Biosketch
Evolutionary Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is professor emerita at the University of California-Davis. She is a former Guggenheim fellow elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the California Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Her research spans the reproductive and parental investment strategies of both human and nonhuman primates. Her books include The Black-man of Zinacantan: A central American legend; The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction; The Woman that Never Evolved; Mother Nature and Mothers and Others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding, an exploration of psychological implications of humankind’s long legacy of shared child-rearing awarded both the 2012 J.I. Staley Prize from the School of Advanced Research and the Howells Prize at the American Anthropological Association. In 2014 she was awarded the NAS award for scientific reviewing. She is also co-editor of Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives and Attachment and Bonding: A new synthesis. Although largely retired from academics, she still serves on the editorial board of Human Nature. A mother and grandmother, she lives in northern California where she and her husband, Dan, combine habitat restoration with growing walnuts.
Research Interests
The issues of how primate parents allocate resources among offspring and parental investment theory are my chief areas of research.
Membership Type
Member
Election Year
1990
Primary Section
Section 51: Anthropology
Secondary Section
Section 63: Environmental Sciences and Ecology