralists since 2010 to study family dynamics and reproductive decision-making. She is a former president of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society. Mary K. Shenk is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Demography and Asian Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on marriage, parental investment, and fertility in South Asia where she has conducted fieldwork since 2001. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and former President of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society.

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