Faculty / Researchers

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Michael Gurven wears a blue shirt and a blazer
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
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Michael Gurven

Professor
Anthropology
Website

Professor Gurven's research links the evolved life history of humans with high levels of intragroup cooperation. He has conducted fieldwork for two decades with South American indigenous populations, and his work takes an evolutionary perspective on behavior, health, physiology and psychology.

Featured Articles

wooden block with one happy and sad faces

Is ‘U-shaped happiness’ universal? Not for rural subsistence populations, say researchers
Bolivian tribe receiving health education regarding COVID-19
Photo Credit
Michael Gurven
A health educator conveys information about COVID-19 transmission to members of Bolivia's Tsimané population

Remoteness did little to reduce COVID-19 spread to Amazonian Tsimané
a group of researchers in Bolivia
Photo Credit
Michael Gurven
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project mobile field team, consisting of UCSB anthropologist Michael Gurven, center bottom, and including UCSB undergraduate researcher Tianyu Cao (far right), is composed of several Tsimane anthropologists, a Tsimane health promoter, as well as a Bolivian physician and biochemist.

New research shows genetic mutation known for Alzheimer’s disease is associated with higher fertility in women
Tsimané fishing with bows and arrows
Photo Credit
Michael Gurven
Compared to industrialized counterparts Tsimané people of lowland Bolivia have less food availability and must expend more effort to get it

Greater fat stores and blood cholesterol increase with brain volume, but beyond a certain point they are associated with faster brain aging
A family, made up of a couple and their three children, in the Amazon stands together smiling.
Photo Credit
Michael Gurven
The Tsimane are an indigenous population in the Bolivian Amazon

Researchers uncover natural selection for traits associated with immunity and metabolism in Tsimane and Moseten genomes

The Importance of Elders

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