My research as a primatologist and human evolutionary ecologist has addressed the evolution of human and non-human primate life histories, diet, reproductive biology, and social behavior. My current research focuses in particular on the evolution of human parental investment, fertility decisions, intelligence, and lifespan.

I received my PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to the University of New Mexico in 1985, I held positions at Berkeley, Rutgers State University, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Oklahoma.

I am the editor of the journal Human Nature: An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective. Human Nature is dedicated to advancing the interdisciplinary investigation of the biological, social, and environmental factors that underlie human behavior. It focuses primarily on the functional unity in which these factors are continuously and mutually interactive. These include the evolutionary, biological, and sociological processes as they interact with human social behavior; the biological and demographic consequences of human history; the cross-cultural, cross-species, and historical perspectives on human behavior; and the relevance of a biosocial perspective to scientific, social, and policy issues.

Selected Publications

2010

J. B. Lancaster and H. S. Kaplan (2010) Embodied capital and extra-somatic wealth in human evolution and human history. M. P. Muehlenbein, Ed. Human Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 439-455 pdf

2009

J. B. Lancaster and H. S. Kaplan (2009) The endocrinology of the Human Adaptive Complex. P. T. Ellison and P. G. Gray, Eds. Endocrinology of Social Relationships, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 95-119. pdf

2008

J. B. Lancaster, A. Geronimus, B. Hamburg, and K. Kramer (2008) Introduction. J. B. Lancaster and B. Hamburg, Eds. School-Age Pregnancy and Parenthood: Biosocial Perspectives, Reissued, Transactions Publishers, Piscataway, NJ, pp. ix-xxxi.

2007

J. B. Lancaster and H. S. Kaplan (2007) Chimpanzee and human intelligence: Life history, diet and the mind. S. W. Gangestad and J. A. Simpson Eds. The Evolution of the Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. NY, Guilford Press, pp. 111-120. pdf

H. S. Kaplan, M. Gurven, and J. B. Lancaster (2007) Brain evolution and the Human Adaptive Complex: An ecological and social theory. S. W. Gangestad and J. A. Simpson Eds. The Evolution of the Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. NY, Guilford Press, pp. 269-279. pdf

K. G. Anderson, H. Kaplan and J. Lancaster (2007) Confidence of paternity, divorce, and investment in children by Albuquerque men. Evolution and Human Behavior 28:1-10. pdf

H. S. Kaplan, S. Gangestad, M. Gurven, J. Lancaster, T. Mueller and A. Robson (2007) The Evolution of Diet, Brain and Life History among Primates and Humans. W. Roebroeks, ed. Guts and brains: An Integrative Approach to the Hominin Record. Leiden: Leiden University Press, pp. 47-90. pdf

2006

K. G. Anderson, H. Kaplan and J. Lancaster (2006) Demographic correlates of paternity confidence and pregnancy outcomes among Albuquerque men. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131:560-571. pdf

2005

J. L. Boone and J. B. Lancaster (2005) Foreword. Maya Children: Helpers at the Farm by Karen L. Kramer vii.

2003

H. S. Kaplan, T. M. Mueller, S. Gangestad, and J. B. Lancaster (2003) Neural Capital and Life Span Evolution among Primates and Humans. C.E. Finch, J-M. Robine, and Y Christen, Eds. Brain and Longevity. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 69-97. pdf

H. Kaplan and J. B. Lancaster (2003) An Evolutionary and Ecological Analysis of Human Fertility, Mating Patterns, and Parental Investment. K.W. Wachter and R.A. Bulatao, Eds. Offspring: Human Fertility Behavior in Biodemographic Perspective. Washington, The National Academies Press, pp. 170-223. pdf

H. Kaplan, J. Lancaster and A. Robson (2003) Embodied Capital and the Evolutionary Economics of the Human Life Span. J.R. Carey and S. Tuljapurkar, (eds.) Life Span: Evolutionary, Ecological and Demographic Perspectives. Population and Development Review, 29:152-182 (supplement). New York, The Population Council. pdf

2002

H. Kaplan, J. Lancaster, W. T. Tucker & K. G. Anderson (2002) An evolutionary approach to below replacement fertility. American Journal of Human Biology, Special Issue on Evolutionary Approaches to Population 14:233-256. pdf

2001

H. Kaplan, K. Hill, A. M. Hurtado, and J. Lancaster (2001) The Embodied Capital Theory of Human Evolution. P. T. Ellison, Ed. Reproductive Ecology and Human Evolution, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, Pp. 293-317. pdf

K. G. Anderson, H. Kaplan, and J. B. Lancaster (2001) Men's financial expenditures on genetic children and stepchildren from current and former relationships. Population Studies Center Research Report No. 01-484. pdf

