Helen E Davis
Biographic Data
| ID | 631133 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen E Davis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen E |
| FAMILY NAME | Davis |
| SIGNATURE | DAVIS H E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8880-354X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter
The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with disparate meanings across communities of scholars, journalists, and the public, which has led to unnecessary scientific disagreement and popular misunderstanding. In this paper, we ask: what does Man the Hunter mean? We distinguish three historical meanings of Man the Hunter. First, in the early-to-mid 20th century, popular writers propagated ideas of human evolution that focused on hunting, men, aggre…
Hunter-Gatherer Children at School: A View From the Global South
Universal formal education is a major global development goal. Yet hunter-gatherer communities have extremely low participation rates in formal schooling, even in comparison with other marginalized groups. Here, we review the existing literature to identify common challenges faced by hunter-gatherer children in formal education systems in the Global South. We find that hunter-gatherer children are often granted extensive personal autonomy, which …
The Role of Medical Mistrust in Vaccination Decisions in Rural, Indigenous Namibian Communities
Construct validity in cross-cultural, developmental research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement
The recent expansion of cross-cultural research in the social sciences has led to increased discourse on methodological issues involved when studying culturally diverse populations. However, discussions have largely overlooked the challenges of construct validity – ensuring instruments are measuring what they are intended to – in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in developmental research. We contend that cross-cultural developmental resear…
Female foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real: A comment on Anderson et al. (2023) The Myth of Man the Hunter
Research note: Autonomous hunter-gatherer children in hierarchical schools: a review of the literature from the global South
We recently conducted a review of the literature regarding hunter-gatherer children’s schooling experiences in the global South (Ninkova et al 2024). In this research note, we highlight one central finding of our review: that the autonomy granted to hunter-gatherer children determines their participation in school. Children decide for themselves whether they will attend. Children also decide for themselves whether they will pursue alternative end…
Medical mistrust, discrimination and healthcare experiences in a rural Namibian community
Substantial evidence indicates that medical mistrust, resulting from experiences with discrimination and marginalisation, is a determinant of health disparities in minority populations. However, this research is largely limited to the US and other industrialised countries. To broaden our understanding of the role of medical mistrust on health-care decision making, we conducted a study on healthcare experiences and perceptions in a rural, underser…
Context dependent preferences in prestige bias learning about vaccination in rural Namibian pastoralists
A Cultural Species and its Cognitive Phenotypes: Implications for Philosophy
Fatherhood and Child–Father Attachment in Two Small-Scale Societies
Variation in attachment quality was assessed in 92 one- to three-year-olds’ (49 female, 43 male) attachment to their father, within and across two small-scale, subsistence populations: the Tsimane of lowland Bolivia ( n = 29 dyads) and Tannese of Vanuatu ( n = 63 dyads). Overall, the Tsimane and Tannese populations show similarity in the patterning of child–father attachment relative to samples from industrialized societies, with 52% of Tsimane d…
Cultural variation in running techniques among non-industrial societies
Research among non-industrial societies suggests that body kinematics adopted during running vary between groups according to the cultural importance of running. Among groups in which running is common and an important part of cultural identity, runners tend to adopt what exercise scientists and coaches consider to be good technique for avoiding injury and maximising performance. In contrast, among groups in which running is not particularly cult…
Cultural Change Reduces Gender Differences in Mobility and Spatial Ability among Seminomadic Pastoralist-Forager Children in Northern Namibia
Ecological and Developmental Perspectives on Social Learning: Introduction to the Special Issue
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project, an integrated bio‐behavioral study of the human life course, is designed to test competing hypotheses of human life‐history evolution. One aim is to understand the bidirectional connections between life history and social behavior in a high‐fertility, kin‐based context lacking amenities of modern urban life (e.g. sanitation, banks, electricity). Another aim is to understand how a high pathogen burden i…
Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling
Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g., "effortful processing" abilities, including fluid reasoning and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, whereas other abilities (e.g., "crystallized" abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling ma…
Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya: Sex Differences Reflect Parental Investment, Not Mating Competition
Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evalua…
Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling
Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g., "effortful processing" abilities, including fluid reasoning and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, whereas other abilities (e.g., "crystallized" abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling ma…
Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya: Sex Differences Reflect Parental Investment, Not Mating Competition
Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evalua…
Construct validity in cross-cultural, developmental research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement
The recent expansion of cross-cultural research in the social sciences has led to increased discourse on methodological issues involved when studying culturally diverse populations. However, discussions have largely overlooked the challenges of construct validity – ensuring instruments are measuring what they are intended to – in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in developmental research. We contend that cross-cultural developmental resear…
