Duncan Stibbard Hawkes's Avatar

Duncan Stibbard Hawkes

@dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social

Anthropologist interested in hunter-gatherer egalitarianism | Asst Prof @BaylorAnthro.bsky.social | Editor-in-Chief, Hunter-Gatherer Research | Spelling errors my own

2,312 Followers  |  1,221 Following  |  1,275 Posts  |  Joined: 03.07.2023
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Posts by Duncan Stibbard Hawkes (@dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social)

Certainly this will standardise our language and revolutionise our science - but have lego considered what this might do to our systems of government?

09.03.2026 01:48 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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(PDF) First recorded use of cage traps by the Tanzanian Hadza: A case of cross-cultural transmission PDF | While hunting is a critical subsistence strategy for the Tanzanian Hadza, reports of trapping have traditionally been minimal. Snare trapping of... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...

Hey Deniz. Congratulations on the paper ☺️. You can share it online using LUPs generous green open access postprint policy. Details on the LUP website.

www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/pages/open-a...

And an example of how to do it here:

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

09.03.2026 17:09 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Plant knowledge among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers: Implications for cultural evolution: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 0, No 0 Plants have long been central to human life, from early hominins to contemporary hunter-gatherers and industrialised societies. In many communities, they remain a primary source of treatment alongside or in place of Western medicine. Beyond healing, ...

New paper out! Using data from 219 BaYaka HGs and 33 plant species, I find that plants used by more people tend to show stronger agreement on their main function. Drop me an email if you don't have access to the paper and would like a PDF copy.
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

09.03.2026 12:54 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Certainly this will standardise our language and revolutionise our science - but have lego considered what this might do to our systems of government?

09.03.2026 01:48 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The basic tools of military action are things that would be horrorific crimes in civilian life. A war crime is an act so egregious that it stands out against that background. Somehow we never have that conversation honestly before we go to war.

08.03.2026 13:57 β€” πŸ‘ 166    πŸ” 33    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image 08.03.2026 01:39 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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a man in a suit and tie is drinking from a blue mug that says good on it ALT: a man in a suit and tie is drinking from a blue mug that says good on it
06.03.2026 19:18 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Ack, but what if I only believed I had the Power to Defeat. Defeated by my own defeater!

06.03.2026 19:14 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

My close friends and family *are not ready* to have their mental states defeated by my Newly Acquired Power To Defeat.

06.03.2026 19:11 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Muttering "I am become death destroyer of worlds" as I copy "Rebutting, Undercutting, and No Reason Defeaters" onto an Anki flash card.

06.03.2026 19:08 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I LOVE when science is applied to "toddler questions" like "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why is ice slippery?"

Because the answers can be so SUPRISING.

Let's dig into recent revelations about how ice skates work & why tires skid across black ice.

First, we'll dismiss 3 VERY GOOD hypotheses as wrong.

20.02.2026 13:35 β€” πŸ‘ 176    πŸ” 67    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 5

πŸ§ͺ🀩Have a look at our new preprint using an agent-based model to explore the issue of how, whether and when can one infer social dynamics from archaeological assemblages🀩πŸ§ͺ

05.03.2026 11:17 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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I think that image might appear in anthropology slides more often than even the Darwin phylogeny drawing

05.03.2026 21:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
A digital CAPTCHA verification window titled "Select all squares with PIPES" against a plain white background. The window contains a 3Γ—3 grid of numbered squares, mixing literal hardware, smoking pipes, and programming syntax.

A digital CAPTCHA verification window titled "Select all squares with PIPES" against a plain white background. The window contains a 3Γ—3 grid of numbered squares, mixing literal hardware, smoking pipes, and programming syntax.

These captchas just keep getting harder #rstats

05.03.2026 15:58 β€” πŸ‘ 617    πŸ” 140    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 2

It sucks but I suppose we just have to suck it up 😬

05.03.2026 20:26 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Certain parts of this course have obviously left a more enduring impression than have others.

05.03.2026 20:20 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Questioning some key career decisions made by my younger self as I tap out this sentence.

05.03.2026 20:14 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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Looking forward to Jamie Tehrani's guest lecture in my cultural analytics course, open to everybody. If you are in Trento and want to know more about cultural evolution, that is a great opportunity! eventi.unitn.it/en/origins-s...

05.03.2026 08:32 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Please join us next Thursday, 12th March at 13:00, for our next talk of the semester, given by Dr VΓ‘clav Hrnčíř!

If you would like to attend, please register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e289a4...

More details below πŸ‘‡

We hope to see you there!

05.03.2026 14:29 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Really nice write-up in @psypost.bsky.social about the recent study with @kris-smith.bsky.social.

Of course, there is *also* regular generosity, but like Woodburn and (most) others I believe that active demands and negotiations do the heavy lifting.

04.03.2026 21:49 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

I'm not so sure that "equity is achieved through bargaining" necessarily conflicts with what many on that side of the political spectrum are saying - but our work does challenge the tendency to idealize.

04.03.2026 23:05 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Interlibrary loan is a great resource for getting you hands on old, out-of-print books. Our library gets us (scanned) copies of quite obscure papers in edited volumes in a very timely way.

04.03.2026 22:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I can't see a good midterm solution to this which doesn't involve shadowlibraries like libgen and anna's archive; but in 40ish years when the copyright expires on some of these 80s texts, there will be a bounty of hunter-gatherer information previously locked away.

04.03.2026 23:03 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I'm lucky enough to be able to throw some of my startup at old books, but thanks for drawing my attention to this - which I shall no doubt use in time.

The bigger metascientific problem is that any friction makes work less represented general citation networks and the general academic consciousness

04.03.2026 23:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Really nice write-up in @psypost.bsky.social about the recent study with @kris-smith.bsky.social.

Of course, there is *also* regular generosity, but like Woodburn and (most) others I believe that active demands and negotiations do the heavy lifting.

04.03.2026 21:49 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

One of the best in our small discipline. Gently encouraging @vivek123.bsky.social to use LUP's post-print policy to share the recent interview we ran with Bob in HGR in advance of this talk.

www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

04.03.2026 21:19 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I don't think anything has hurt Kalahari ethnography (and Hunter-Gatherer Research broadly) quite so much as its reliance on printed volumes. There's so much extremely important work which is locked in special interest, out-of-print volumes from the 80s that are $100+ on amazon.

04.03.2026 21:16 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Alex has been cooking as well. What are we doing?

04.03.2026 20:43 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The annoying truth is that we are still in the early adopter phase. I think there's enough momentum here soon that normies will take notice but people are hideously technologically conservative by nature and there's absurd institutional inertia.

03.03.2026 22:07 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If the current trajectory continues I seems bsky will become a (if not the) dominant research sharing AND public engagement platform. But right now it is only the former. So, a lack of foresight, though I expect that to change as they see the writing on the wall.

03.03.2026 22:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0