Benjamin C Trumble
Biographic Data
| ID | 79957 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin C Trumble |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin C |
| FAMILY NAME | Trumble |
| SIGNATURE | TRUMBLE B C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3201-0628 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 92 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Blood Pressure Changes During Aging and Menopause Among Forager‐Horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon
Exceptionally low mortality despite widespread Covid-19 infection among Indigenous Tsimane and Moseten of Bolivia
Not All Stress Is the Same: Variable Associations Between Psychosocial Stressors and Urinary Cortisol Rhythms in a Small‐Scale Subsistence Society
While many of these associations had high statistical uncertainty due to wide posterior distributions, the results overall emphasize complex relationships between perceived stressors and diurnal cortisol rhythms among a small-scale subsistence-based society. Future work employing longitudinal designs and higher-resolution sampling will be needed to clarify these trends
Object play in Tsimane children: Implications for Sex-Specific Division of Labour
Sex-specific division of labour and the associated use of different subsistence techniques by males (e.g. hunting) and females (e.g. gathering) has played an important role in shaping human societies. Skills needed in adulthood are practiced in play during childhood and object play has been proposed to foster tool-use skills necessary for adult subsistence techniques. Here, we investigated sex differences in the ontogeny of object play in Tsimane…
What does prey harvest composition signal to a social audience: Experimental studies with Aché hunter-gatherers of Paraguay
Energetic costs of testosterone in two subsistence populations
OBJECTIVE: Testosterone plays a role in mediating energetic trade-offs between growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Investments in a high testosterone phenotype trade-off against other functions, particularly survival-enhancing immune function and cellular repair; thus only individuals in good condition can maintain both a high testosterone phenotype and somatic maintenance. While these effects are observed in experimental manipulations, they a…
Who helps Tsimane youth
We examine various forms of helping behaviour among Tsimane Amerindians of Bolivia, focusing on the provision of shelter, childcare, food, sickcare, cultural influence and traditional story knowledge. Kin selection theory traditionally explains nepotistic nurturing of youth by closely related kin. However, less attention has been given to understanding the help provided by individuals without close genetic relatedness. To explain who provides var…
There and back again: The biosocial dynamics of returning from the field
BACKGROUND: Leaving "home" to pursue fieldwork is a necessity but also a rite of passage for many biological anthropology/human biology scholars. Field-based scientists prepare for the potential changes to activity patterns, sleep schedules, social interactions, and more that come with going to the field. However, returning from extended fieldwork and the reverse-culture shock, discomforts, and mental shifts that are part of the return process ca…
Dominance or Tolerance? Causes and consequences of a period of increased intercommunity encounters among bonobos (Pan paniscus) at LuiKotale
Group-living primates exhibit variable reactions to intergroup encounters (or IGEs), reflecting species-specific strategies and individual motivations. In chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ), dominating in IGEs provides fitness benefits. Less is known about responses to IGEs in bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) despite their equal relevance for understanding the origins of human intergroup relations. We observed the Bompusa West (WBp) bonobo community at LuiK…
Old friends and friendly fire: Pregnancy, hookworm infection, and anemia among tropical horticulturalists
OBJECTIVES: Despite public health concerns about hookworm infection in pregnancy, little is known about immune profiles associated with hookworm (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale) infection during pregnancy. Fetal tolerance requirements may constrain maternal immune response to hookworm, thereby increasing susceptibility to new infections or increasing hemoglobin loss. To explore this possibility, we study systemic immune response and…
Relationship of sanitation, water boiling, and mosquito nets to health biomarkers in a rural subsistence population
OBJECTIVES: Throughout human evolutionary history, parasites and pathogens were a major cause of mortality-modern urban life with public health infrastructure has changed disease exposure. We examine associations between boiling water, using latrines, mosquito net usage, and biomarkers among the Tsimane, a nonindustrial subsistence population with little public health infrastructure. METHODS: We conducted cross sectional surveys on water, latrine…
Does exposure to parasites modify relationships between diurnal cortisol and leukocytes among Honduran women
BACKGROUND: Altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function and related changes in circulating glucocorticoids have been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases that involve dysregulated immune function. Glucocorticoid hormones have both direct and indirect modulatory effects on both pro- and anti-inflammatory aspects of the immune system, including granulocytic and lymphocytic leukocyte subsets. However, past findings are compl…
Current Officers and Members of Standing Committees
Pre-registration is less costly and is possible online at www.humbio.org through March 20, 2019. Non-members who register for the meeting are also welcome to attend
Methodological differences cannot explain associations between health, anthropometrics, and excess resting metabolic rate
