Honors and Prizes

 

How delighted I was to learn that John Maynard Smith, Ernst Mayr, and George C. Williams share the 1999 Crafoord Prize "... for their fundamental contributions to the conceptual development of evolutionary biology" (http://www.kva.se/ eng/pg/prizes/crafoord/pressr99.html).  The same honor was bestowed upon E.O. Wilson in 1990, W.D. Hamilton in 1993, and Robert May in 1996.  All we HBESers have benefited profoundly from the scholarship and imaginations of these men.  I can think of other deserving candidates, and maybe the Crafoord Committee will read my mind.

An Olympic-sized race for prize-giving seems to be underway.  Sweden’s Crafoord Prize fills the bioscience niche unoccupied by the Nobel prizes, as do others like the Kyoto prize (won by Jane Goodall in 1990 and WD Hamilton in 1993) and the Japan prize (won by E.O. Wilson in 1993 and by Ernst Mayr in 1994).  These prizes honor lifetime achievement rather than the promise of achievement (but don’t underestimate the current Crafoord winners).  The MacArthur Fellows awards are for people with outstanding promise and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships facilitate promising projects.  All these honors and prizes are well known and ensure relative prosperity and prestige for the prize-winners.  For the nations, organizations and people who sponsor these awards the indirect benefits reside in valuable increments in publicity, prestige, and power as well as tax benefits.  For the rest of us – the admiring onlookers – we benefit from having the winners and prize-givers publicizing and prioritizing the kinds of research and intellectual agendas that we also value.  In general, we need help in allocating our time and attention; how do you decide what novel to read among hundreds of current options without the Booker, Giller and Pulitzer prize lists? 

And HBES has its own set of prizes:  the New Investigator prize, the Post-doctoral prize, and the Poster Prize.  Don’t you think the names for our HBES prizes are quite forgettable?  Nobel is now a household name and few think of dynamite when the name is mentioned.  Nobel, Crafoord, MacArthur, Guggenheim all invested in the posterity of their patronym, but others have invested in a corporate name or a place name.  One can also invest in another person’s name.   I think Hamilton or Williams or Alexander have sort of a nice ring to them, especially since three embodiments of these names have been enthusiastic supporters of HBES.

                John Maynard Smith, Ernst Mayr, and George Williams have studied a variety of species.  They have transformed how we think about the evolutionary dynamics underlying the design and diversity of life created by ecological, social and demographic challenges.  But the conceptual foundations they have helped build are merely foundations; there are many people, including themselves, working hard to create a robust and lasting structure.  To see what this structure might look like we have to attend to the ideas and findings published in journals like TREE, Evolution, American Naturalist, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Journal of theoretical Biology, Behavioral Ecology, Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, and Animal Behavior, as well as our own journals Human Nature and Evolution & Human Behavior.  Just because one happens to have received a degree from a psychology department or is currently situated within an anthropology department does not mean that the ideas and findings of a sister discipline like ecology or evolutionary biology are beyond our ken or otherwise out-of-bounds. 

It’s been a real honor serving HBES as President and a pleasure to be sandwiched between Dick Alexander and John Tooby.  Don’t forget to vote for your representatives.  Don’t forget to test alternative hypotheses.  And do actively participate in making the Human Behavior & Evolution Society a rigorous, innovative, democratic, multidisciplinary and international academic society.  See you in June in Salt Lake City.

 

Your President,

Margo Wilson

 

 

 

 

The 11th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society will be held at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, June 2-6, 1999. Information on registration (including by e-mail),accommodations, program updates, and tours is available at the conferences website, http://kimura.anthro.utah.edu/hbes99.html, and in the previous newsletter, which is also available at the HBES home page, http://157.242.64.83/hbes.htm. If you have questions not answered by these sources, please contact Conference Services about registration and housing (801-581-5809, confer@admin.dce.utah.edu), Steve Gangestad about abstracts and the program (505-277-2022, sgangest@unm.edu) and Elizabeth Cashdan about other information (801-581-4672, cashdan@anthro.utah.edu).

