Human Behavioral Ecology

‘This is a fantastic book and the best yet on HBE. The authors are standard bearers and the new leaders in the field.’ Keith Prufer, University of New Mexico, Main Campus‘A blend of epistemological humility and an omnivorous taste for the best tools from any field one encounters distinguishes both the field and this excellent edited volume. Each of the 17 chapters is a rich examination of an aspect of behavior, probed with a variety of methods and tools, extracting sense from the noise, uncertainty, and compelling variety that inheres to human behavior, but without pushing for trite simplicity. For me, this book offers recipes one might wish to try in approaching new questions, new environments, or new populations.’ Robert C. Brooks, The Quarterly Review of Biology‘A blend of epistemological humility and an omnivorous taste for the best tools from any field one encounters distinguishes both the field and this excellent edited volume. Each of the 17 chapters is a rich examination of an aspect of behavior, probed with a variety of methods and tools, extracting sense from the noise, uncertainty, and compelling variety that inheres to human behavior, but without pushing for trite simplicity. For me, this book offers recipes one might wish to try in approaching new questions, new environments, or new populations.’ Robert C. Brooks, The Quarterly Review of Biology

Jeremy Koster is an external faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He conducts research among indigenous Nicaraguans and co-directs a collaborative project that examines the social determinants of wealth inequality. His interdisciplinary work on the behavior and demography of domestic dogs helps to advance understandings of the mechanisms for artificial selection.

Brooke Scelza is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-director of the Kunene Rural Health and Demography Project in Namibia, where she has been working with Himba pastoralists since 2010 to study family dynamics and reproductive decision-making. She is a former president of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society.

Mary K. Shenk is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Demography and Asian Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on marriage, parental investment, and fertility in South Asia where she has conducted fieldwork since 2001. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and former President of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society.