Institutions are key in human societies, but their evolution remains unclear: do people involved in them act in their own interest or do they conform to group behaviour? Religious celibacy constitutes an especially puzzling institution, long deemed to be maladaptive. Here we show that, in an agropastoralist population in western China, men whose brother is a Buddhist monk have more children and men with a monk son have more grandchildren, suggesting that the practice is adaptive. We develop a mathematical model showing the evolutionary rationale behind this result. Reproductive interests shape the adoption of this institution – and likely many others.
New paper in Proceedings B with colleagues at University College London, UK, and Lanzhou University, China. Read it here.
Institutions are key in human societies, but their evolution remains unclear: do people involved in them act in their own interest or do they conform to group behaviour? Religious celibacy constitutes an especially puzzling institution, long deemed to be maladaptive. Here we show that, in an agropastoralist population in western China, men whose brother is a Buddhist monk have more children and men with a monk son have more grandchildren, suggesting that the practice is adaptive. We develop a mathematical model showing the evolutionary rationale behind this result. Reproductive interests shape the adoption of this institution – and likely many others. The term cultural evolution has gained prominence in the evolutionary human science. But what does it mean? Clarifying this can help the field move forward. Read this opinion paper with Eva Brandl and Ruth Mace here.
New paper - How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic12/10/2020
With colleagues at UCL & Lanzhou University, I wrote a paper exploring how understanding the evolutionary basis of our behaviour can help us respond to this pandemic. We cover compliance, social distancing, domestic violence, contact tracing, misinformation and, lastly, international cooperation ― the section I took the lead on writing. See paper here.
First day as an ERC Research Fellow in Evolutionary Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University College London: I'm extremely excited to join the Human Evolutionary Ecology Group headed by Prof Ruth Mace and I'm looking forward new collaborations.
I wrote a short commentary to an excellent paper reviewing Cultural Group Selection theory. I highlighted the need to separate the effects of Cultural Selection 1 and Cultural Selection 2 and highlighted the need to develop tools to model the former. See paper here!
PhD awarded -- the end of a truly enriching and rewarding journey! Thanks to all that have helped me along the way, from my supervisors, to fellow PhD students, to my parents at home and all my friends in St Andrews & beyond!
|
Archives
June 2022
|