          Program highlights. Keynote address: Sarah Hrdy, "The answers to these questions must be ... historical, biological and ecological." Plenary speakers: Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, "Demographic transition: closing in on an evolutionary explanation?"; Anne Campbell, "Female aggression: fear, form and frequency"; James  Connell, "Grandmothering and the evolution of Homo erectus"; Marion Petrie, "Mate choice and genetic variation"; William Rice, "Adaptation and co-evolution of the sexes: gender-specific fitness, interlocus contest evolution (ICE), and sexually antagonistic genes"; Richard Udry, "Avoiding the gender blahs". Symposia. Alternative Approaches to the Evolution of Cooperation; Biopoetics; Constraining Evolutionary Hypotheses of Human Male Homosexuality; Darwinian Ecology: Evolutionary Perspectives on Environmental Problems; Examining the Validity of the Waist-to-Hip Ratio Hypothesis of Human Female Sexual Attractiveness; New Directions in the Study of Food and Fitness; Ontogeny of Human Reproductive Strategies; Scents and Sensibilities: The Chemistry of Mate Choice; The Food of Love, the Love of Food. Panel Discussion. "Risk-taking". Student Workshop. John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, "Guideposts to a future in the evolutionary sciences."

          Special events calendar. Wednesday: Welcome Reception, University Union (7-10pm). Thursday: Student dinner; Poster session (evening). Friday: Student workshop noon); banquet and keynote address (evening). Saturday: Business meeting (noon); barbecue (evening).Sunday: Morning paper session only.

          About Salt Lake City. The University is a 20-minute drive from Salt Lake City.  Weather in early June in Salt Lake should be balmy with little chance of rain; expect high temperatures in the upper 70s, lows in the low 50s. The University is at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, site of most of the venues for the 2002 winter Olympics. You might want to include some local travel in your itinerary; national parks within a day's drive of Salt Lake City include Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Canyonlands, and Grand Teton.  We have arranged two guided tours following the conference, one a one-day tour of the Wasatch mountains and Park City, the other a four-day tour of the region's national parks. See the conference website (given above) for further information.

 

 

In 1997, the title of the official journal of HBES became Evolution & Human Behavior, and subscriptions to the journal topped 1000 for the first time.  Recent news from the publishers, Elsevier Science Inc., indicates that the journal's influence and  visibility are continuing to grow.  According to the latest statistics compiled by the Social Sciences Citation Index, E&HB ranks number one in "impact" among 19 journals in an area labeled "social sciences, biomedical"!  ("Impact" is a measure of the frequency with which recent articles in the journal are cited in other scientific literature.)

    We are pleased that the journal's contents reflect the society's interdisciplinary membership.  The recently completed volume 19 (1998) contained articles originating in departments of Psychology, Biology, Anthropology, Economics, Psychiatry, Medical Sociology, and Social Work.  Submissions from HBES's small, but active arts and humanities contingent have been scarce, but perhaps Joseph Carroll's forthcoming essay on "The deep structure of literary representations" (scheduled for the May issue) will inspire other strong contributions.

    We are also pleased that the journal's contents are international in scope.  Empirical papers in volume 19 reported data from Belize, Canada, China, Eire, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Paraguay, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Papers in volume 20, number 2 (which will be mailed soon) add Austria, Belgium, Brazil, and Sweden to the list.

    We think it appropriate that the majority of E&HB's papers are empirical reports, but we are also very pleased to publish some strong theoretical papers, such as David Haig's "Asymmetric relations: internal conflicts and the horror of incest" in the current issue (vol. 20, number 2).

    So things are going very well at E&HB, but of course we still need your help!  Make sure that your colleagues who are not yet HBES members know what they're missing.  Let us know about new and forthcoming books that warrant review.  And remember E&HB's large and growing influence when you're thinking about where to submit your best work!

 

Special subscription offer. The publisher Aldine de Gruyter offers HBES  members a special reduced subscription rate  to the journal Human Nature, edited by Jane Lancaster. The normal subscription rate is $85 per year , but HBES members may subscribe for  $50 year. Note that subscriptions are for a full volume (one year), so when you subscribe you pay for all 4 issues of that year.

            Scope and mission.  The journal Human Nature is dedicated to advancing the interdisciplinary study of  human social behavior. It features overviews and statements of biosocial interpretation and research, and it focuses on the ways in which biological, social and environmental factors influence and are influenced by human behavior. It includes investigations of : biological, ecological and demographic conditions and consequences of human history;  psychological and cognitive processes; cross-cultural, cross-species, and historical perspectives on human behavior; and the relevance of biosocial perspectives to scientific, social and policy issues.  It also includes news briefs about relevant recent conferences and research reports.

 

                                                                                        Human  Nature

 

Please enter my subscription at the HBES member’s rate, beginning with volume 10, # 1, for 1999.

 

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Please vote for your favorite candidates !  These people will represent your HBES

interests. Place an X in the box to indicate your choice. Then, read the amendments to the HBES constitution at the end of this newsletter and please vote to affirm or not affirm them below. Detach this sheet, fold and staple it so that the address shows on the back, put a stamp on it and mail it.

