Africa My research focuses on the behavioral ecology of human foragers, in particular on the Hadza, who are one of the few remaining foraging societies in the world. The Hadza number about 1,000 and live in a savanna-woodland habitat in northern Tanzania. Men collect honey and use bows and arrows to hunt a variety of game animals.
Women dig for tubers and gather fruit and berries.
Since 1995, I have been researching the mating system of the Hadza. I have measured the amount of direct care and provisioning men provide to assess the tradeoff between parenting and mating effort, and have investigated mate preferences and attitudes about reproduction. I have measured male and female foraging skills to assess their significance for human life history traits. I have also measured the propensity to share, using game theory experiments, to investigate the reasons for the widespread food sharing typical of hunter-gatherers. Future research will also explore the causes and consequences of post-marital residence patterns.