Vivek V. Venkataraman
@vivek123.bsky.social
Biological anthropologist at the University of Calgary https://www.vivekvenkataraman.com/
I’m now @grinnellcollege.bsky.social in Anthropology where I’ll be offering a series of new courses on human #evolutionary social #science & #biologicalanthropology and launching a new lab to support student research and expand my research program. 🧪 #HBES 🌾💎 #Grinnell
Congrats to Audrey for leading the way on this new paper exploring how we can best convey genetics concepts to communities!
Audrey Arner@arneraudrey.bsky.social · 2w agoExcited to share our new paper out in AJBA, "Development and assessment of tailored illustrations to enhance community understandings of genetics topics"! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The relationship between testosterone and grip strength, an index of physical formidability, in a representative sample of US adult men (point sizes are survey weights). 🧪
Ooh nice piece here on teenage girls as 'language disruptors' and innovators. And it's not mere centuries-old, back to Shakespeare's time. It will go right back to 'The Revolutionary Origins of Language' (Knight, Lewis, forthcoming) www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
Teenage Girls Have Led Language Innovation for Centuries
They've been on the cutting edge of the English language since at least the 1500s
smithsonianmag.com
When we consider children in cultural evolution, we tend to cast them as recipients of adult culture. In our BBS target article, @sheinalew.bsky.social & I argued there's more: through 'peer cultures', children actively drive cultural adaptation. Our final paper + a rich set of responses is out now!
Children as agents of cultural adaptation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Children as agents of cultural adaptation - Volume 49
cambridge.org
In her blogpost on the paper we jointly co-authored on the significance of Man the Hunter, Haneul does a better job explaining the significance of Man the Hunter than we did in our paper on the significance of Man the Hunter (if that makes any sense!). Check it out #BioAnth 🧪
Haneul Jang@haneuljang.bsky.social · last mo.Happy to have contributed to the latest HBES newsletter on our recent paper, The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter, led by @vivek123.bsky.social I reflect on MTH through the lens of my research on Bayaka women's foraging & cooperation in the Congolese rainforest www.hbes.com/revisiting-m...
Haneul will be editing a double special issue for HGR, alongside @ceciliapad.bsky.social. The first issue will foster intergenerational dialogue and critical reflections while the second will put perspectives from local researchers in the spotlight. bsky.app/profile/hane...
Haneul Jang@haneuljang.bsky.social · 2mo ago🧵 Issue 2: Local and Hunter-Gatherer Voices We invite contributions from local researchers, Indigenous scholars, and hunter-gatherer community members to broaden perspectives in H-G research. Formats: 🌱Dialogues 🌱Collaborative Contributions 🌱Reflections rooted in local knowledge & lived experience
Wonderful blog here from Haneul which aptly expresses why so many hunter-gatherer experts, at different career stages and with very different research programmes and theoretical perspectives/commitments, felt compelled to collaborate on the Meaning of MTH paper.
Haneul Jang@haneuljang.bsky.social · last mo.Happy to have contributed to the latest HBES newsletter on our recent paper, The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter, led by @vivek123.bsky.social I reflect on MTH through the lens of my research on Bayaka women's foraging & cooperation in the Congolese rainforest www.hbes.com/revisiting-m...
Happy to have contributed to the latest HBES newsletter on our recent paper, The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter, led by @vivek123.bsky.social I reflect on MTH through the lens of my research on Bayaka women's foraging & cooperation in the Congolese rainforest www.hbes.com/revisiting-m...
Revisiting Man the Hunter - HBES
– by Haneul Jang For decades, the phrase Man the Hunter has occupied a central place in discussions of human evolution. Today, however, the phrase sounds outdated, evoking a familiar image of men hunt...
hbes.com
The ethnographic record shows that women do hunt, sometimes for big game. Does that mean that 'Man the Hunter' was a myth all along? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @vivek123.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
1. Attempted cancellations of prominent scholars as proxy wars on ideas one doesn't like: the case of Margaret Mead...and a mea culpa 🧪 #AcademicSky
This is a great episode - fascinating paper and topic, and Kensy does a good job of pushing beyond the paper for some frank discussions about things like the responsibility of scientists for how academic research is (mis)represented in the popular consciousness.
Kensy Cooperrider@kensycoop.bsky.social · 2mo agoReally enjoyed this chat with @vivek123.bsky.social! We work through the history of Man the Hunter ideas, the current status of the evidence (archaeological, ethnographic, etc.), and three splashy recent "debunkings." Also, of course, some fun detours along the way.
Really enjoyed this chat with @vivek123.bsky.social! We work through the history of Man the Hunter ideas, the current status of the evidence (archaeological, ethnographic, etc.), and three splashy recent "debunkings." Also, of course, some fun detours along the way.
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ @vivek123.bsky.social about Man the Hunter. The idea that male hunting propelled our evolution is old and contested. Yet it endures, especially in the popular imagination. Is it merely a "paleofantasy," or is there more to it? Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
Good episode
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ @vivek123.bsky.social about Man the Hunter. The idea that male hunting propelled our evolution is old and contested. Yet it endures, especially in the popular imagination. Is it merely a "paleofantasy," or is there more to it? Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
While I've seen both men and women building Hadza huts, much more often it is women (pictured). The sexual division of labour lit has zeroed in on hunting-vs-gathering; but much less is said about women's differential contributions to water-fetching, food-preparation, cooking, and house-building.
