Announcements and News
Job Announcement
Associate Professor of Anthropology University of Missouri
University of Missouri Department of Anthropology seeks a cultural anthropologist at the Associate Professor level to contribute to our focus on evolution, adaptation and ecology. An active research program and demonstrated ability to compete for external funding required. Geographic area is open. Preference given to candidates with an evolutionary perspective whose research encompasses small-scale societies, ecological anthropology, and/or the interface between cultural and biological anthropology. Send letter of application, CV, reprint(s), and evidence of teaching ability to Search Committee (Cult.), Dept of Anth, 107 Swallow Hall, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-1440. Applications will be reviewed beginning Oct. 15 and continue until position is filled. The University of Missouri is an EOE/AA/ADA employer.
Announcement of a Conference on the Evolution of Human Aggression
The Evolution of Human Aggression: Lessons for Today’s Conflicts
The 3rd Annual Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy Forum will be held February 25 to 27, 2009 at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A..
This forum is organized around four topics that illustrate how evolutionary theory can inform our understanding of human aggression, and tendencies toward violence. Can evolutionary theory help us prevent violence? Oral presentations will be by invited speakers representing a diversity of disciplines including evolutionary psychology, biological, physical, and cultural anthropology, archeology, and primatology. The meeting will also include a contributed poster session (see call for abstracts below). All sessions will be open to the public.
Conflict and conflict resolution in great apes: This session will explore power, interpersonal violence, coalitional violence, and reconciliation in our closest primate cousins. Speakers and discussants in the session include:
Frans De Waal, who will also give the Wednesday evening keynote lecture,
Richard Wrangham,
Joan Silk and
Michael Plavcan.
Coalitionary violence and warfare: This session focuses on raiding and warfare cross-culturally. What factors (cultural and environmental) favor coalitionary violence? How can we explain behavior that may be beneficial for the group but costly for participating individuals? These and related questions will be discussed by:
Patricia Lambert,
Pauline Wiessner
Steven Pinker,
Peter Turchin,
Dominic Johnson and
Richard Wrangham.
Hormones and human dominance and aggression: Aggressive behavior is modulated by hormones. The literature shows that testosterone and its relationship to dominance and aggression is context-sensitive, affected by threat, competition, group stability, marriage, and childbearing. This session will consider how evolution has shaped these hormonal responses. Speakers and discussants in this session include:
John Archer,
Aaron Sell and
Mark Flinn.
Domestic violence: We will consider two domains of domestic violence that have received attention in the evolutionary social science literature: (1) spousal abuse, control over female sexuality, and homicide; and (2) child abuse and neglect, with special attention to economic and familial risks. Speakers and discussants in this session include:
Martin Daly,
Margo Wilson, and
Sarah Hrdy.
Call for Papers - Abstract Submission
The organizers would like to encourage all interested graduate students, post-doctoral associates, and faculty, whose work addresses human aggression from an evolutionary perspective, to submit abstracts for poster presentations. The general theme of the poster session will be the same as that of the oral presentations – can evolutionary theory inform our understanding of human aggression and help us prevent violence? Posters, however, may address additional aspects of human aggression beyond the 4 focus topics of the oral sessions. Posters will be displayed during an evening session on February 26 and will form an integral part of the meeting.
Abstract submission is now open. Abstract submission will be closing on October 24, 2008.
Abstracts for posters should be submitted by email to David Carrier (carrier@biology.utah.edu). Your abstract should be a maximum of 300 words and should begin with the abstract title, followed by the names of the authors, their institutions, and the body of the abstract. When submitting an abstract please include this information: your full name, title, institution, address, email address, and a brief statement of your research interests.
Time and space constraints may limit the number of abstracts that we are able to accept. We will notify you whether or not your abstract is accepted by October 31, 2008.
Contacts Information
Please contact the organizers if you have questions.
George Cheney - Director, Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy, and Department of Communication. Email address - george.cheney@utah.edu.
Aleta A. Tew Program Manager, Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy. Email address - aleta.tew@csbs.utah.edu.
Victoria Medina - Administrator, Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy. Email address - victoria.medina@csbs.utah.edu.
Elizabeth Cashdan – Department of Anthropology. Email address - cashdan@anthro.utah.edu.
Steve Downes – Department of Philosophy. Email address - s.downes@utah.edu.
David Carrier – Department of Biology. Email address – carrier@biology.utah.edu.
AWARDS
The EAS is pleased to announce the winners of the awards for best papers at the 2007 AAA meetings. The awardees are:
New Investigator Award:
Dan Hruschka (Postdoctoral fellow, Sante Fe Institute) for his poster entitled “Testing Models of Linguistic and Cultural History: A Likelihood Approach"
Student Paper Award:
David A. Nolin (Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, U of Washington) for his paper entitled "A Social Network Analysis of Food-sharing Behavior in Lamalera, Indonesia"