#254 Michael Gurven: Division of Labor, Polygyny, and Personality Across Societies
RECORDED ON SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2019.
Dr. Michael Gurven is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, chair of the Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit, and also head of the Evolutionary Anthropology and Biodemography Research Group. He is an evolutionary anthropologist aiming to explain behavior and physiological systems as adaptive solutions to competing demands of limited resource allocation. He employs ethnographic field settings as laboratories for testing hypotheses about human variation in behavior, psychology and physiology. Currently his research focuses on two broad, inter-related areas: biodemography of human health, lifespan and aging; and transitions in social and economic behavior.
In this episode, we first talk about limited resource allocation, and how people have to make trade-offs when investing their material and time resources. Then we discuss how we can use economic games to study human behavior. We talk about marriage and the sexual division of labor, and also mate preferences. We also cover a recent study about the relationship between wealth inequality and polygyny. Finally, we discuss human personality, the problems with the apparent lack of universality of the Big Five, and the niche diversity hypothesis of personality.
Time Links:
Trade-offs people make while deciding where and how to allocate their recourses
Using economic games to study human behavior
A Bargaining Approach to Marriage and the Sexual Division of Labor
Division of labor and mate preferences
Wealth inequality and polygyny
Studying personality cross-culturally, the limitations of the Big Five, and the niche diversity hypothesis
Follow Dr. Gurven’s work!
Follow Dr. Gurven’s work:
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2ML5OON
Evolutionary Anthropology and Biodemography Research Group: http://bit.ly/2ksaZXb
ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2lWH8GW
Relevant papers:
“Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies: http://bit.ly/2lzNiwA
A bargaining approach to marriage and the sexual division of labor: http://bit.ly/2lxz4ft
Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model: http://bit.ly/2lAcOBy
How Universal Is the Big Five? Testing the Five-Factor Model of Personality Variation Among Forager-Farmers in the Bolivian Amazon: http://bit.ly/2k29n6u
Niche Diversity Can Explain Cross-Cultural Differences in Personality Structure: http://bit.ly/2lYEwZf