Shane Macfarlan Lab Group
Shane Macfarlan is an evolutionary cultural anthropologist with a variety of research interests including: cooperation and conflict, evolutionary historical demography, rural livelihoods, social network analysis, human-ecosystem dynamics, cross-cultural research, and Latin America and the Caribbean. His lab group is composed of undergraduate and graduate students. Current projects occurring in his lab include: 1) the Evolutionary Ecology of the Baja California Peninsula; 2) Evolutionary Historical Demography; and 3) Cross-Cultural Analysis of Post-Combat Rituals and Rewards for Treating Moral Injury. Shane is always looking for undergraduate and graduate students to assist in his lab. Research opportunities can be facilitated through a number of mechanisms, including: the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, undergraduate research credit hours, and work study.
Lab Members
Emily Post
Graduate Student Research AssistantIzabella Bourland
Undergraduate Research AssistantRachel Coy
Undergraduate Research AssistantMatheus Cruz
Undergraduate Research AssistantNathan Darmiento
Undergraduate Research AssistantConnor Davis
Undergraduate Research AssistantSavannah Kapp
Undergraduate Research AssistantLauren Lewis
Undergraduate Research AssistantJamie Nakano
Undergraduate Research AssistantAndrea Uehling
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lab Group Successes!
See our lab group’s new paper on Marriage Dynamics in 19th Century Baja California Sur, Mexico, in the journal, Biodemography and Social Biology (for access to the full article, email Shane: shane.macfarlan@anthro.utah.edu)
Congratulations to Rachel Coy for winning the 2020 Monson Prize for outstanding undergraduate research on War Rituals in Small Scale-Societies!
Congratulations to Emily Post for publishing her Master’s Thesis on Gender Bias in Reputations in the journal, Cross Cultural Research (for access to the full article email Shane or Emily)!
Congratulations to Connor Davis for receiving a Dee Family Foundation UROP Scholars Award for Fall 2020!
Congratulations to Shane Macfarlan for receiving the 2020 Sustainability Integration Leadership Award
UROP Students Spring 2020
Project: Evolutionary Ecology of the Baja California Peninsula
Izabella Bourland - Sex Ratio at Birth in the Baja California Sur Peninsula
Savannah Kapp - Reproductive Fitness: Historical Demography of Baja California Sur
Project: Cross-Cultural Analysis of Post-Combat Rituals and Rewards for Treating Moral Injury
Rachel Coy - Cross Cultural Analysis of Post Combat Rituals in Small Scale Societies
Lauren Hainsworth - Cultural Rewards to Participants of Warfare
Jamie Nakano - Cross-Cultural Negative Outcomes of Warfare Among Warriors
Andrea Uehling - Warriors: A Cross Cultural Study of War Veterans and Their Rewards
Project: Social Network Analysis
Connor Davis - Evaluating the Connections of Utah State Legislators using Social Network Analysis
Learning Abroad in Baja California Sur, Mexico 2021
Culture, Ecology, & Sustainability
I will be teaching a culturally immersive learning abroad course in Summer 2021 in the pueblo of Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico. This course offers students the opportunity to examine the intersection of BCS’s culture, history, and ecology through an anthropological and ecological lens, using the pueblo of Todos Santos as a case site. Students will apply ethnographic and ecological methods to answer research questions related to the growth of the population, social relationships within the community, and sustainable development.