Research Interests

Human behavioral ecology, hunter-gatherer societies, the evolution of social behavior, human energetics, east Africa.

Education

2006-           PhD Candidate, Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, Advised by Frank Marlowe,

                    Richard Wrangham, Karen Kramer, and Marc Hauser.

2007            Visiting student, Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.

2006            MA, Anthropology, Harvard University.

2004            MS with distinction, Computer Science, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

1999            BA magna cum laude, Anthropology, University of California, Davis.

1998            Visiting student, Human Evolutionary Ecology, University of New Mexico.

Grants

2007            Harvard Graduate Student Council Conference Travel Grant, $250.

2006            L.S.B. Leakey Foundation Predoctoral Research Grant, $13,500.

2006           Wenner-Gren Foundation Research Grant, $19,300.

2005           Oppenheimer African Studies Grant, Harvard University, $1,000.

1996           President's Undergraduate Fellowship Grant, UC Davis, $1,500.

Awards and Fellowships

2009            Best Student Paper, Evolutionary Anthropology Society, $250

2009            Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Completion Fellowship, $13,500.

2009            Oppenheimer African Studies Graduate Fellowship, $13,500.

2009            Harvard Committee on African Studies Dissertation Award, $4,500.

2001-2004   NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, $30-$35,000 / year.

1999            President's Fulmore Scholarship, UC Davis, $3,000.

1998            President's Fulmore Scholarship, UC Davis, $3,000.

1998            IGCC Undergraduate Research Award, UC Davis, $1,000.

1996            Edward Frank Kraft Scholarship Prize for freshmen, UC Davis, $250.

Publications

(in review)      Hill, Kim, Walker, R., Bozicevic, M., Eder, J., Headland, T., Hewlett, B., Hurtado, A., Marlowe, F., Wood, B. “Unique patterns of kin coresidence characterize hunter-gatherer societies.”

(in review)  Wood, Brian and Marlowe, F. “Where do men’s foods go? The sharing and eating of male-acquired  foods among the Hadza”.

2007            Mallol, Carolina, Marlowe, F., Wood, B., Porter, C., and Bar-Yosef, O. "Earth, wind, and fire: Archeological signals of Hadza fires" Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (12): 2035-2052.

2006            Wood, Brian. "Prestige or provisioning? A test of foraging goals among the Hadza" Current Anthropology 47(2): 383-387.

2006            Wood, Brian and Wood, Z. "Energetically optimal travel across terrain: visualizations and a new metric of geographic distance with anthropological applications" Proceedings of SPIE Electronic Imaging, volume 6060.

2000            Wood, Brian, and Hill, K. "A test of the ‘showing-off' hypothesis with Ache hunters" Current Anthropology 41(1): 124-125.

Journal Referee

Current Anthropology, Biology Letters, Human Nature.

Teaching

2009            Assistant Head Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, “Evolution of Human Nature”, spring semester. 

2008            Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, “Evolutionary Human Anatomy” fall semester.

2007            Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, “Evolutionary Human Anatomy” fall semester.

Conference Papers

2009            Wood, B. and Marlowe, F., “Hadza kinship and its role in residence patterns and food sharing”. AAA Annual Meetings, December 5th 2009.

2007            Wood, Brian (session organizer and chair) and Marlowe, F. “Household provisioning and food transfers among the Hadza.” New Research in the Evolutionary Ecology of Food Transfers Symposium, AAA Annual Meetings, December 2nd  2007.

2007            Wood, B. and Marlowe, F. "Do Hadza children benefit from their father's foraging?" The Father Effect Symposium, Human Behavior and Evolution Society Meetings, June 2nd 2007.

2007            Marlowe, Frank and Wood, B. “The Hadza male’s dilemma: good father, or good citizen?” The Paternal Care Symposium, Annual Meetings of the Association of American Physical Anthropologists, March 29th 2007.

2005            Wood, Brian "Hadza foraging goals". New England Biological Anthropology Society, March 19th 2005.

2004            Jones, Terry, Hylkema, M., Wood, B., and Barrios, A. “Colonization, culture, and chaos on the central California coast”, Society for California Archaeology, April 20th 2004.

2003            Wood, Brian, Chin, E., and Taylor, A. “Analyzing alternative teacher certification programs with GIS”. ESRI Education User Conference, July 7th 2003.

2000            Wood, Brian. “Prehistoric exploitation of the Annadel obsidian quarry”. Society for California Archaeology, April 21st 2000.

1999            Wood, Brian. “Why men hunt: testing the ‘show-off' hypothesis” Undergraduate Research Conference, UC Davis. April 24th 1999.

Invited Talks

2009            “Where do men’s foods go? The sharing and eating of male-acquired foods among the Hadza” Washington University in St. Louis, November 5th 2009.

2009            “The use of databases in social science research” Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania, Department of Forest Economics. October 12th 2009. 

2008            “Food sharing and paternal investment among the Hadza” Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, July 15th 2008.

2008            “Local wisdom and scientific knowledge” Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen,

                    May 2nd 2008.

2007            "Food sharing in a population of hunter-gatherers: are men providing public goods?" Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, May 23rd 2007.

1998            “Ache material culture”, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, 23 July 1998.

Employment

Consulting Anthropologist

2009             June- August. Ethnography of community based forest conservation in Tanzania. Full time position funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborating with faculty at the University of Copenhagen, in the departments of Anthropology and Landscape and Forestry.

Consulting Archaeologist

2004,            Numerous archaeological projects throughout California and Nevada,

1997-2001    including excavation, survey, laboratory work, report writing, and illustration.

GIS Analyst

2004-2006    Harvard University Anthropology Department.

2002-2004    Cal Poly University Center for Teacher Education.

2002-2003    Cal Poly GIS Technology Lab. Landscape Architecture Department.

2002-2004    Cal Poly Kennedy Library.

Web Design and Administration

2009             Design and administration of the website for the Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, http://heb.fas.harvard.edu/   

Professional Organizations

American Anthropological Association, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Evolutionary Anthropology Society.

Service

2006-            Design and administration of the website for the Evolutionary Anthropology Society,                               
http://www.evanthsoc.org

2005-2007    Student Board Representative, Evolutionary Anthropology Society.

Ethnographic Fieldwork

2004-2009    Hadza hunter-gatherers, northern Tanzania, 19 months.

2009             Maasai and Kamba Pastoralists, southern Tanzania, 3 months.

2000             Ayoreo forager/horticulturalists, southern Bolivia, 1 month.

1998             Ache hunter-gatherers, eastern Paraguay, 4 months.

Languages

Native English, fluent Swahili, intermediate Danish, Spanish, basic Hadzane.