Marcus J. Hamilton

My background is a combination of evolutionary anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and theoretical ecology. My research addresses the general principles that underlie the evolution of human ecology in the past, present, and future, from hunter-gatherer societies, to contemporary industrialized nation states. I am particularly interested in human universals and the predictability of human uniqueness, despite it’s novelty in the evolution of life. I work at multiple scales, from life history theory and behavioral ecology, to population dynamics and biogeography. I am interested in how processes operating simultaneously at multiple spatial, temporal and organizational scales integrate to form the complexity of human systems we see around us, and how this complexity evolved. My research emphasizes theory building and data analysis in equal parts and combines aspects of the physical, life, and social sciences. I am interested both in the theoretical understanding of complex human systems, but also in the applied role anthropological science can play in understanding the potential evolutionary trajectories of human systems into the future, including the conservation and preservation of indigenous societies.

I am a joint postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University. For more information and publications please go to http://marcusjhamilton.weebly.com/.