 

President (make one choice only):

o          A.J. Figueredo (Psychology, University of Arizona)

o           William Irons (Anthropology, Northwestern University)

o          Gary Johnson (Political Science, Lake Superior State University)

 

o       Patrick McKim (Social Sciences, Cal Polytechnic University)

o       Peter Richerson (Environmental Science & Policy, U. of California Davis)

 

Two council members (two choices only, to replace William Irons and Lee Cronk):

o         Nicholas Blurton-Jones (Anthropology, U. of California Los Angeles)

o         Elizabeth Cashdan (Anthropology, U. of Utah)

o         Steven Gaulin (Anthropology, U. of Pittsburgh) 

o         Martin Lalumière (Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, U. of Toronto)

o         Todd Shackelford (Psychology, Florida Atlantic University)

o         Joan Silk (Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles)

 

*************************************************************

 

The Executive Council requests that you indicate your affirmation (or not) of the proposed amendments to the Constitution (which was originally drafted in 1989) at the end of this newsletter. The amendments are intended to reflect current practices of the Society.  The copy of the draft of the Constitution included in this newsletter was published previously in the Spring 1998 newsletter.  Please note Section 2 of Article II and Section 1 of Article VII of the Constitution.

 

Amendment Ballot (please circle either “affirm” or “do not affirm”)

 

I    affirm / do not affirm the adoption of the proposed revisions (dated March 25, 1999) to

the Human Behavior and Evolution Society Constitution.

 

 

Mail to:

Richard D. Alexander

Museum of Zoology

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor MI 48109

  USA

 

The Human Behavior & Evolution Society  (HBES) was formed in 1988 to promote the exchange of ideas and research findings among scholars of all disciplines who are using modern evolutionary theory in their studies of human behavior. An invitation to join the society is extended to all who share its aims.

                HBES is a highly eclectic group, consisting of scholars from many fields, including psychology, anthropology, psychiatry, economics, medicine, philosophy, literature, biology, sociology, artificial intelligence, art, law and political science. Our membership is world-wide.

          Most of us are professional academics, but approximately 20% of us are students. In order to encourage student scholarship, special awards are granted at our annual meetings for the best pre and post-doctoral papers. To finance these awards and other student activities, members are encouraged to donate to the HBES Student Fund. Every little bit helps.

 

Members receive:

·News of the Society                                          ·Membership Directory                    ·Reduced subscription rate for Human

·Meeting Announcements                                ·Electronic Bulletin                             Nature

·Reduced Meeting Fee                                       ·Vote in Society Elections                ·Subscription to our journal Evolution &                                                               Human Behavior

 

			Evolution and Human Behavior (formerly Ethology and Sociobiology) has been the official journal of HBES since 1994. E&HB publishes six issues per year. Membership in the Society includes a journal subscription. Please note that E&HB subscriptions through the Society are for individual use of HBES members only; copies may not be given to libraries.  Memberships should be submitted as early as possible because Elsevier takes 8 to 10 weeks to put subscriptions into effect.                 Members may also receive a reduced subscription rate to Human Nature of $50.00 plus a handling fee of $4.00 (domestic) or $5.00 (international).

 

                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Policies on Dues and Memberships

                HBES memberships are activated in January of each year and extend through the end of December, irrespective of when a member joins. That is, whether you join  in January, July or December of 1999, your membership expires Jan.1, 2000 and you receive all six issues –the complete 1999 volume, 20--of our journal, E&HB. The reason for this policy is that the publisher of our journal, Elsevier, only handles “full volume”  (full year) subscriptions.

                For most applicants, the “Regular Membership” applies. A “Student Membership” is available to those actively enrolled in a degree-granting program. Student applicants must attach a copy of a current student card or a letter from their major professor. “Joint Memberships” are also offered in both the Regular and Student categories. Joint Members receive all the perquisites of membership, but only one subscription of the journal is sent to a Joint Membership pair. When applying for Joint Membership, please use two copies of the application form, providing complete data for each person. Also, designate who should receive the journal subscription.  To make HBES membership more attractive and affordable to those residing outside the USA, Canada and Mexico, the $18 per year “overseas” postage is no longer in effect.

 

Credit Card Payments

                For reasons of economy, we ask residents of the USA, Canada and Mexico to pay in U.S. dollars by personal check or money order. The option of paying by credit card is available ONLY to members residing outside the USA, Canada and Mexico. These credit card payments will be processed by Elsevier Science, the publishers of our journal.

