What I Do
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Utah
I am an evolutionary ecologist who studies humans. My main interest is in how the evolution of fancy social learning in humans accounts for the unusual nature of human adaptation and extraordinary scale and variety of human societies. Humans are more widespread and successful than any other vertebrate. Simultaneously, humans are unlike any other animal in that we cooperate in very large groups of unrelated individuals. I and my colleagues use formal evolutionary models, experiments and ethnographic fieldwork to address these puzzles.
Since my work tends to lie at the intersection of evolutionary and cultural anthropology, I sometimes do a good job of displeasing both sides!
Contact information
Office phone: 801-581-6747
Fax: 801-581-6252
Department of Anthropology
270 S. 1400 East Room 102
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0060
USA