Sustainability through the Lens of Human Behavioral Ecology

In this lecture, Dr. Monique Borgerhoff Mulder overviews the focus, history, and approaches used in the subdiscipline of human behavioral ecology. She first notes its roots in Darwinian evolution, as the goal is to apply models about change and difference from ecology to human behavior in order to understand adaptive decisions. Human behavioral ecology uses simulated and empirical tools to identify transmitted traits and tries to understand the function of those traits. She uses the example of conservation as restraint, as one early test of these theories. The conservation hypothesis suggests that human decision making about prey selection focuses on maximizing prey growth through foraging, which stands in contrast to the efficiency hypothesis, in which the goal is to expend minimal energy for maximum gain. She also offers examples of conservation as cooperation, when human decision making for other humans benefits the environment, as well. She ends by describing how human behavior ecology seeks to better understand human tendencies, how those tendencies vary, and potentially how they can be contained or harnessed.

Authors named during the presentation: 

• Julian Steward, Roy Rappaport, Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson, Napoleon Chagnon & William Irons 
• L.L. Cavalli-Sforza & M.W. Feldman
• Robert Boyd & P.J. Richerson
• William Durham, Eric Smith, Dustin Penn, Garrett Hardin, Elinor Ostrom, Raymond Hames, Michael Alvard, Eric A. Smith, & Mark Wishnie
• Lore Ruttan, James Ellis & David Swift; Margaret Chapman, Allyn Stearman, Colin Clark, Alan Rogers, Kim Hill, Louise Fortmann, B.S. Low, & J.T. Heinen.

This video is a recording of a presentation given as part of SESYNC’s Socio-Environmental Immersion program.