Interests: The margins of cultural and biological anthropology, evolutionary ethnology, behavioral and evolutionary ecology, cooperation, hunting, hunters and gatherers, Amazonia, Southeast Asia.
Dr. Alvard is a socio-cultural anthropologist who uses evolutionary
theory to learn about human behavior.
He has worked in Amazonian Peru with Piro and Machiguenga
Indians, with Wana blowgun hunters and trappers in Central
Sulawesi, Indonesia, and recently with the Lamalera whale
hunters of Lembata, Indonesia.
- Work with the Piro focused on the relationship of hunters
to their prey. He tested the idea that traditional hunters
are natural conservationists.
- His work with the Wana was done in collaboration with
The Nature Conservancy and examined the impact of Wana hunters
on the prey within Morowali Nature Reserve, Sulawesi.
- His recent work in Lamalera focuses on the problems associated
with cooperation in the context of big game hunting.
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