A. M. Hurtado, K. Hill, H. Kaplan and J. Lancaster (2001) The epidemiology of infectious diseases among South American Indians: A call for guidelines for ethical research. Current Anthropology 42(3):425-432. pdf

2000

H. Kaplan, K. Hill, J. Lancaster, A. M. Hurtado (2000) A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence, and Longevity Evolutionary Anthropology 9(4):156-185. pdf

J. B. Lancaster and H. Kaplan (2000) Parenting Other Men's Children: Costs, benefits and consequences. Evolutionary Biology and Human Behavior: 20 years later. L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and W. Irons, Eds. Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, NY. Pp. 179-201. pdf

H. Kaplan and J. B. Lancaster (2000) The Evolutionary Economics and Psychology of the Demographic Transition to Low Fertility. Evolutionary Biology and Human Behavior: 20 years later L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and W. Irons, Eds. Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, NY. Pp. 283-322. pdf

J. B. Lancaster, H. Kaplan, K. Hill and A. M. Hurtado (2000) The Evolution of Life History, Intelligence, and Diet Among Chimpanzees and Human Foragers. F. Tonneau and N. S. Thompson, Eds. Perspectives in Ethology: Evolution, Culture and Behavior, vol. 13:47-72. Plenum, NY. pdf

A. M. Hurtado, K. Hill, H. Kaplan and J. Lancaster (2000) Disease among Indigenous South Americans. Anthropology News (February 2000), pp. 5-6.

1999

K. Anderson, H. Kaplan, and J. Lancaster (1999) Paternal Care by Genetic Fathers and Stepfathers I: Reports from Albuquerque Men. Evolution and Human Behavior 20(6):405-432. pdf

K. Anderson, H. Kaplan, D. Lam and J. Lancaster (1999) Paternal Care by Genetic Fathers and Stepfathers II: Reports by Xhosa High School Students. Evolution and Human Behavior 20(6):433-452. pdf

1998

H. S. Kaplan, J. B. Lancaster and K. G. Anderson (1998) Human Parental Investment and Fertility: The life histories of men in Albuquerque. A. Booth and A. Crouter, Eds. Men In Families. Erlbaum Publishers, Mahwah, NJ. Pp. 55-109. pdf

1997

J. B. Lancaster (1997) The Evolutionary History of Human Parental Investment in Relation to Population Growth and Social Stratification. P. A. Gowaty, Ed. Feminism and Evolutionary Biology. Chapman & Hall, New York. Pp.466-489.

1995

H. S. Kaplan, J. B. Lancaster, J. A. Bock and S. E. Johnson (1995) Fertility and Fitness Among Albuquerque Men: A Competitive Labour Market Theory. R. I. M. Dunbar, Ed. Human Reproductive Decisions. St. Martin's Press, London. Pp. 96-136.

H. S. Kaplan, J. B. Lancaster, J. A. Bock and S. E. Johnson (1995) Does Observed Fertility Maximize Fitness Among New Mexican Men? A Test of an Optimality Model and a New Theory of Parental Investment in the Embodied Capital of Offspring. Human Nature 6:325-360. pdf

1994

J. B. Lancaster (1994) Human Sexuality, Life Histories, and Evolutionary Biology. A. Rossi, Ed. Sexuality Across the Life Course. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, pp. 39-62.

1993

J. B. Lancaster (1993) The Evolutionary Biology of Women. A. Almquist and A. Manyak, Eds. Milestones in Human Evolution. Waveland Press, pp. 21-37.

1992

J. B. Lancaster and H. Kaplan (1992) Human Mating and Family Formation Strategies: The effects of variability among males in quality and the allocation of mating effort and parental investment. I. Nishida, W. C. McGrew, P. Marler, M. Pickford, and F. de Waal, Eds. Primatology Today, Vol. 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 21-33. pdf

1991

J. B. Lancaster (1991) A Feminist and Evolutionary Biologist Looks at Women. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. 34:1-11.

1989

J. B. Lancaster (1989) Women in Biosocial Perspective. S. Morgen, Ed. Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching. American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 95-115.

J. B. Lancaster (1989) Evolutionary and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Single Parenthood Sociobiology and the Social Sciences. R. W. Bell and N. J. Bell, Eds. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, TX, pp. 63-72.

1987

J. B. Lancaster and C. S. Lancaster (1987) Parenting Across the Lifespan: Biosocial Dimensions. J. B. Lancaster, A. Rossi, J. Altmann, and L. Sherrod, Eds. Aldine, New York, pp. 187-205.

1986

J. B. Lancaster (1986) Primate Social Behavior and Ostracism. R. Masters and M. Gruter. Eds. Ostracism: A Social and Biological Phenomenon. Ecology and Sociobiology (special issue) 7:215-225.

