Elizabeth Cashdan Professor and Department Chair 217A Stewart 801-581-4672 Courses This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Areas of Specialization

Behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, sex differences and reproductive strategies, hormones and behavior, hunter-gatherers, sub-Saharan Africa

Research

I use the theoretical perspectives of evolutionary ecology and evolutionary psychology to understand various aspects of human behavior. My overseas fieldwork has been with hunter-gatherers in Botswana (Bushmen) and Tanzania (Hadza).

My current research is concerned with understanding the proximate (hormonal) correlates and adaptive significance of sex differences in competition, aggression, and spatial cognition. I recently completed a small exploratory study of sex differences in spatial ability among Hadza foragers; future work with the Hadza will attempt to understand the navigational challenges that may shape these differences. I am also beginning a study of the adaptive significance and proximate determinants of variation in waist-to-hip ratio in women. Previous research in which I am not currently active focused on regional patterns of mobility, territorial organization, and ethnicity, and food learning and food aversions in children.

Selected Publications

Books

1990 Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies. Westview Press.

Journal Articles

2003 Hormones and competitive aggression in women. Aggressive Behavior 29(2):107-115.

2001 Ethnic diversity and its environmental determinants: Effects of climate, pathogens, and habitat diversity. American Anthropologist 103:968-991. Reviewed in TREE as All people who on Earth do dwell.

2001 Ethnocentrism and xenophobia: A cross-cultural study. Current Anthropology 42(5):760-765.

1998 Adaptiveness of food learning and food aversions in children. Social Science Information 37(34).

1998 Are men more competitive than women? British Journal of Social Psychology 34:213-229.

1998 Smiles, speech, and body posture: How women and men display sociometric status and power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.

1996 Women's mating strategies. Evolutionary Anthropology 5:134-143.

1995 Hormones, Sex, and Status in Women.. Hormones and Behavior 29:354-366.

1994 A sensitive period for learning about food. Human Nature 5:279-291.

1993 Attracting mates: Effects of paternal investment on mate attraction stragies. Ethology and Sociobiology 14:1-24.

1988 Technological change and child behavior among the !Kung (with P. Draper). Ethnology 27:339-365.

1987 Trade and its origins on the Botletli River, Botswana. Journal of Anthropological Research 43:121-138.

1986 Competition between foragers and food producers on the Botletli River, Botswana. Africa 56:299-317.

1985 Natural fertility, birth spacing, and the 'First Demographic Transition.' American Anthropologist 87:650-653.

1985 Coping with risk: Reciprocity among the Basarwa of Northern Botswana. Man (New Series) 20(3):454-474.

1983 Territoriality among human foragers: Ecological models and an application to four Bushman groups. Current Anthropology 24(1):47-66.