Abstract
Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. This integrative and pluralistic field, combining ethnographic, demographic, and sociological methods, has provided new insights into the ultimate forces and proximate pathways that guide human adaptation and variation. Here, we present the argument that evolutionary anthropological studies of human behavior also hold great, largely untapped, potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and public health policy. Focusing on the key anthropological themes of reproduction, production, and distribution we highlight classic and recent research demonstrating the value of an evolutionary perspective to improving human well-being. The challenge now comes in transforming relevance into action and, for that, evolutionary behavioral anthropologists will need to forge deeper connections with other applied social scientists and policy-makers. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution.
Highlights
Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity
Anthropologists focus on important social issues affecting communities across a changing world, such as building resilience to climate change,[5] urbanization,[6] sustainable public health,[7] and food and water security.[8]
We highlight the work of a growing number of researchers applying an evolutionary anthropological perspective to topics that are relevant to contemporary social and public health policy.[9,10]
Summary
Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution While much of social science deals with proximatelevel explanations, most evolutionary anthropologists are interested in whether behavior can be understood in terms of maximizing inclusive fitness or proxies for fitness, such as reproductive success, social status, or energetic return. We primarily draw on the tradition of human behavioral ecology, the subfield of evolutionary behavioral science most closely associated with both anthropology and studies of animal behavior.[11,13] We conclude by addressing the challenges and opportunities of applying evolutionary anthropology, along with our own reflections on future research priorities
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