"We appreciate Ocobock's interest in methodological rigor. We largely agree with her commentary, which suggests that departures from standard protocols might have contributed to the high resting metabolic rate (RMR) measured for Tsimane. Indeed, our paper acknowledges many of the key departures from gold-standard indirect calorimetry methods of RMR assessment and attempts to adjust for several of these (Gurven et al., 2016). Bringing standard cli…
Group‐level competition influences urinary steroid hormones among wild red–tailed monkeys, indicating energetic costs
Various theories emphasize that intergroup competition should affect intragroup cooperation and social relationships, especially if the cost of intergroup competition outweighs that of intragroup competition. This cost of intergroup competition may be quantified by changes in physiological status, such as in the steroid hormones cortisol (C) and testosterone (T), which rise or are depressed during periods of energetic stress, respectively. Here w…
Child nutritional status among births exceeding ideal family size in a high fertility population
Ideal family size (IFS) is measured in social surveys to indicate unmet need for contraception and impending shifts in fertility behaviour. Whether exceeding IFS affects parental behaviour in ways that result in lower investments in child nutrition, well-being, and educational attainment is not known. This study examines parental IFS and the association between exceeding stated ideals and child nutritional status in a high-fertility, high-mortali…
Marital violence and fertility in a relatively egalitarian high-fertility population
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…
Horticultural activity predicts later localized limb status in a contemporary pre‐industrial population
Objectives Modern humans may have gracile skeletons due to low physical activity levels and mechanical loading. Tests using pre‐historic skeletons are limited by the inability to assess behavior directly, while modern industrialized societies possess few socio‐ecological features typical of human evolutionary history. Among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists, we test whether greater activity levels and, thus, increased loading earlier in life are …
Immune function in Amazonian horticulturalists
Tsimane ecology leads to lymphocyte repertoires and immunoglobulin profiles that differ from those observed in industrialised populations. These differences have consequences for disease susceptibility and co-vary with patterns of other life history traits, such as growth and reproduction
Associations between male testosterone and immune function in a pathogenically stressed forager‐horticultural population
OBJECTIVES: Despite well-known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone-mediated investment in reproductive effort trade-off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen-mediated trade-offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by …
High resting metabolic rate among Amazonian forager‐horticulturalists experiencing high pathogen burden
OBJECTIVES: Resting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60 to 75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declin…
Growth references for Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon
International references for BMI-for-age and WFH are likely appropriate for Tsimane, but differences in height-for-age and weight-for-age suggest Tsimane specific references may be useful for these measures
No Sex or Age Difference in Dead-Reckoning Ability among Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists
Growth references for Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon
International references for BMI-for-age and WFH are likely appropriate for Tsimane, but differences in height-for-age and weight-for-age suggest Tsimane specific references may be useful for these measures
Low mineral density of a weight‐bearing bone among adult women in a high fertility population
Evolutionary theories of aging posit that greater reproductive effort causes somatic decline given a fundamental trade‐off between investing energy in reproduction and repair. Few studies in high fertility human populations support this hypothesis, and problems of phenotypic correlation can obscure the expected trade‐off between reproduction and somatic condition. This cross‐sectional study investigates whether greater reproductive effort is asso…
High resting metabolic rate among Amazonian forager‐horticulturalists experiencing high pathogen burden
OBJECTIVES: Resting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60 to 75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declin…
Associations between male testosterone and immune function in a pathogenically stressed forager‐horticultural population
OBJECTIVES: Despite well-known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone-mediated investment in reproductive effort trade-off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen-mediated trade-offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by …
Horticultural activity predicts later localized limb status in a contemporary pre‐industrial population
Objectives Modern humans may have gracile skeletons due to low physical activity levels and mechanical loading. Tests using pre‐historic skeletons are limited by the inability to assess behavior directly, while modern industrialized societies possess few socio‐ecological features typical of human evolutionary history. Among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists, we test whether greater activity levels and, thus, increased loading earlier in life are …
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…
Marital violence and fertility in a relatively egalitarian high-fertility population
No Sex or Age Difference in Dead-Reckoning Ability among Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists
The effects of a long‐term psychosocial stress on reproductive indicators in the baboon
