AAGS Past Events

2006 - 2007 Guest Speakers

Thursday, October 19th, 4 PM, 146 Straub

Ian Penton-Voak

University of Bristol

"Evidence for 'special design' in human face preference"

Abstract: Can biological models of mate choice be applied to women's preferences for male faces? Research in evolutionary biology has generated robust theories of sexual selection. I'll present a review of my work trying to apply these theories to women's judgements of male facial attractiveness. I'll be paying particular attention to variation in preferences within individuals, between  individuals, and between populations.  Secondly, I'll discuss these findings in the context of what I perceive to be the  strongest criticism of the evolutionary psychology approach: namely that 'mere consistency' with adaptationist hypotheses is accepted as evidence in support of a given theory. Just how good is the evidence that our preferences for faces represent psychological adaptation rather than some other process?"

Professor Penton-Voak and his collaborators use computer graphics and "morphing" software to reveal the features that characterize "attractive" faces and how judgments about attractiveness vary across cultures (e.g. is there a 'universal' standard of beauty?) and with hormonal status.  He has found, for example, that women express preferences for male faces that have been masculinized and that women's preferences change across their menstrual cycles.

Professor Penton-Voak will also participate in a 'brown-bag' discussion of his work starting at 1 PM on Friday, October 20th, in 143 Straub. All are welcome.

 

 

2005 - 2006 Guest Speakers

 

Friday, April 14, 2006, 4 pm, MacKenzie 240A.

Bruce Winterhalder, University of California, Davis

"Impediments to the Origins of Agriculture as a Source of Insights about Prehistoric Economics"

In his lecture, Dr. Winterhalder examines the costs of the transition from a foraging economy to agriculture from the theoretical perspective of behavioral ecology. He is a professor in Anthropology at UC Davis, and heads the Graduate Group in Ecology, Human Ecology Area of Interest. He is an ecological anthropologist, trained at Cornell University in anthropology and in human evolutionary, population and ecosystem ecology. He works with the behavioral ecology of hunter-gatherers while also pursuing multidisciplinary research on agroecosystems in highland Peru. This two-part focus has one eye on models and foragers, the other on field research with smallholder agriculturalist/miners. Dr. Winterhalder's areas of expertise include behavioral and evolutionary ecology, cultural ecology, hunter-gatherers (sub-arctic Canada), agriculturalists/pastoralists (central Andes, Peru), and models of human adaptive processes.

 

 

Friday, April 21, 2006, 5:30 p.m. in 175 Knight Law Center

Donald Grayson, University of Washington

“Sloth's, Pikas and Peccaries: Ice Age Extinctions in the Great Basin ”

Donald Grayson, UO alumnus and University of Washington professor of anthropology, shares his knowledge about Ice Age extinctions in the Great Basin region of Oregon 's High Desert.  Reception follows at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

 
Sponsored by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences, and the Association of Anthropology Graduate Students

 

 

 

Monday,  May 15th, 2006, 4 PM, Gerlinger Lounge

Augustin Fuentes, University of Notre Dame

"It is NOT all sex and violence: Integrated anthropological perspectives on cooperation and social complexity in humans"

Social scientists, especially anthropologists, have long endeavored to understand the evolution of “human nature.” This investigation frequently focuses on the relative importance of competition versus cooperation in human evolutionary trajectories and usually results in a primary emphasis on competition, aggression, and even war in attempting to understand humanity. This perspective conflicts with long-standing perspectives in anthropology and some emerging trends and theory in evolutionary biology and ecology. Cooperation and competition are not mutually exclusive in an evolutionary context. As anthropologists, we have demonstrated that humans can—and usually do—get along. Evolution is complex with multiple processes and patterns, not all of which involve competition and conflict. In this presentation, I summarize elements of modern evolutionary theory and human evolution in the context of human cooperative patterns in an attempt to illustrate the valuable role of an integrative anthropological approach to the human condition.
 

Other events with Dr. Fuentes:

Monday May 15th at 1 PM - 2 PM in Condon 313: Informal visit with interested faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students.

