Evolutionary Anthropology

Evolutionary anthropologists employ a scientific approach to studying the nature, evolutionary causes, and scientific and social implications of human biological variation, including human evolutionary ecology, primate behavior and evolution, genetics, human biology, bioarchaeology, and forensic anthropology. Our faculty have a wide range of knowledge and experience in areas such as small-scale forager and horticultural societies, tropical conservation and resource usage, human social status competition, skeletal biology and human prehistory, non-human primate social behavior, paleontology, biogeography, physical and behavioral evolution of Neanderthals and other early humans, human genetic on local and global, and the relationship between biology, language and culture. Our department started the Comparative HuMan and Primate Physiology (CHmPP) Center in 2008, which enables a broader scope for research on health and the human condition. Our researchers investigate how health and behavior have been shaped by our evolutionary past, and how they are influenced by the environments in which we live. Additionally, evolutionary anthropologists at UNM work closely with the Center for Stable Isotopes to understand environmental and behavioral change over time in human societies through material analysis.

 UNM Evolutionary Anthropology Faculty research interests include:

• the behavioral ecology of small scale forager and horticultural societies in South America and Africa
• tropical conservation and local resource usage patterns
• human status competition in stratified social systems
• skeletal biology and human prehistory in the Americas non-human primate social behavior and paleontology and biogeography in India and Africa
• the physical and behavioral evolution of Neanderthals and other early humans
• human genetic diversity in the Americas
• the relationship between biology, language and culture