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Eva Brandl

Research staff

Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 760
e-mail: eva_brandl@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

I am an anthropologist with a background in social and evolutionary anthropology, including behavioural ecology and cultural evolution. Broadly, I am interested in kinship, marriage, childrearing, and child development, which I investigate using biocultural and mixed-methods approaches. My regional specialty is on Melanesia and the South Pacific; my field work has focused on rural areas of Vanuatu. My doctoral work examined cultural influences on child development in Vanuatu and, more broadly, topics related to the cultural evolution of cognition and learning. I also did research on child circulation and residence arrangements. My postdoctoral research examines customary marriage exchanges such as bride price – how they evolve, how they affect women’s status, and how they are changing under modernization.

I am a member of the BirthRites independent research group.

Education

2021 PhD Biological Anthropology 
Department of Anthropology,
University College London 
2016MPhil Social Anthropology 
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography,
University of Oxford
2014BA Comparative Religion                      
Interfaculty Programme for the Study of Religion,
Ludwig Maximilians University  Munich, with a year abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Publications

In press

Brandl, E., Micheletti, A., & Mace, R. (in press). Was ist eigentlich Kulturevolution? In M. Hammerl, S. Schwarz, & K. Willführ (Eds.), Evolutionäre Sozialwissenschaften. Springer.

2024

Brandl, E., & Colleran, H. (2024). Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 6: e29, pp. 1-22.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2023

Micheletti, A., Brandl, E., Zhang, H., Peacey, S., & Mace, R. (2023). Cultural evolution research needs to include human behavioural ecology. In A. du Crest (Ed.), Evolutionary thinking across disciplines: Problems and perspectives in generalized Darwinism (pp. 501-528). Springer.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Brandl, E., Mace, R., & Heyes, C. (2023). The cultural evolution of teaching. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5: e14.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Brandl, E., Emmott, E. H., & Mace, R. (2023). Development of teaching in ni-Vanuatu children. Child Development, 94(6), 1713-1729.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Brandl, E., Emmott, E., & Mace, R. (2023). Adoption, fostering and parental absence in Vanuatu. Human Nature, 34(3), 422-455.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2022

Micheletti, A. J. C., Brandl, E., & Mace, R. (2022). What is cultural evolution anyway? Behavioral Ecology, 33(4), 667-669.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Whitehouse, H., Turchin, P., Francois, P., Hoyer, D., Nugent, S. [et al, including Brandl, E.] (2022). Big Gods and Big Science: Further reflections on theory, data, and analysis. Religion, Brain and Behavior.
DOI 

Larson, J., Turchin, P., Whitehouse, H., Francois, P. , Hoyer, D., Nugent, S. [et al, including Brandl, E.] (2022). Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: A test of competing hypotheses using the SESHAT databank. Religion, Brain and Behavior.
DOI

2019

Brandl, E. (2019). Survey of late complexity societies. In: D. Hoyer and J. Reddish (eds.): The SESHAT History of the Axial Age. Beresta Books

2018

Currie, T. E. , Turchin, P., Whitehouse, H., Francois, P. , Feeney, K., Mullins, D., Hoyer, D. [et al, including Brandl, E.] (2018). Reply to Tosh et al: Quantitative analyses of cultural evolution require engagement with historical and archaeological research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI

2017

Turchin, P., Currie, T. E., Whitehouse, H., Francois, P. , Feeney, K., Mullins, D., Hoyer, D. [et al, including Brandl, E.] (2017). Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI