Ruth Mace

@ruthmace.bsky.social

670 followers 120 following 41 posts

Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, UCL

Ruth Mace FBA is a British anthropologist, biologist, and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history, and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at University College London. .. more

Psychology 35%

Sociology 19%

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Reposted by Ruth Mace

Reposted by Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear, Hansraj Gautam

Euan Angus Young @euantheyoung.bsky.social · 1d

1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 1d

Tomorrow Tuesday @UCLanthropology evo anth seminar: Ozan Aksoy 'Hair speaks: social context and the interpretation of religious signals such as veiling and beards'. DFL 3.30-5pm followed by🍷 All welcome
www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Evolutionary Anthropology seminars

Exploring the evolutionary roots of human behaviour, biology, and culture through interdisciplinary research and debate.

www.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Ruth Mace, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 2 more Nandita Sharma, Ruth Mace, Elizabeth Stokoe, Lesley A. Hall, Mark Priestley

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 1d

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

Reposted by Nathan Nunn

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 3d

FINALLY we understand why lactase persistance spread!
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans

Cox et al. combine polygenic scores and skeletal metrics to show that Neolithic Europeans were not substantially shorter than earlier or later groups. They also show a strong gene-environment interact...

www.cell.com

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 3d

The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | by George Brill and Mark Dyble. Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement - Volume 7

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Martín Haspelmath

Reposted by Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear

Dr Emily Emmott @ehemmott.bsky.social · 8d

Funding for students!!

New £6k UCL Anthropology MSc Bursary for Home students:
www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships...

You can also apply to the £10k UCL Bursary at the same time - so if you get both, it should cover all your fees & a chunk of living costs🤞
www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships...

Julia Scott Memorial Bursary

The aim of the Julia Scott Memorial Bursary is intended to enable students in financial need to pursue their postgraduate studies in the Anthropology Department at UCL.

www.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear , and 1 more Joanna Bryson, Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear, David W. Lawson

EHBEA 2026 @ehbea2026.bsky.social · 13d

Leiden looking good today ;-)
📢 Abstract submission will be open Nov 1st – Dec 15th for EHBEA 2026
⚡Present your research, connect & collaborate 14-17 April
📝 300 words (extendable to 800 after acceptance)
For more information & our full call for abstracts, check www.ehbea2026.com

EHBEA 2026 in Leiden - abstract submission opens soon!

Reposted by Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear, Aidan O’Sullivan

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury @rebaysalisbury.bsky.social · 14d

Happy to announce that reflections on our workshop about non-biological kinship in Vienna last year is already published!
@anahcorral.bsky.social @sabinacvecek.bsky.social
www.sciepublish.com/article/pii/...

Beyond Genetics: Exploring Aspects of Non-Biological Kinship in Prehistoric Times

This article explores alternative ways of conceptualizing kinship in prehistoric contexts beyond the confines of genetic reductionism. While ancient DNA research has revitalized interest in the archae...

www.sciepublish.com

Reposted by Ruth Mace

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 19d

Check out the new 'most read' tab at EHS (Evolutionary Human Sciences), currently topped by this paper by @olkcampbell.bsky.social et al on sex ratio and violence against women

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · Jul 12

Skewed sex ratios correlate with violence against women from spouses, boyfriends and in-laws, but less so for honour-based violence from natal family @olkcampbell.bsky.social Maheen Pracha @ruthmace.bsky.social | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Skewed sex ratios and violence against women in Pakistan | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

Skewed sex ratios and violence against women in Pakistan

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Ruth Mace

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Ruth Mace, Richard McElreath , and 4 more Dorothy Bishop, Ruth Mace, Richard McElreath, Martin Paul Eve, Rebecca Sear, Kelly Smith, José Pina-Sánchez

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19d

'New proposals by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and Sage were sent to universities this week after their initial offers were decisively rejected by institutions in a sector-wide consultation run by Jisc,...negotiating jointly with Universities UK on behalf of universities.' 1/3

New offers from big five ‘still too costly’ for UK universities

‘Significant’ number of institutions predicted to drop deals with main scholarly imprints, leaving journal access much reduced

www.timeshighereducation.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 21d

'21st century resurgence of eugenics and scientific racism' @rebeccasear.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk Evolutionary Anthropology seminar. Tomorrow TUESDAY 3.30-5pm DFL followed by 🍷 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Evolutionary Anthropology seminars

Exploring the evolutionary roots of human behaviour, biology, and culture through interdisciplinary research and debate.

www.ucl.ac.uk

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 21d

Cultural evolution in the laboratory: evolution of cooperative altruistic punishing | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core - William Baum and Pete Richerson www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Cultural evolution in the laboratory: evolution of cooperative altruistic punishing | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

Cultural evolution in the laboratory: evolution of cooperative altruistic punishing - Volume 7

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Ruth Mace

Martin Lang @martinlangcz.bsky.social · 25d

In our new paper, we show why religious signals can serve as reliable markers of commitment: insiders perceive both cooperative and supernatural benefits in participation, but outsiders—who don’t share those supernatural expectations—see no comparable gains, making the signal not worhtwile

Eva Kundtová Klocová @kundtova.bsky.social · 25d

Our (with Pushkar Puryag, Radek Kundt & @martinlangcz.bsky.social ) study on the perceived costs & benefits of the Kavadi ritual in Mauritius was recently published in EHS.

👉 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Person with metal skewers in their back during Thaipusam Kavadi, between emojis symbolizing perceived health benefits and physical pain.

Reposted by Ruth Mace

Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 28d

Today Tuesday Claudia Wascher on communication in corvids @UCL Anthropology 3.30pm DFL followed by 🍷 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Evolutionary Anthropology seminars

Exploring the evolutionary roots of human behaviour, biology, and culture through interdisciplinary research and debate.

www.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by Ruth Mace

Reposted by Ruth Mace, David W. Lawson

Mauro Silva Júnior @maurosilvajunior.bsky.social · Oct 11

Researchers analyzed 102 “just-so” stories shared in online antifeminist spaces. 83% focused on sex differences and rarely acknowledged speculation. The authors call for renewed discussion and reflection on evolutionary hypothesizing.
🔗 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A Hundred and Two Just-So Stories: Exploring the Lay Evolutionary Hypotheses of the Manosphere | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

A Hundred and Two Just-So Stories: Exploring the Lay Evolutionary Hypotheses of the Manosphere

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Ruth Mace

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