Tuesday May 16th at Noon - 1:30 PM in Straub 256: Brown-bag discussion with ICDS and the Evolution Focus Group
 

 

 2005-2006 Colloquium Series

 

Friday, October 14th, 2005, at 4pm, in Condon 260.

Diane Teeman

"Considerations of the Role of Ethics in Anthropology."
 
 
 
Friday, November 11th, 2005, 4pm, Condon 260
 Chris O'Bryan
"Colliding Perceptions of the Burqa"
 
When the Taliban took over the Afghan government in 1996, they required women to veil themselves from head to toe in blue, shuttlecock-shaped garments called burqas.  The burqa came to symbolize Afghan women, Afghans in general, and Islam to Americans. It also came to symbolize Taliban repression of women.  In this presentation, I will situate Taliban policies toward women in terms of historical and cultural trajectories that preceded them.  I will also explore some of the colliding perspectives that emerged in response to those policies. Roles of veiling in Afghanistan and Islam will be discussed, along with views of some Afghan women during the Taliban government.  Also examined are American television representations of Afghan women.
 
 
Friday, February 3rd, 2006, 4pm, 125 Chiles  
Dr. Lynn Stephen
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology
 
"Reconceptualizing Latin America: Anthropologies of the Americas" 
 
Friday, February 17th, 2006, 4pm, 125 Chiles
Emily Henderson
"Show Me Your Teeth and I'll Tell You Who You Are: Inferring Life History from Dental Eruption Sequences"
 
Teeth offer many clues about the diet, life cycle, development and phylogeny of animals. Getting at such information in the fossil record is a very valuable tool. Many methods have been proposed to accomplish this goal including comparison of dental eruption sequences. Dental eruption sequences are thought to reflect phylogeny, behavior and life history. Platyrrhine dental eruption sequences are discussed as a case study of the relationship between life history variables and dental development. Studies in dental eruption have broad applicability in the fields of zoology, paleontology and paleoanthropology.
 
 
Friday, March 3rd, 2006, 4pm
Open house at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History
This year the AAGS Colloquium Series has taken us to new and exciting venues.  The Fall challenged the 3rd floor hegemony by making Condon 260 the locus of discourse.  Winter term denaturalized the imbrication of "anthropology" and "Condon Hall" altogether with the decentered Chiles 125 subject positioning.  Where do our nomadic ideologies lead us next? All the way over to the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, for an open house hosted by our own Dr. Jon M. Erlandson, MNCH's newly appointed director! The Museum has recently been remodeled with new interpretive displays relating the natural history and anthropology of Oregon, and through collections and research divisions continues to advance the broader public knowledge of Oregon's past. Please join us Friday at 4pm to learn about the MNCH mission, the resources it offers to anthropologists and the public, and to engage each other in an open-ended discourse on role of musuems in anthropology (dust off your Garcia-Canclini). This is a great opportunity to visit the MNCH for the first time if you've never been!
 
 
Friday March 17th (St. Patricks Day) 2006, 4pm, Chiles 125
Danielle Robinson

"BORDER STORIES: Memories, Moralities, and the Human Rights of Undocumented Mexican Migrants."

A talk by Danielle Robinson on historical and contemporary issues concerning the U.S./Mexico border, and the use of subject narratives as a way to call attention to the human rights dimension of undocumented migration.

 

 

Friday, April 28th, 2006, 4pm

Dr. Anne Millhollen
"Food Resources and Border Defense by Lemur catta"
 
This talk traces how Dr. Millhollen’s research evolved from an initial focus on ringtailed lemur territorial border defense to looking at the influences of food resources on the positions of those borders to looking at the forest as a complex ecosystem that may be in decline.  The lemurs buffer risk in the highly unpredictable Madagascar environment by defending a high quality range, selecting food of higher nutritional content, and having the flexibility to forage outside their territory when needed.  That flexibility may be crucial to their survival.
 
 
Friday, May 12th, 2006, 4pm, Condon 260
Dr. Dennis L. Jenkins
 
Director Northern Great Basin Prehistory Project
Senior Research Associate Museum of Natural and Cultural History
 
"New Evidence for Late Pleistocene Human Occupations in the Northern Great Basin: UO Archaeological Field School Investigations at the Paisley Caves"