In what way do you use the biocultural approach in your work?

[Sheila Dorsey Vinton]

In what way do you use the biocultural approach in your work?

[Paul Wren]

While the research with which I've been involved over the last three years is grounded in a belief that biology and culture act together, I have never thought of it before as an approach with a name.

With a professor of mine, I have been researching the various contributors to variation in the human Sex Ratio at Birth (SRb) in both Africa and the Caribbean. There have been a number of papers on the African SRb over the last few decades, proposing both biological and cultural causes for why the African SRb is lower than that of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, and why there is so much variation between Bantus and non-Bantus. Polygyny, coital rate, residential patterns, and female genital cutting have all been proposed as causal agents, along with a possible genetic component.

I look forward to participating in this Group!

[Sheila Dorsey Vinton]

Paul your work sounds very interesting and it is precisely what I mean when I call my research biocultural. Many others examine the intersection of biology and culture. You probably already know that much of this work is published in the American Journal of Human Biology found here at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/journal/37873/ho... I know I've enjoyed being a member of the Human Biology Association.

Paul Wren said:

While the research with which I've been involved over the last three years is grounded in a belief that biology and culture act together, I have never thought of it before as an approach with a name.

With a professor of mine, I have been researching the various contributors to variation in the human Sex Ratio at Birth (SRb) in both Africa and the Caribbean. There have been a number of papers on the African SRb over the last few decades, proposing both biological and cultural causes for why the African SRb is lower than that of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, and why there is so much variation between Bantus and non-Bantus. Polygyny, coital rate, residential patterns, and female genital cutting have all been proposed as causal agents, along with a possible genetic component.

I look forward to participating in this Group!

[Jaymelee Kim]

Biocultural anthropology is a growing subdiscipline at the University of Tennessee; and we have several different areas of research. 

Some of us have a Disaster, Displacement, and Human Rights focus (me!) - I frame forensic anthropology in social theory, and I am focusing on methodological and ethical issues that result if a proper cultural analysis is not completed by the forensic anthropologist.  For instance, who is the anthropologist working for? whose interests are being served? do survivors want excavation? do they want memorialization? What are necessary mortuary practices?  What are local traditional justice mechanisms that may be in play? are survivors aware of their options and choices?  are we empowering agency or diminishing it?  etc.

Under the same DDHR focus, a colleague is studying necropolitics from a forensic anthropology perspective.

We also have several people studying genetics and identity, and another doctoral candidate who is taking a biocultural approach to race (how do forensic anthropologists frame race versus how law enforcement culture portrays race versus public perceptions).

If you stumble across information that relates to any of these four growing biocultural areas of interest, please let me know!  I already referred one of the genetics/identity colleagues to this page. 

Sheila Dorsey Vinton said:

Paul your work sounds very interesting and it is precisely what I mean when I call my research biocultural. Many others examine the intersection of biology and culture. You probably already know that much of this work is published in the American Journal of Human Biology found here at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/journal/37873/ho... I know I've enjoyed being a member of the Human Biology Association.

Paul Wren said:

While the research with which I've been involved over the last three years is grounded in a belief that biology and culture act together, I have never thought of it before as an approach with a name.

With a professor of mine, I have been researching the various contributors to variation in the human Sex Ratio at Birth (SRb) in both Africa and the Caribbean. There have been a number of papers on the African SRb over the last few decades, proposing both biological and cultural causes for why the African SRb is lower than that of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, and why there is so much variation between Bantus and non-Bantus. Polygyny, coital rate, residential patterns, and female genital cutting have all been proposed as causal agents, along with a possible genetic component.

I look forward to participating in this Group!