The Human Evolutionary Studies Group is one of the two units that comprise the Crawford Laboratory for Evolutionary Studies; the other is the FAB* Lab. As its name suggests, the Human Evolutionary Studies Group focuses on the evolution of human biology and culture. The FAB* Lab covers evolution more generally. The memberships of the Human Evolutionary Studies Group and FAB* overlap but are not identical.
The Human Evolutionary Studies Group meets regularly to discuss interesting new papers that deal with the evolution of humans and our closest relatives. Sessions normally take place between 10:30am and 12pm on Thursdays in the Department of Archaeology, which is on SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus. The target papers and discussion leaders are listed below.
Occasionally, the Human Evolutionary Studies Group holds special events (e.g., talks by visiting colleagues, training workshops). Details of these events are also provided below.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 12th March 2020 – Special event
Joint Human Evolutionary Studies Group and FAB* Lab seminar.
Talk details
“The popularity spectrum applied to a cross-cultural question”
Joe Wakano
(School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, Japan)
The abstract for the talk can be found here. Information about Prof. Wakano can he found here.
Location:
TBA
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 5th March 2020
Target article
Du, A, Rowan, J., Wang, S.C., Wood, B.A., Alemseged, Z. (2020) Statistical estimates of hominin origination and extinction dates: A case study examining the Australopithecus anamensis-afarensis lineage. Journal of Human Evolution 138, 102688. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102688.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Mark Collard.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Friday 28th February 2020 – Special event
Joint Human Evolutionary Studies Group and FAB* Lab seminar.
Talk details
“Neanderthal paleobiology: new insights from recent research”
Katarina Havarti
(Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany)
Location
SFU’s Big Data Hub.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 30th January 2020
Target articles
VillaI, P., Soriano, S., Pollarolo, L., Smriglio, C., Gaeta, M., D’Orazio, M., Conforti, J., Tozzi, C. (2020) Neandertals on the beach: Use of marine resources at Grotta dei Moscerini (Latium, Italy). PLoS ONE 15, e0226690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226690.
University of Colorado at Boulder (2020) Beach-combing Neanderthals dove for shells. Phys.org 15-Jan-20. DOI: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-beach-combing-neanderthals-dove-shells.html.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Rob Rondeau.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Friday 24th January 2020 – Special event
Joint Human Evolutionary Studies Group and FAB* Lab seminar.
Talk details
“Applying simple evolutionary models of change to human culture”
Adrian Bell
(Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, USA)
Location
SFU’s Big Data Hub.
Notes
Dr. Bell has suggested the following article as background reading:
Bell, A.V.( 2013) The dynamics of culture lost and conserved: Demic migration as a force in new diaspora communities. Evolution and Human Behavior 34, 23-28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.08.002.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 23rd January 2020
Target article
Hames, R. (2019) Pacifying hunter-gatherers. Human Nature 30, 155–175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-019-09340-w.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Mark Collard.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 9th January 2020
Target article
Schulz, J.F., Bahrami-Rad, D., Beauchamp, J.P., Henrich, J. (2019) The Church, intensive kinship, and global psychological variation. Science 366, eaau5141. DOI: http://DOI: 10.1126/science.aau5141.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Arne Mooers.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 12th December 2019
Gaunt, R., Pinho, M. (2018) Do sexist mothers change more diapers? Ambivalent sexism, maternal gatekeeping, and the division of childcare. Sex Roles 79, 176-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0864-6.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Olga Vasileva.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 28th November 2019
White, R. et al. (in press) Still no archaeological evidence that Neanderthals created Iberian cave art. Journal of Human Evolution. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102640.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Jon Harding.
Location
Small meeting room, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 25th July 2019
Gjesfjeld, E. et al. (2016) Competition and extinction explain the evolution of diversity in American automobiles. Palgrave Communications 2, 16019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2016.19.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Arne Mooers.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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09:00-12:00 Thursday 27th June 2019 – Special event
Introduction to R workshop, presented Chris Carleton.
Location
Departmental Seminar Room, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 20th June 2019
Target article
Draghi, J.A., Whitlock, M.C. (2012) Phenotypic plasticity facilitates mutational variance, genetic variance, and evolvability along the major axis of environmental variation. Evolution 66, 2891-2902. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01649.x.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Olga Vasileva.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 13th June 2019
Target article
Zietsch, B., Sidari, M.J. (2019) A critique of life history approaches to human trait covariation. Unpublished manuscript. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.05.007.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Laura Dane.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 6th June 2019
Target article
Ungar, P.S. (2019) Inference of diets of early hominins from primate molar form and microwear. Journal of Dental Research 98, 398-405. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022034518822981.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Amalea Ruffett.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 30th May 2019
Target article
Gómez-Robles, A. (2019) Dental evolutionary rates and its implications for the Neanderthal–modern human divergence. Science Advances 5, eaaw1268. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1268.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Arne Mooers.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 23rd May 2019
Target article
Gonçalves, A., Carvalho, S. (in press) Death among primates: a critical review of non-human primate interactions towards their dead and dying. Biological Reviews. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12512.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Dennis Sandgathe.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 16th May 2019
Target articles
Beheim et al. (submitted) Corrected analyses show that moralizing gods precede complex societies but serious data concerns remain: In reply to “Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history.” Nature. DOI: https://10.31234/osf.io/jwa2n.
Slingerland et al. (in press) Historians respond to Whitehouse et al. (2019), “Complex Societies Precede Moralizing Gods Throughout World History.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography. DOI: https://10.31234/osf.io/2amjz.
Whitehouse et al. (2019) Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history. Nature 568, 226-228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1043-4.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Brea McCauley.
Please note that we will have a special guest this week—Prof. Ted Slingerland of the Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. Prof. Slingerland is the lead author of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography paper and one of the authors of the Beheim et al. (submitted) paper. He has kindly agreed to attend the session and give us the inside scoop.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 9th May 2019
Target articles
Chen et al. (2019) A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau. Nature 01-May-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1139-x.
Chang et al. (2015) The first archaic Homo from Taiwan. Nature Communications 6, 6037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7037.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Jon Harding.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.
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10:30-12:00 Thursday 2nd May 2019
Target article
Détroit et al. (2019) A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines. Nature 568, 181-186. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1067-9.
Discussion leader
This week’s discussion will be led by Mark Collard.
Location
Physical Anthropology Laboratory, SFU Department of Archaeology.