Will@evolvingmoloch.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe sexual division of labour regarding house construction shows a very consistent pattern cross-culturally: women usually construct the shelters in nomadic societies, while in sedentary societies men do it.
This podcast interview with Vivek Venkataraman (@vivek123.bsky.social) explores work coauthored by Baylor Anthropology's own @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social. Well worth a listen!
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ @vivek123.bsky.social about Man the Hunter. The idea that male hunting propelled our evolution is old and contested. Yet it endures, especially in the popular imagination. Is it merely a "paleofantasy," or is there more to it? Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
This episode focuses on a paper by @vivek123.bsky.social and colleagues, 'The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter,' available here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Commentaries on the article are available here: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter
The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with disparate meanings across communities of scholars, journalists, and the public, which has led to unnecess…
sciencedirect.com
New episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ @vivek123.bsky.social about Man the Hunter. The idea that male hunting propelled our evolution is old and contested. Yet it endures, especially in the popular imagination. Is it merely a "paleofantasy," or is there more to it? Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
The sexual division of labour regarding house construction shows a very consistent pattern cross-culturally: women usually construct the shelters in nomadic societies, while in sedentary societies men do it.
💙 Call for contributions! 💙 To mark 60 years since the Man the Hunter conference (1966), Hunter Gatherer Research is curating a two-part special issue on “Lessons and Reflections from Hunter-Gatherer Research” www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/hgr A thread on the two issues & formats👇
Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias@ceciliapad.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨NEW SPECIAL ISSUE SERIES OF HUNTER-GATHERER RESEARCH🚨Celebrating and critically reflecting on the history and methodologies of the field, co-edited by @haneuljang.bsky.social and I. More info, check the submissions page of our website: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/hgr or get in touch!
The first issue aims to curate a collection of reminiscences and interviews from senior hunter-gatherer scholars. The second will focus on local perspectives and hunter-gatherer voices, which have long been central to the production of knowledge but remain underrepresented in academic publication.
🚨NEW SPECIAL ISSUE SERIES OF HUNTER-GATHERER RESEARCH🚨Celebrating and critically reflecting on the history and methodologies of the field, co-edited by @haneuljang.bsky.social and I. More info, check the submissions page of our website: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/hgr or get in touch!
Hunter Gatherer Research Home
The journal encompasses social and cultural anthropology, applied research, archaeology, ecology, ethnography, ethnohistory, evolutionary anthropology, genetics, indigenous rights, and linguistics, and is an indispensable resource for anyone with a research or activist interest in hunter-gatherers.
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
The grandmother hypothesis is seen as the "feminist" version of human evolution, but if so it's a dark version. At its heart is the recognition that despite higher male mortality, menopause sharply restricted the pool of fertile women relative to fertile men👇 intensifying male-male competition 🧪🧵1/4
Why did many ancient civilizations believe the human body has 365 bones — one for each day of the year? My new paper in Evolution and Human Behavior explores the cognitive roots of "numerological correspondence." 👇 sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The calendar in the body: Cognition, culture, and the allure of numerological correspondence
Human cultures frequently construct “numerological correspondences”—symbolic systems where discrete quantities in one domain are believed to mirror th…
sciencedirect.com
👉Very happy to share a new preprint w/ Matteo Bedetti, forthcoming in Biology & Philosophy. We examine how evidential standards are negotiated in funerary #archaeology debates, using the Homo #naledi burial controversy as a case study in epistemological practice.🧪🏺 #evosky #philbio #philsky
Buried, or Maybe Not: Adherence to Evidential Standards in Paleoanthropology - PhilSci-Archive
philsci-archive.pitt.edu
“The foraging economy is not organized by only two types of actors, nor captured by a simple sex-by-age matrix, but by a multi-actor network of individuals whose roles are shaped by the intersection of biological parameters, accumulated embodied capital, and current time-allocation demands…”
Eric Schniter@humannature.bsky.social · 3mo agoOur new commentary is out: "More than the sum of its sexes" — on embodied capital & age-structured labor in forager economies. Big thanks to Venkataraman et al. for their excellent "Man the Hunter" piece that clarifies much. Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our new commentary is out: "More than the sum of its sexes" — on embodied capital & age-structured labor in forager economies. Big thanks to Venkataraman et al. for their excellent "Man the Hunter" piece that clarifies much. Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
More than the sum of its sexes: functional constraints, embodied capital, and age-structured labor in human forager economies
sciencedirect.com
Why do menstrual taboos--restrictions on food prep, ritual participation, and social contact--recur and persist in diverse human societies? In this new paper in Evolution and Human Behavior, I propose a new framework: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The evolutionary-cognitive foundation and cultural persistence of menstrual taboos in human societies
Menstrual prohibitions—restrictions on food preparation, sex, ritual participation, and contact with valued objects—are widespread across human societ…
sciencedirect.com
