Michael Gurven

Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.

I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congrats to @amy-anderson.bsky.social for leading this project from start to finish. Was fun to work at the intersection of bioarchaeology, human biology and epidemiology!

Childhood skeletal lesions common in prehistory are present in living forager-farmers and predict adult markers of immune function Skeletal indicators of childhood stress are associated with cellular indicators of compromised immune function in adults.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Clinically ignored, archaeologically common. Are these holes in the head a thing of the past?

So glad to finally have this award winning research (@paleopathology.bsky.social ) out -- cribra orbitalia and its relationship to health in living Tsimane adults.

Seven Decades An anthropologist uncovers new evidence for the evolutionary origins of human longevity—and explains why growing old is an opportunity, not a burden

Your next Fall read, my new book: SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER

Longevity is shaped by our evolutionary past—imagine aging as opportunity rather than burden.

Out Sept 16, preorder w/ code PUP30 for 30% discount: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

@princetonupress.bsky.social

Hot and Bothered at Work: The "Menopause Penalty” New research shows an earnings dip during menopause

“researchers found a 10% drop in earnings 4 years after a menopause diagnosis — due to both reduced hours & women leaving the workforce altogether. Women were also more likely to start disability benefits after a diagnoses. Notably, this impact was concentrated among women without a college degree”

“You are Married by the Woman”: Divergent Understandings of Men’s Support for Women’s Empowerment in Northwestern Tanzania - Joseph A. Kilgallen, Alexander M. Ishungisa, Pius Charles, Theresia Marco C... Engaging men in women’s empowerment is a global priority, yet there is still limited understanding of how men’s support for women’s empowerment is conceptualize...

🚨 New Paper Alert! 🚨

“You Are Married by the Woman” explores how men’s support for women’s empowerment is understood in a fast-urbanizing Tanzanian community.

If you're interested in gender, masculinity, and social change, check it out!

Canada Research Chair - Indigenous Health and Well-Being

Job available for Full Professor Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) - Indigenous Health and Well-Being at the Faculty of Health Science, Simon Fraser University (RT 🙏🏼 please):

www.sfu.ca/vpacademic/a...

Upon learning that yesterday would be my last day as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, I shared this parting message with my colleagues. The next few months will be frenetic and stressful for them. Here are some things that you can do to help them with the mission ahead. (1)

Photo of Darwin with the quotation “I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything”

A relatable icon. #DarwinDay

Men Are More Prepared for Fatherhood Than We Think — Scientific American In many cultures, men are not involved with hands-on childcare. But biology tells us we are perfectly capable of doing so Biology I like to tell my undergraduates that hormones predispose organisms, i...

Time for fatherhood, courtesy of James Rilling and his new book. #fatherhood #testosterone #oxytocin #dad apple.news/ALmCPtGhtTb2...

Well-being trajectories of older adults look different in absence of retirement, institutionalized income & social security.

For source paper, see: tinyurl.com/3u5cc5nv

I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:🧵

I wrote the latest cover story for The Atlantic. It's about the far-ranging implications of one simple statistic: Americans have never spent so much time alone, and surging solitude is warping our society.

I'm really proud of it, and I hope you read it.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A capuchin monkey standing on the ground in a lush tropical forest with her head partially turned and looking upwards. There is a juvenile capuchin investigating a stick in the background.

🚨Field research position alert: spread the word!🚨 Join our team in studying the behavior, health, and ecology of wild capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica 🇨🇷🐒🌴

See full position description: groups.google.com/a/g-groups.w...

Learn more about the Santa Rosa Primate Project: www.santarosaprimates.org

A stacked bar graph showing proportions of different classes of kin who have contributed different forms of help to Tsimane youth with older generation blood kin help most represented.

New paper out with insights into kinship, alloparenting, and cooperative breeding! 🧪
Older, closely related kin more often provide costly aid to young Tsimane, while unrelated alloparents provide older youth lower-cost - possible investment in future reciprocal relationships.

UZH: PhD position in evolutionary anthropology and medicine The Human Ecology Group of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (IEM) Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, led by Prof. Adrian Jaeggi, is inviting applications from prospe...

🚨 JOB ALERT!! We're looking for a PhD student to join our group! Are you interested in evolutionary medicine / anthropology? Already have a master's? Apply with your own project ideas! See link: jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie... #EvMed @bioanth.org @ehbea.bsky.social Please RT!

Can you please add me?

Today is #GivingTuesday
Please consider donating to the OnePencil project to help fund water wells in rural Namibian schools and scholarships for Tsimane students. This is a really great org. See link below:

One Pencil Project: Onward and Upward 2024 | One Pencil Project (Powered by Donorbox) Join us, to help indigenous students in the Amazon and southern Africa get the education they need to thrive and to lead their communities, as the climate crisis and other threats to their sovereignty...

On this #GivingTuesday, please consider our Onward & Upward initiative. We're dedicated to empowering indigenous learners in the Amazon & southern Africa by providing the essential educational resources they require to prosper and guide their communities.

"Old individuals make important contributions to reproduction, cultural transmission, trophic dynamics & resilience to disturbance. This contrasts with the senescence-focused paradigm of old age that has dominated the literature yet is consistent with behavioral ecology & life-history theory"

My team's latest,
"Sharpening causal reasoning in applied ethnographic research"
#causality
doi.org/10.1080/0018...

Assistant/Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology/Anthropology of Health University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!

🎉IAS is recruiting🎉

UCSB Integrative Anth Sciences is hiring a tenure-track evo anthropologist (assist/assoc prof):

Apply by 1/06/25
To apply: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02866

Please retweet!

Estimate: Assist:$95,000-$135,000 & Assoc:$120,000-$180,000. UCSB is an AA/EOE, including disability/vets.

A new Bluesky starter pack listing biological anthropologists. Let me know if you want to be added go.bsky.app/CnJLf95

GreatAdaptations: Evidence of animal intelligence

Can you please add me?

📢 Please repost 📢

Applications for the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences (May 26 - Jun 20 2025) are now open.

Brochure and more info: www.tse-fr.eu/sites/defaul...

Application form (deadline, Dec 15 2024): www.tse-fr.eu/toulouse-sum...

Can you please add me too?

Maybe for continuously running project by a single team, but others have longer total temporal coverage, like the Hadza team (from Woodburn to Blurton Jones, to Marlowe, Wood, Crittenden)

Congrats, well-deserved!

I never knew that! Dead Milkmen was one of my first concerts I went to. Great Philly band.