 

Officers of the Society, 1998-1999 President: Margo Wilson                  Treasurer: Patrick McKim                          E&HB Editors: Martin Daly, Margo Wilson President-elect: John Tooby            Secy./Archivist: Kevin MacDonald                          Newsletter Editor: William Zimmerman Past President: Richard Alexander  Student Rep.: Barry Friedman                     Publication Chair: Randolph Nesse Council Members: Lee Cronk (term expires), Steve Gangestad, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, William Irons (term expires), Linda Mealey, Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder

If your membership dues have been paid, this newsletter should include a ballot for two matters: election of new officers and affirmation (or not) of the Executive Council’s proposed amendments to the constitution below (the constitution was originally drafted in 1989.)The amendments are intended to reflect current practices of the Society.  Words in [bold and square brackets] will be deleted and italicized words will be added. This draft of the Constitution was published previously in the Spring 1998 newsletter.  Please note Section 2 of Article II and Section 1 of Article VII of the Constitution.

 

THE HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION SOCIETY CONSTITUTION

 

ARTICLE 1    Name and Purpose

 

     Section 1.  The Society shall be known as The Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

     Section 2.  The purpose of the Society shall be to encourage the use of evolutionary theory to understand human behavior and to promote the exchange of information about relevant research and scholarship among interested scientists and scholars in all disciplines.  The methods for accomplishing these purposes shall include a meeting to be held annually.

     Section 3.  Neither the Society, nor its Council, committees or officers acting in their capacity as such shall take positions on social or political issues and controversies.

 

ARTICLE II   Membership and Dues

 

    Section 1.  Any persons shall be eligible for membership who have contributed or, as registered graduate students, are preparing to contribute to the development and use of Darwinian evolutionary theory to improve understanding of human behavior, the behavior of other animals or the organic processes associated with behavior.

    Section 2.  The dues for membership shall be determined by the Council.  Members whose dues are not in arrears shall have the right to vote.

 

 

    Section 1.  The elected Officers of the Society shall be a President, a President-Elect, a Past-President, each serving [one] two-year terms, and a [Secretary-Treasurer] Secretary-Archivist and a Treasurer each serving a six-year term.  The President-Elect [and Secretary-Treasurer], Treasurer and Secretary-Archivist shall be elected directly by the Society electorate.  The President-Elect and the President, shall automatically become President and Past-President, respectively, at the completion of their [one] two-year terms.  The President-Elect shall become President if the office of President becomes vacant and shall then serve until the end of the term following the term of the previous President.  A President who resigns before the end of her or his elected term shall become Past-President at the end of the term.

    Section 2.  The Council shall consist of thirteen voting members.  The members shall be the [four] five officers of the Society, six members-at-large elected for staggered [3] 6-year terms with two elected each biennial year, and [three] one member[s]-at-large appointed by the Council for [staggered three] a six-year term[s] [with one appointed each year], as well as a student representative shall be elected annually by the graduate students as their representative to Council.  No member-at-large shall be eligible for a new term until two years after the expiration of a previous term.

    Section 3.  The Council shall be the governing body of the Society.  The Council shall meet at least once each year at the time of the annual meeting of the Society.  Additional Council meetings may be called by the President or by a majority of the Council members.  The Council shall call regular and special meetings of the Society.  It shall set registration fees and other policies for each annual meeting.  It shall adopt an annual budget for the regular meeting, for routine administrative expenses and for any other Society activities it may authorize.  It shall fill vacancies in its elective membership, such appointees to hold office until the next regular election. It shall have the power to interpret the Constitution.  It shall decide policies on any activities representing the society.  In making decisions on behalf of the Society, the Council may decide to consult the membership.  When the Council is not in session, the President may make such temporary rulings as are necessary, subject to review by the Council at its next meeting, or he/she may submit questions [by mail] to all members of the Council for their vote.  A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum of the Council.

    Section 4.  The President shall preside at meetings of the Society and shall chair the Council.  The President shall be authorized to fill any vacancies that may occur on committees for the remainder of unexpired terms and shall perform such other duties as are incident to the office or as may be required by vote of the membership or of the Council at any duly constituted meeting.

    Section 5.  The President-Elect shall chair meetings of the Society and the Council in the absence of the President.

    Section 6.  The Secretary-[Treasurer] Archivist shall be the recording secretary of the Council and of the Society.  The Secretary- [Treasurer] Archivist shall make a report to the membership once each year on the organization and activities of the Council and the Society.  The Secretary-Archivist shall maintain information concerning the Constitution, persons serving on the Executive Council and their terms of office, and the annual meeting including local hosts and program chairs, the program and the book of abstracts.