Psychosocial stress is thought to negatively impact fecundity, but human studies are confounded by variation in nutrition and lifestyle. Baboons offer a useful model to test the effect of prolonged mild stress on reproductive indicators in a controlled setting. Following relocation from social groups to solitary housing, a previously documented stressful event for nonhuman primates, daily urine samples, tumescence, and menstrual bleeding were mon…
Who helps Tsimane youth
We examine various forms of helping behaviour among Tsimane Amerindians of Bolivia, focusing on the provision of shelter, childcare, food, sickcare, cultural influence and traditional story knowledge. Kin selection theory traditionally explains nepotistic nurturing of youth by closely related kin. However, less attention has been given to understanding the help provided by individuals without close genetic relatedness. To explain who provides var…
Dominance or Tolerance? Causes and consequences of a period of increased intercommunity encounters among bonobos (Pan paniscus) at LuiKotale
Group-living primates exhibit variable reactions to intergroup encounters (or IGEs), reflecting species-specific strategies and individual motivations. In chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ), dominating in IGEs provides fitness benefits. Less is known about responses to IGEs in bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) despite their equal relevance for understanding the origins of human intergroup relations. We observed the Bompusa West (WBp) bonobo community at LuiK…
Does exposure to parasites modify relationships between diurnal cortisol and leukocytes among Honduran women
BACKGROUND: Altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function and related changes in circulating glucocorticoids have been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases that involve dysregulated immune function. Glucocorticoid hormones have both direct and indirect modulatory effects on both pro- and anti-inflammatory aspects of the immune system, including granulocytic and lymphocytic leukocyte subsets. However, past findings are compl…
Responsiveness of the reproductive axis to a single missed evening meal in young adult males
Objectives: The male reproductive axis is responsive to energetic deficits, including multiday fasts, but little is known about brief periods of fasting ( Methods: Participants provided daily saliva and urine samples for two baseline days and the morning following an evening fast (water only after 4 PM). Testosterone, cortisol, and luteinizing hormone were measured with enzyme immunoassays. Results: Fasting specimens had significantly lower overn…
The effects of a long‐term psychosocial stress on reproductive indicators in the baboon
Psychosocial stress is thought to negatively impact fecundity, but human studies are confounded by variation in nutrition and lifestyle. Baboons offer a useful model to test the effect of prolonged mild stress on reproductive indicators in a controlled setting. Following relocation from social groups to solitary housing, a previously documented stressful event for nonhuman primates, daily urine samples, tumescence, and menstrual bleeding were mon…
Age-independent increases in male salivary testosterone during horticultural activity among Tsimane forager-farmers
Testosterone and male cognitive performance in T simane forager‐horticulturalists
OBJECTIVE: Testosterone plays a vital role in brain function and behavior. Among humans, age-related decline in testosterone is associated with declining cognitive functioning, and aging men with higher testosterone maintain better cognitive performance. However, most research focuses on industrialized populations with widespread access to formal schooling, high testosterone, and low parasite and pathogen load. We examine whether men's testostero…
Low mineral density of a weight‐bearing bone among adult women in a high fertility population
Evolutionary theories of aging posit that greater reproductive effort causes somatic decline given a fundamental trade‐off between investing energy in reproduction and repair. Few studies in high fertility human populations support this hypothesis, and problems of phenotypic correlation can obscure the expected trade‐off between reproduction and somatic condition. This cross‐sectional study investigates whether greater reproductive effort is asso…
Immune function in Amazonian horticulturalists
Tsimane ecology leads to lymphocyte repertoires and immunoglobulin profiles that differ from those observed in industrialised populations. These differences have consequences for disease susceptibility and co-vary with patterns of other life history traits, such as growth and reproduction
Associations between male testosterone and immune function in a pathogenically stressed forager‐horticultural population
OBJECTIVES: Despite well-known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone-mediated investment in reproductive effort trade-off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen-mediated trade-offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by …
High resting metabolic rate among Amazonian forager‐horticulturalists experiencing high pathogen burden
OBJECTIVES: Resting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60 to 75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declin…
Growth references for Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon
International references for BMI-for-age and WFH are likely appropriate for Tsimane, but differences in height-for-age and weight-for-age suggest Tsimane specific references may be useful for these measures
No Sex or Age Difference in Dead-Reckoning Ability among Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists
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…
Horticultural activity predicts later localized limb status in a contemporary pre‐industrial population
