Richard Wrangham Explained

Richard Wrangham
Birth Date:1948
Employer:Harvard University
University of Michigan
Nationality:British

Richard Walter Wrangham (born 1948) is an English]] anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking.

Biography

Wrangham was born in Leeds, Yorkshire.

Following his years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, he became the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and his research group is now part of the newly established Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He is a MacArthur fellow.[1]

He is co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, the long-term study of the Kanyawara chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda.[2] His research culminates in the study of human evolution in which he draws conclusions based on the behavioural ecology of apes. As a graduate student, Wrangham studied under Robert Hinde and Jane Goodall.[3]

Wrangham is known predominantly for his work in the ecology of primate social systems, the evolutionary history of human aggression (in his 1996 book with Dale Peterson, and his 2019 work The Goodness Paradox), and his research in cooking (summarized in his book, ) and self-domestication.

Wrangham has been instrumental in identifying behaviors considered "human-specific" in chimpanzees, including culture[4] and with Eloy Rodriguez, chimpanzee self-medication.[5]

Among the recent courses he teaches in the Human Evolutionary Biology (HEB) concentration at Harvard are HEB 1330 Primate Social Behaviour and HEB 1565 Theories of Sexual Coercion (co-taught with Professor Diane Rosenfeld from Harvard Law School). In March 2008, he was appointed House Master of Currier House at Harvard College.[6] He received an honorary degree in Doctor of Science from Oglethorpe University in 2011.[7]

Research

Wrangham began his career as a researcher at Jane Goodall's long-term common chimpanzee field study in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. He befriended fellow primatologist Dian Fossey and assisted her in setting up her nonprofit mountain gorilla conservation organization, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (originally the Digit Fund).[8]

Wrangham's focused recently on the role cooking has played in human evolution. In , he argued that cooking food is obligatory for humans as a result of biological adaptations and that cooking, in particular the consumption of cooked tubers, might explain the increase in hominid brain sizes, smaller teeth and jaws, and decrease in sexual dimorphism that occurred roughly 1.8 million years ago.[9] [10] [11] Some anthropologists disagree with Wrangham's ideas, arguing that no solid evidence has been found to support Wrangham's claims, though Wrangham and colleagues, among others, have demonstrated in the laboratory the effects of cooking on energetic availability: cooking denatures proteins, gelatinizes starches, and helps kill pathogens.[12] [13] The mainstream explanation is that human ancestors, prior to the advent of cooking, turned to eating meats, which then caused the evolutionary shift to smaller guts and larger brains.[14]

Personal life

Wrangham married Elizabeth Ross in 1980 and has three sons. His work of studying the essential violence of chimpanzees caused Wrangham to not eat meat for 40 years.[15]

Bibliography

Books

The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution. Pantheon, 2019.

Papers

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Class of 1987 . MacArthur Foundation.
  2. Web site: About . Kibale Chimpanzee Project . April 20, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120215171303/http://kibalechimpanzees.wordpress.com/about/ . February 15, 2012 .
  3. Gerber . Suzanne . Not just monkeying around . Vegetarian Times . November 1998.
  4. 10.1038/21415. 10385119. Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature. 399. 6737. 682–685. 1999. Whiten. A.. Goodall. J.. McGrew. W. C.. Nishida. T.. Reynolds. V.. Sugiyama. Y.. Tutin. C. E. G.. Wrangham. R. W.. Boesch. C.. 1999Natur.399..682W. 4385871.
  5. News: Animal instinct for finding treatment . August 6, 2005 . . . April 20, 2012.
  6. Web site: Richard Wrangham and Elizabeth Ross Appointed Co-House Masters of Currier House. Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences . May 2, 2012.
  7. Web site: Honorary Degrees Awarded by Oglethorpe University . Oglethorpe University . 2015-03-04 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150319104000/http://www.oglethorpe.edu/about_us/history/honorary_degrees.asp . March 19, 2015 .
  8. Book: Mowat, Farley . Woman in the Mists . Farley Mowat . 1987 . Warner Books. New York . 978-0-356-17106-7 . 172–3. Woman in the Mists .
  9. Cooking Up Bigger Brain . Gorman . Rachael Moeller . 2007-12-16 . Scientific American.
  10. Richard . Wrangham . NancyLou . Conklin-Brittain . Cooking as a biological trait . Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A . 136 . 1 . 35–46 . 2003 . 14527628 . 10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00020-5.
  11. Book: Wrangham, Richard . Ungar . Peter S. . Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable . limited . 2006 . Oxford University Press . Oxford . 978-0-19-518346-7 . 308–23 . The Cooking Enigma.
  12. Carmody. Rachel. The energetic significance of cooking.. Journal of Human Evolution. 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.011. 19732938. 57. 4. 2009. 379–391. 15255649 .
  13. Did cooked tubers spur the evolution of big brains? . Elizabeth . Pennisi . Elizabeth Pennisi . . 283 . 5410 . 1999-03-26 . 2004–2005 . 10206901 . 10.1126/science.283.5410.2004. 39775701 .
  14. Aiello . L. C. . Brains and guts in human evolution: The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis . 10.1590/S0100-84551997000100023 . Brazilian Journal of Genetics . 20 . 141–148 . 1997 . free .
  15. News: Grolle . Johann . 2019-03-22 . Interview with Anthropologist Richard Wrangham . en . Der Spiegel . 2023-09-27 . 2195-1349.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Richard Wrangham".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.