Cultural variation in running techniques among non-industrial societies
Research among non-industrial societies suggests that body kinematics adopted during running vary between groups according to the cultural importance of running. Among groups in which running is common and an important part of cultural identity, runners tend to adopt what exercise scientists and coaches consider to be good technique for avoiding injury and maximising performance. In contrast, among groups in which running is not particularly cult…
Context dependent preferences in prestige bias learning about vaccination in rural Namibian pastoralists
Cultural Change Reduces Gender Differences in Mobility and Spatial Ability among Seminomadic Pastoralist-Forager Children in Northern Namibia
Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya: Sex Differences Reflect Parental Investment, Not Mating Competition
Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evalua…
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project, an integrated bio‐behavioral study of the human life course, is designed to test competing hypotheses of human life‐history evolution. One aim is to understand the bidirectional connections between life history and social behavior in a high‐fertility, kin‐based context lacking amenities of modern urban life (e.g. sanitation, banks, electricity). Another aim is to understand how a high pathogen burden i…
Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling
Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g., "effortful processing" abilities, including fluid reasoning and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, whereas other abilities (e.g., "crystallized" abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling ma…
Cultural Change Reduces Gender Differences in Mobility and Spatial Ability among Seminomadic Pastoralist-Forager Children in Northern Namibia
Ecological and Developmental Perspectives on Social Learning: Introduction to the Special Issue
Cultural variation in running techniques among non-industrial societies
Research among non-industrial societies suggests that body kinematics adopted during running vary between groups according to the cultural importance of running. Among groups in which running is common and an important part of cultural identity, runners tend to adopt what exercise scientists and coaches consider to be good technique for avoiding injury and maximising performance. In contrast, among groups in which running is not particularly cult…
A Cultural Species and its Cognitive Phenotypes: Implications for Philosophy
Fatherhood and Child–Father Attachment in Two Small-Scale Societies
Variation in attachment quality was assessed in 92 one- to three-year-olds’ (49 female, 43 male) attachment to their father, within and across two small-scale, subsistence populations: the Tsimane of lowland Bolivia ( n = 29 dyads) and Tannese of Vanuatu ( n = 63 dyads). Overall, the Tsimane and Tannese populations show similarity in the patterning of child–father attachment relative to samples from industrialized societies, with 52% of Tsimane d…
Female foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real: A comment on Anderson et al. (2023) The Myth of Man the Hunter
Research note: Autonomous hunter-gatherer children in hierarchical schools: a review of the literature from the global South
We recently conducted a review of the literature regarding hunter-gatherer children’s schooling experiences in the global South (Ninkova et al 2024). In this research note, we highlight one central finding of our review: that the autonomy granted to hunter-gatherer children determines their participation in school. Children decide for themselves whether they will attend. Children also decide for themselves whether they will pursue alternative end…
Medical mistrust, discrimination and healthcare experiences in a rural Namibian community
Substantial evidence indicates that medical mistrust, resulting from experiences with discrimination and marginalisation, is a determinant of health disparities in minority populations. However, this research is largely limited to the US and other industrialised countries. To broaden our understanding of the role of medical mistrust on health-care decision making, we conducted a study on healthcare experiences and perceptions in a rural, underser…
Context dependent preferences in prestige bias learning about vaccination in rural Namibian pastoralists
Hunter-Gatherer Children at School: A View From the Global South
Universal formal education is a major global development goal. Yet hunter-gatherer communities have extremely low participation rates in formal schooling, even in comparison with other marginalized groups. Here, we review the existing literature to identify common challenges faced by hunter-gatherer children in formal education systems in the Global South. We find that hunter-gatherer children are often granted extensive personal autonomy, which …
The Role of Medical Mistrust in Vaccination Decisions in Rural, Indigenous Namibian Communities
Construct validity in cross-cultural, developmental research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement
The recent expansion of cross-cultural research in the social sciences has led to increased discourse on methodological issues involved when studying culturally diverse populations. However, discussions have largely overlooked the challenges of construct validity – ensuring instruments are measuring what they are intended to – in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in developmental research. We contend that cross-cultural developmental resear…
The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter
The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with disparate meanings across communities of scholars, journalists, and the public, which has led to unnecessary scientific disagreement and popular misunderstanding. In this paper, we ask: what does Man the Hunter mean? We distinguish three historical meanings of Man the Hunter. First, in the early-to-mid 20th century, popular writers propagated ideas of human evolution that focused on hunting, men, aggre…
Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Geography (5 works) · Biology (4 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (3 works) · Cognition (3 works) · Ecology (3 works)