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Students Spotlight View in This Issue Interview H UMAN BE H AVIOR & EVOLUTION SOCIETY Winter 2009 Newsletter In This Issue View From the President’s Window Spotlight Featured Interview The Student Voice HBES Conference 2009 Announcements HBES Elections!!! The next HBES Conference will be held at California State Nominations for the HBES Career Awards University, Fullerton May 27-31, 2009. Lectures Abstract deadline is April 1, 2009. Positions Conferences See: http://anthro.fullerton.edu/hbes2009/ Read more... Members in the News New Books Participate in a Survey Submit your nominations for the HBES Lifetime & Early Call for Papers: EvoS Special Feature Career Contribution Awards. Read more... Conference Report Letters From the Editors Resources HBES Executive Council Elections!! Read more... View Spotlight Interview Students From the President’s Window Steve Gangestad Billy E. Frye Napoleon A. Chagnon The Student Voice | Aaron Blackwell Our HBES president is Steve In this edition, Richard D. In a special interview, Nap It is time to select a new Gangestad, Distinguished Alexander, Bill Irons, and Chagnon answers questions HBES Student Representa- Professor of Psychology Nap Chagnon share some from leading scientists on tive. Please read the profiles at the University of New notes on the history of the Yanomamö on topics of the two candidates for Mexico. In this issue, HBES. They pay special ranging from the possibility HBES Student Rep, Thank Steve reveals news of tribute to Dr. Billy E. Frye, of peace to kin term manipu- you Aaron for serving as our upcoming HBES a former University of lation to the role of women. HBES Stu- conferences Michigan Thank you to including administrator Ed Hagen and dent Repre- plans to who played Nicole Hess sentative for hold a joint a critical role for organizing the past few conference in the birth of this interview. years. with ABS. HBES. Read more... Read more... Read more... Read more... © Copyright HBES 2009 - All Rights Reserved | email: [email protected] | web: www.hbes.com View From the President’s Window | Steven W. Gangestad have some noteworthy news: Plans for a joint meeting biological theory of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and to an understanding I the Animal Behavior Society are underway, to be of human behavior. A joint held in the summer of 2012. The location has yet to be meeting with ABS offers an opportunity for us to finalized, though one promising site is currently under widen exposure of our program to biologists who, to consideration. And a complete proposal has yet to be date, have focused on the behavior of non-human formally approved by each society. Still, I’m fairly confident animals, and possibly convince a few such biologists to that this event will happen. (A reminder: Following this participate in HBES meetings in future years, perhaps year’s meeting in Fullerton, HBES will be in Eugene, even to actively engage in human behavioral research. Oregon in 2010 and then in Montpelier, France in 2011.) HBES can benefit just as greatly from exposure of our Though the meetings will in a meaningful sense be “joint,” members to the ABS program. There’s probably very little in fact each society’s respective annual meetings will, in the ABS program that, in its basic scientific rationale or under this proposal, largely be back-to-back at the same theoretical approach, isn’t also represented in some fashion site, with one full day of an overlapping program. This in what appears in the HBES program or Evolution and way, each society can retain many its own traditions and Human Behavior. Still, there are ways that biologists tend unique features, while still enjoying the benefit of a partly to approach the study of organisms’ behavior that differ, on integrated program. And, naturally, some members of each average, from how psychologists might typically do so, either may want to stay on for all or part of the non-overlapping as a function of training or disciplinary milieu. (To mention portion of the other society’s meetings. (A small proportion just a few: more deliberate comparative interpretations; of our members, of course, are currently already members greater reflection on phylogenetic relationships and of ABS.) I expect that, with hopes for this in mind, featured deep-time origins of features; more consistent and elements of each program (for instance, plenary speakers) thoroughgoing application of broad, encompassing will be selected partly to appeal to a broader crowd. (HBES theoretical frameworks; more consistent attempts to test and ABS meetings are typically of similar size, I might competing evolutionary models and virtually no interest note, which logistically works well for a joint arrangement.) in testing evolutionary models against “non-evolutionary” ones; more