Objectives Modern humans may have gracile skeletons due to low physical activity levels and mechanical loading. Tests using pre‐historic skeletons are limited by the inability to assess behavior directly, while modern industrialized societies possess few socio‐ecological features typical of human evolutionary history. Among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists, we test whether greater activity levels and, thus, increased loading earlier in life are …
Group‐level competition influences urinary steroid hormones among wild red–tailed monkeys, indicating energetic costs
Various theories emphasize that intergroup competition should affect intragroup cooperation and social relationships, especially if the cost of intergroup competition outweighs that of intragroup competition. This cost of intergroup competition may be quantified by changes in physiological status, such as in the steroid hormones cortisol (C) and testosterone (T), which rise or are depressed during periods of energetic stress, respectively. Here w…
Child nutritional status among births exceeding ideal family size in a high fertility population
Ideal family size (IFS) is measured in social surveys to indicate unmet need for contraception and impending shifts in fertility behaviour. Whether exceeding IFS affects parental behaviour in ways that result in lower investments in child nutrition, well-being, and educational attainment is not known. This study examines parental IFS and the association between exceeding stated ideals and child nutritional status in a high-fertility, high-mortali…
Marital violence and fertility in a relatively egalitarian high-fertility population
Current Officers and Members of Standing Committees
Pre-registration is less costly and is possible online at www.humbio.org through March 20, 2019. Non-members who register for the meeting are also welcome to attend
Methodological differences cannot explain associations between health, anthropometrics, and excess resting metabolic rate
"We appreciate Ocobock's interest in methodological rigor. We largely agree with her commentary, which suggests that departures from standard protocols might have contributed to the high resting metabolic rate (RMR) measured for Tsimane. Indeed, our paper acknowledges many of the key departures from gold-standard indirect calorimetry methods of RMR assessment and attempts to adjust for several of these (Gurven et al., 2016). Bringing standard cli…
Old friends and friendly fire: Pregnancy, hookworm infection, and anemia among tropical horticulturalists
OBJECTIVES: Despite public health concerns about hookworm infection in pregnancy, little is known about immune profiles associated with hookworm (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale) infection during pregnancy. Fetal tolerance requirements may constrain maternal immune response to hookworm, thereby increasing susceptibility to new infections or increasing hemoglobin loss. To explore this possibility, we study systemic immune response and…
Relationship of sanitation, water boiling, and mosquito nets to health biomarkers in a rural subsistence population
OBJECTIVES: Throughout human evolutionary history, parasites and pathogens were a major cause of mortality-modern urban life with public health infrastructure has changed disease exposure. We examine associations between boiling water, using latrines, mosquito net usage, and biomarkers among the Tsimane, a nonindustrial subsistence population with little public health infrastructure. METHODS: We conducted cross sectional surveys on water, latrine…
Does exposure to parasites modify relationships between diurnal cortisol and leukocytes among Honduran women
BACKGROUND: Altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function and related changes in circulating glucocorticoids have been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases that involve dysregulated immune function. Glucocorticoid hormones have both direct and indirect modulatory effects on both pro- and anti-inflammatory aspects of the immune system, including granulocytic and lymphocytic leukocyte subsets. However, past findings are compl…
There and back again: The biosocial dynamics of returning from the field
BACKGROUND: Leaving "home" to pursue fieldwork is a necessity but also a rite of passage for many biological anthropology/human biology scholars. Field-based scientists prepare for the potential changes to activity patterns, sleep schedules, social interactions, and more that come with going to the field. However, returning from extended fieldwork and the reverse-culture shock, discomforts, and mental shifts that are part of the return process ca…
Dominance or Tolerance? Causes and consequences of a period of increased intercommunity encounters among bonobos (Pan paniscus) at LuiKotale
Group-living primates exhibit variable reactions to intergroup encounters (or IGEs), reflecting species-specific strategies and individual motivations. In chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ), dominating in IGEs provides fitness benefits. Less is known about responses to IGEs in bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) despite their equal relevance for understanding the origins of human intergroup relations. We observed the Bompusa West (WBp) bonobo community at LuiK…
What does prey harvest composition signal to a social audience: Experimental studies with Aché hunter-gatherers of Paraguay
Energetic costs of testosterone in two subsistence populations
OBJECTIVE: Testosterone plays a role in mediating energetic trade-offs between growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Investments in a high testosterone phenotype trade-off against other functions, particularly survival-enhancing immune function and cellular repair; thus only individuals in good condition can maintain both a high testosterone phenotype and somatic maintenance. While these effects are observed in experimental manipulations, they a…
Biology (17 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Demography (11 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (10 works) · Population (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Ecology (8 works) · Internal Medicine (8 works) · Endocrinology (7 works) · Internal Medicine (7 works)