          The [Secretary-] Treasurer shall receive and have custody of the Society’s funds, maintain its accounts and pay expenses authorized by the Society’s budget.  At the end of each fiscal year, the accounts shall be audited by a certified public accountant approved by the Council and the report communicated to the Council and the Society.  The Treasurer shall provide a list of members eligible to vote and to receive newsletters and meeting announcements.  The Treasurer shall receive election ballots in order to determine voting eligibility, and also retain the ballots for a period of 30 days after the results have been officially announced to the membership pending any requested review of voting procedures.

    Section 7.  The immediate Past-President shall [act upon membership applications and shall maintain a current list of members eligible to vote] preside over the biennial election of council members.

 

ARTICLE IV    Meetings

 

    Section 1.  The Council shall call a general meeting of the society to be held each year at a time and location of its choosing.  At each annual meeting there shall be at least one business meeting at which the Officers and Council shall report to the Society and respond to questions from members.  A majority of the members present may pass resolutions consistent with Article 1, Section 3 provided there is a quorum of 25% of the total membership.

     Section 2.  [Notice of each regular business meeting and any special business meeting that may be called by the Council shall be mailed to each member of the Society at least fifteen days before the meeting.]  Members of the Society will be notified of each regular business meeting and any special business meeting that may be called by the Council at least fifteen days before the meeting.

 

ARTICLE V    Elections and Appointments

 

    Section 1.  The President-Elect, Secretary-Archivist and Treasurer and elected members of the Council shall be elected by mail ballot of those qualified to vote.  They shall take office at the end of the annual meeting of the Society following their election.

    Section 2.  The member-at-large of the Council to be appointed each year shall be appointed at the Council meeting held during the annual meeting of the Society and shall take office at the end of that meeting.

    Section 3.  The Elections Committee consisting of Past-President and any members of Council approved by the Council shall invite the electorate to suggest nominees.  The invitation shall be issued by mail no less than four months prior to the next annual meeting and shall be returned no less than three months prior to that meeting.  The Elections Committee shall select the final slate of candidates.  This selection shall be guided by the suggestions of the electorate and shall endeavor to maintain representation of the various disciplines of the Society’s membership.  The Elections Committee shall determine the willingness of nominees to serve, if elected.  The election ballot shall contain the names of three nominees for each officer position and of six nominees for elected Council member-at-large, and shall designate space for write-in candidates.  The Elections Committee shall be responsible for the conduct of the election.  Ballots shall be mailed no less than two months prior to the next annual meeting and shall be returned no less than one month prior to that meeting.  Members of the electorate may vote for one candidate for each officer position and for two candidates for elected Council member-at-large.  Each voter shall sign the envelope in which the ballot is returned.  The candidates that received the highest number of votes for each officer position and the highest and second highest number of votes for elected Council member-at-large shall be elected.  The Elections Committee shall [tabulate] oversee the tabulation of the ballots and report the results to the President.

    Section 4.  Election results shall be reviewed and verified by the Council if any voter so requests within thirty days after results are announced to the membership of the Society.  All ballots shall be retained by the [Secretary-] Treasurer at least until the end of that thirty-day period and until any requested review has been completed.

 

ARTICLE VI    Committees

 

    Section 1.  The Elections Committee shall consist of the Past-President serving as chair and up to three members appointed by the Council at or following its regular annual meeting.  The ballots will be remitted to the Treasurer who will retain the ballots in their original enveloped until they are counted by the Treasurer and at least one member of the Elections Committee.

    Section 2.  The Program Committee and its chair shall be appointed by the Council at or following the Society’s regular annual meeting.  The Program Committee shall issue announcements and call for papers and presentations for the next meeting and distribute a program in advance of the meeting.  All program proposals and all submitted papers and presentations shall be judged and accepted or rejected by the Program Committee, or by appropriate persons selected by the Committee, on their scientific or scholarly merits and their conformity to the purposes of the Society.

    Section 3.  The Council shall appoint a Local Arrangements chair at or following the Society’s regular annual meeting.  The new Local Arrangements chair, in consultation with the President, may appoint a co-chair and/or a Committee to assist in making arrangements for the next meeting.

    Section 4.  The Council may establish such other committees as may be helpful in the management of the Society’s affairs.

    Section 5.  In appointing committee members and chairs, the Council shall endeavor to maintain representations of the various disciplines of the Society’s membership.

 

ARTICLE VII    Amendments

 

     Section 1.  The Constitution may be amended by affirmative vote of two-thirds of those voting in a referendum submitted by mail to the Society’s voting membership.

     Section 2.  Amendments may be proposed by majority vote of the Council or by petition of at least five percent of the Society’s voting membership.

     Section 3.  Proposed amendments shall be transmitted to eligible voters at least 45 days before the deadline for return of votes.

original draft: 13 November 1989                          Signatories of Approved Revision dated _______