explicit considerations of basic constraints For many reasons, I’m very excited about the possibility organisms face, such as energetic constraints; more of these meetings. HBES can benefit in multiple ways. A typical development of research programs that deliberately good number of the members of HBES at its inception include studies that don’t explicitly concern behavior at all were trained as biologists (a few, of course, with last [but rather, to list a few examples, concern survival rates, names Williams, Hamilton, Trivers, Wilson, and Alexander). offspring sex ratios, energetic costs of specific endocrine Naturally, HBES has grown tremendously in the past two function, rates of oxidative stress, or immunogenetics] but decades. The bulk of this growth has occurred through which do inform in a very fundamental way evolutionary enlisting of members trained in behavioral sciences—most understandings of behavior and, hence, are central to the notably, psychology, and, secondarily, anthropology. Such scientific enterprise of explaining behavior.) I certainly don’t growth has been healthy. It reflects, for instance, the fact mean to imply that psychological research would benefit, in that sophisticated, sensible life science approaches have every instance, from incorporating more of what biologists successfully and fairly quickly penetrated psychological often do. Moreover, most of the members of HBES are science. The rate at which publications that embrace sophisticated consumers of the literature in evolutionary an evolutionary perspective and draw upon explicit biology and I hence suspect very familiar with a whole evolutionary theory appear in leading journals in psychology variety of approaches in the study of animal behavior. Still, continues to grow (see, for instance, my View in the many of our members, myself included, have never been Summer 2008 newsletter). At the same time, I personally immersed for days in dialogue that characterizes ABS would like to see HBES representation of biologists meetings. I consider myself to be a pretty avid reader of grow at a similar rate; my sense is that, to date, it hasn’t. the biological literature, but I nonetheless anticipate that, after this joint meeting, I may well come to think about my I’m hoping that can change. Increasing numbers of own area of research from some perspectives that differ, biologists are receptive to research that applies evolutionary even if subtly, from how I’ve typically thought about it. The View From the President’s Window (cont.) And yet more on citation patterns… cited in EHB, generally climbed as well, though less consistently in the case of Animal Behaviour. I’ve used the writing of these biannual “Views” as good excuses to take a look at and report what might be The following table shows the converse: Percentages of interesting trends in the impact and spread of human articles appearing in the 8 biology journals citing at least one evolutionary behavior science in the scientific literature. (A EHB article, aggregated across all journals. (Related, but not year ago, I commented in this newsletter on Evolution and identical, patterns were reported in my Summer 2008 View.) Human Behavior’s impact, as indexed by some new impact indices. EHB is a highly influential journal, relative to other behavioral science journals, if reputation and visibility of the journals that cite EHB articles is used to weight citations, and I explored specific reasons for that fact. Six months ago, I examined changes in rates of citation of EHB articles over the past 6 years. Citations overall have increased substantially but, interestingly, particularly so in specific fields.) An appropriate complement to my announcement of a joint meeting of HBES and ABS is an examination of the extent to which papers appearing in EHB have been cited in behavioral biology journals and, conversely, the extent to which These are low numbers, but of course one can’t expect articles appearing in behavioral biology journals are cited a large percentage of articles in behavioral biology in EHB articles, and whether those patterns have changed journals to cite studies on humans. More interesting, over time. Are these literatures becoming increasingly perhaps, are the rates of change across years. In fact, interconnected, as indexed by networks of citations? in 2008 the proportion of articles citing at least one EHB article was 60% greater than it was in 2003 (see the I specifically looked at articles in 8 biology journals— third column above). This is partly due to the fact that by the 8 most cited in EHB over the years: Proceedings 2008 there were more EHB articles available to be cited. of the Royal Society B, Animal Behaviour, Journal Nonetheless, the substantially greater numbers of biology
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