Aging Process and Human Evolution Focus of Anthropology Lecture

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy presents, “Aging and Post-reproductive Life in a Tra­di­tional World: Behav­ior, Phys­i­ol­ogy and The­ory” with UNM anthro­pol­ogy pro­fes­sor Hillard Kaplan on Thurs­day, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Maxwell Museum/Hibben Cen­ter. The event is free and open to the public. 

From field research con­ducted in low­land Bolivia with Tsi­mane Native South Amer­i­cans, Kaplan shares vital infor­ma­tion about the aging process among Tsi­mane forager-horticulturalists and the impli­ca­tions of under­stand­ing human evolution.

Kaplan, who directs the Tsi­mane Health and Life His­tory Project, will review the lat­est find­ings on behav­ior, inter-generational trans­fers, phys­i­cal func­tion, immuno­com­pe­tence and car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease. Tsi­mane men and women con­tinue to pro­vide food for their chil­dren and grand­chil­dren until about age 70, the modal age at death for tra­di­tional pop­u­la­tions. Men and women adjust their time use as they age, adapt­ing to phys­i­cal decline. Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease is rare, and heart func­tion remains pre­served into the eighth decade of life. Immunose­nes­cence, along with func­tional decline, appears to be the major dri­ver in the increas­ing risk of mor­tal­ity with age.

The lec­ture will con­clude with a dis­cus­sion on the the­ory of human lifes­pan evo­lu­tion, and impor­tant new direc­tions for research.

Kaplan received his Ph.D. from the Uni­ver­sity of Utah. His recent research and pub­li­ca­tions exam­ine the evo­lu­tion of human life course, focus­ing on inte­gra­tion of his­tory the­ory in biol­ogy and human cap­i­tal the­ory in eco­nom­ics, with spe­cific emphases on fer­til­ity, parental invest­ment and aging in devel­oped, devel­op­ing and tra­di­tional set­tings.  He has also con­ducted field­work with native South Africans. 

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact: Mary Beth Her­mans at 277‑1400 or mhermans@unm.edu