J. B. Lancaster (1986) School Age Pregnancy and Parenthood: Biosocial Perspectives. J. B. Lancaster and B. Hamburg, Eds. The Watershed: Change in Parental Investment and Family Formation Strategies in the Course of Human Evolution. Aldine, New York, pp. 17-37.

1985

J. B. Lancaster and B. J. King (1985) An Evolutionary Perspective on Menopause. J. Brown and V. Kerns, Eds. In Her Prime: A New View of Middle Aged Women. Bergin and Garvey, New Jersey, pp. 13-20.

1984

J. B. Lancaster (1984) Evolutionary Perspectives on Sex Differences in the Higher Primates. A. S. Rossi, Ed. Gender and the Life Course. Aldine, New York, pp. 3-27.

J. B. Lancaster (1984) Introduction. M. F. Small Ed. Female Primates: Studies by Women Primatologists. A. Liss, New York, pp. 1-10.

J. B. Lancaster (1984) Introduction. In: D. M. Stein The Sociobiology of Infant and Adult Male Baboons. Monographs on Infancy, Vol. 5. Ablex, Narwood, New Jersey, pp. xix-xxi.

1983

J. B. Lancaster and C. S. Lancaster (1983) Parental Investment: The Hominid Adaptation. D. Ortner, Ed. How Humans Adapt: A Biocultural Odyssey, Proceedings of the Seventh International Smithsonian Symposium. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, pp. 33-66.

1982

J. B. Lancaster (1982) Behavioral Biology of the Human Past, Present and Future: Environmental and Social Realities. Crisis in Anthropology: View from Spring Hill, Garland, New York, pp. 253-270.

1980

J. B. Lancaster and C. S. Lancaster (1980) The Division of Labor and the Evolution of Human Sexuality. Behavior and Brain Sciences 3:193, 1980.

J. B. Lancaster and Phillip Whitten (1980) Family Matters: Sharing in Human Evolution. The Sciences 20:10-15.

J. B. Lancaster (1980) The Evolution of the Family. The Lives of Families. Dimensions (special issue) 9:8-11.

1978

J. B. Lancaster (1978) Sex and Gender in Evolutionary Perspective H. Katchadourian, Ed. Human Sexuality: A Comparative and Developmental Perspective. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, pp. 1-80.

J. B. Lancaster and C. S. Lancaster (1978) On the Male Supremacist Complex: A Reply to DiVale and Harris. American Anthropologist 80: 115- 117, 1978.

J. B. Lancaster (1978) Carrying and Sharing in Human Evolution. Human Nature 1 (2):82-89.

1976

J. B. Lancaster (1976) Sex Roles in Primate Societies. M. S. Teitelbaum, Ed. Sex Differences: Social and Biological Perspectives. Doubleday-Anchor, Garden City, New York, pp. 22-62.

1973

J. B. Lancaster (1973) In Praise of the Achieving Female Monkey. Psychology Today 7(4).

1971

J. B. Lancaster (1971) Play-Mothering: The Relations between Juvenile Females and Young Infants among Free-Ranging Vervet Monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) Folia Primatologica 15:161-182.

J. B. Lancaster and S. L. Washburn (1971) On the Evolution and the Origin of Language. Current Anthropology 12:384-386.

1970

J. B. Lancaster. A. L. Kling, and J. Benitone (1970) Amygdalectomy in the Free-Ranging Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops). Journal of Psychiatric Research 7:191-199.

1968

J. B. Lancaster (1968) On the Evolution of Tool-Using Behavior. American Anthropologist 70:56 66.

J. B. Lancaster and S. L Washburn (1968) Human Evolution. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Macmillan, New York, pp. 215-221.

J. B. Lancaster (1968) Primate Communication Systems and the Emergence of Human Language. P.C. Jay, Ed. Primates: Studies in Adaptation and Variability, P. C. Jay, Ed. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, pp. 439-457.

1967

J. B. Lancaster (1967) Les systemes de communication chez les singes de l'ancien monde. International Social Science Journal 19:28-39.

1966

J. B. Lancaster and S. Ragir (1966) An Analysis of a Surface Collection from High Rock Canyon, Site 26Wa177, Nevada, Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 66:1-36. Berkeley.

J. B. Lancaster and S. L Washburn (1966) Psychology and the Evolution of Man. Harvard Educational Review 36:333 335.

1965

J. B. Lancaster, S. L. Washburn, and P. C. Jay (1965) Field Studies of Old World Monkeys and Apes. Science 150:1541-1547.

J. B. Lancaster (1965) Object-Naming and the Emergence of Language. Transcript of the Wenner-Gren Conference on the Origin of Man distributed by Current Anthropology, Chicago.

J. B. Lancaster and R. B. Lee (1965) The Annual Reproductive Cycle in Monkeys and Apes. I. DeVore, Ed. Primate Behavior: Field Studios of Monkeys and Apes. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, pp. 486-513.