News

Pizza Talk: Steve Gaulin -Good Fat / Bad Fat 2.0: A worsening dietary mismatch with dramatic effects on cognitive function

Abstract:  Rapid environmental change can cause adaptive mismatch and dietary mismatches may explain some chronic disease patterns in Westernized populations.  Current dietary imbalances of neurologically important omega-3 and omega-6 fats are evolutionary novel and predicted to compromise brain function. We use nations as the units of analysis, the fatty acid profile of human milk as an index of omega-3/omega-6 supply (after metabolic competition between them), and average PISA performance  (three tests over the two most recent administrations) as a measure of cognitive performance. With both milk and PISA data available for 28 countries, DHA (the most neurologically important omega-3) and linoleic acid (the most abundant and hence competitive omega-6) jointly explain 48% of the variance in cognitive performance. No additional variance is explained by important socio-economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product and per-student expenditures on public education. Causes and possible solutions to this dietary mismatch will be discussed.

Professor Gaulin is a biological anthropologist with special interests in the force of sexual selection in human evolution and in evolution of psychological mechanisms.  He has several current research initiatives: the evolution of female fat metabolism and associated male mating preferences; sex differences in the human voice; sex differences in spatial cognition; and the role of immune factors in human mating.

Department Potluck & New Grad Student Welcome

Join us for our annual Department Potluck Picnic and meet the new Graduate Students. Catch up with colleagues. Swap summer field season stories. Enjoy good food and great company!

Hormones in the Crosshairs

UCSB anthropologists find that among Tsimane men, successful hunting boosts testosterone and cortisol levels.

Brian Wood - Mutualism and Manipulation in Hadza-Honeyguide Interactions

Speaker: Brian Wood, Yale

Mutualism and Manipulation in Hadza-Honeyguide Interactions
Friday, May 23, 2014, 4:00pm, TD 1701
Reception to follow at 5:00pm in HSSB 2024

When foraging for wild honey, Hadza hunter-gatherers of northern Tanzania are often helped by the Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator), a bird that flies ahead of them, leading them to nests of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. In this talk, I will describe research into the ecology and evolution of this interspecific cooperation. I will describe how Hadza and honeyguides interact, test whether honeyguides change the Hadza's efficiency at finding honey, estimate the fraction of the Hadza's diet that is acquired with honeyguides' help, and examine how and why the Hadza manipulate honeyguides. Finally, I will discuss the evolution of this relationship and the importance of honey in human evolution.

Dr. Brian Wood, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Yale University

Dr. Wood’s research focuses on basic social and economic problems that arise from life as a hunter-gatherer. His ongoing research with Hadza hunter-gatherers of northern Tanzania investigates the demographic, ecological, and social processes that guide Hadza in their choices of who they live with, how they acquire and share foods, and the consequences of different residential arrangements.Wood received his B.A. in Anthropology from UC Davis and an M.S. in Computer Science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He then received A.M and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology from Harvard University. Prior to his position at Yale, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ecological Anthropology at Stanford University.

"Treasure Island" Archaeology

Prof. Lynn Gamble and Santa Cruz Island archaeological research featured in UCSB Current

Dueling Infections: Researchers find parasitic worms limit the effects of giardia, and vice versa.

UCSB Anthropologists publish findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Tsimane Bolivian Flood Relief Fund

Recent severe flooding in Bolivia has left hundreds displaced, including the indigenous Tsimane. A group of researchers and doctors working with them have set up an independent fund to help them. See full article for link to external fundraising site.

The Evolutionary Benefit of Human Personality Traits

UCSB Anthropologist's findings appear online in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.