Evolutionary ecology of social behavior and health outcomes

We study how ecological conditions affect social behavior, especially cooperation, using detailed empirical field work with the Indigenous Tsimane' people of lowland Bolivia. The Tsimane' pursue a relatively traditional subsistence lifestyle, experiencing high pathogen loads, high fertility, and caloric limitations, and daily cooperation within extended family network that loosely cluster into small communities. This lifestyle arguably better resembles the environments experienced for much of human evolutionary history, compared to Western, industrialized settings; at the same time, many Tsimane’ are transitioning to a more Westernized lifestyle, engaging in cash cropping or wage labor, and gaining access to modern medicine, electricity, and other amenities. This variation allows us to highlight broad contrasts with industrialized societies, as well as to study the influence of socio-ecological conditions on social behavior and other outcomes. 

• Martin JS, Beheim B, Gurven M, Kaplan H, Stieglitz J, Trumble BC, Hooper P, Cummings D, Eid Rodriguez D, Jaeggi AV (2025) Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society. Science Advances 11:eads3129
• Jaeggi AV, Blackwell AD, von Rueden C, Trumble BC, Stieglitz J, Garcia AR, Kraft TS, Beheim BA, Hooper PL, Kaplan H, Gurven M. (2021). Do wealth and inequality associate with health in a small-scale subsistence society? eLife 10:e59437
• Jaeggi AV, Hooper PL, Beheim BA, Kaplan H, Gurven M (2016) Reciprocal exchange patterned by market forces helps explain cooperation in a small-scale society. Current Biology 26:2180-2187
• Gurven M, Jaeggi AV, von Rueden C, Hooper PL, Kaplan H (2015) Does market integration buffer risk, increase inequality, and erode traditional sharing practices? Evidence from Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists. Human Ecology 43:515530
• Gurven M, Jaeggi AV, Kaplan HS, Cummings D (2013). Physical activity and modernization among Bolivian Amerindians. PLOS One 8:e55679