Education
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 B.A. Philosophy, Antioch College, 1/1959
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M.A. Social Anthropology, Harvard University, 1/1970
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Ph.D. Social Anthropology, Harvard University, 1/1972
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Description of Research
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Summary Statement of Research Interests
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Professor Boehm is a cultural anthropologist with a subspecialty in primaatology, who researches conflict resolution, altruism, moral origins, and feuding and warfare. Specific interests include evolutiary theory including group selection and sanctioning selection, conscience origins, evolution of political behavior in apes and humans, language evolution, and the role of rational decisions in evolutionary process. He has done field research with Navajos and tribal Serbs, and also with wild chimpanzees. In conjunction with the Jane Goodall Research Center at USC, he is presently creating a database to further the evolutionary study of hunter-gatherer social and political behavior.
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Research Keywords
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moral evolution; conflict resolution; feuding and warfare; egalitarianism; hunter-gatherer behavior; primate behavior.
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Conferences and Other Presentations
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Conference Presentations
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"A Biocultural Evolutionary Exploration of Supernatural Sanctioning. Paper presented to Conference on the Evolution of Religion, Honolulu 2006.", Conference on the Evolution of Religion, Paper, Honolulu, Orion Foundation, Invited,
Spring
2007
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"Sanctioning Selection, Lower-Level Teleology, and the Evolution of Self-Control. ", Invited paper presented in Symposium on Evolutionary Studies, Society for Crosscultural Research, Sa, Paper, San Antonio, Orion Foundation, Invited, 02/21/2007-02/24/2007
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"The Uses of Supernatural Sanctioning among Hunter Gatherers ", Conference on the Evolution of Religion (sponsored by Orion Institute)., Paper, Honolulu, Society for Cross-Cultural Research, Invited, 01/02/2007-01/06/2007
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"Methods of Triangulation to Pleistocene Hunting Traditions. ", Seminar on Paleolithic Social Organization, Paper, Santa Fe, NM, SFunded Seminar on Paleolithic Social Organization, Invited, 2005-2006
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Other Presentations
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"Hunter-Gatherer Political Hierarchy", Seminar on Economic Theory, Santa Fe Institute, Social Sciences Division, Santa Fe,
Spring
2007
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Other Research
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During my 2005-7 full year Sabbatical, I pursued a number of projects:
1. Rewrote and resubmitted a major article on the origin of conscience and altruism to Current Anthropology, which had been rejected in 2002 with the invitation to resubmit. I was advised that the article was now too long for the journal, and rather than cut it I decided to rework it for submission to Behavior and Brain Sciences, a top interdisciplinary journal which is willing to review the article at its present length. In reworking the article I arrived at a new hypothesis, to the effect that innate altruism is favored less by Darwinian natural selection processes than by human band members unconsciously promoting altruistic genes as they give special social rewards to individuals whose innate altruism makes them better marriage partners or partners in cooperation.
2. I also worked extensively on a book manuscript on the same subject, which I was trying to adapt from an academic format to a scientific general readership format. I met with a New York agent [Russell Galen] who suggested a second, radical rewrite, and I completed and submitted to him new six chapters [half of the new book manuscript] during the period of review, chapters which included the new theories on conscience origins and the evolution of altruistic traits.
3. Continued the hunter-gatherer ethnography coding project, adding 14 new cultures for creation of a multimedia interactive database useful for evolutionary analysis. [This project is being developed under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Research Center, in collaboration with Gary Seaman and a group of computer scientists who are designing the architecture for the search engine.]
4. Met with Dr. Polly Wiessner for two days to draft a proposal to the School of American Research in Santa Fe, to fund a three-day seminar on the subject of gossip and its social and evolutionary roles. John Haviland and Robin Dunbar agreed to participate, and the proposal was submitted just after the end of this review period.
5. Met with Drs. Carol and Melvin Ember to discuss collaboration on a project on the evolution of warfare. The Embers have found a correlation between environmental uncertainty and intergroup fighting, but their very large published sample included only a few mobile hunter-gatherers, and therefore was not appropriate for making evolutionary hypotheses. My preliminary work with several simple hunter-gatherer societies was promising, but to conduct a sound cross-cultural study a substantial amount of coding would need to be done, so we have agreed to seek funding from NSF. During the review period I also contacted the H. F. Guggenheim Foundation to see if they would be interested in this project, with no success.
6. Surveyed a sample of 18 hunter-gatherer societies to test the hypothesis that in foraging bands "omniscient" supernatural sanctioning punishes mainly types of deviance that make detection very difficult by ordinary, non-supernatural means. Coded materials from the hunter-gatherer database were evaluated by hand to accomplish this research, and the findings were in press by the end of the review period.
7. Began a co-authorship collaboration with Jessica Flack, a primatologist at the Santa Fe Institute, after I was invited to write a chapter on primate power relations for a book edited by Dr. Ana Guinote, an evolutionary psychologist in Great Britain. The chapter was in progress during the review period.
8. Met for two days with Dr. Paul Wason, an archaeologist who is co-director of the John Templeton Foundation's research grant programs, to discuss the possibilities for new major funding initiatives for the foundation. One, based on the paper on conscience origins described above, would be on the evolution of the human conscience, inviting scholars in a variety of disciplines to apply for substantial grants. The other would be an archiving initiative, aimed at assisting projects like the hunter-gatherer multimedia archive described above. The foundation is currently considering these possibilities, and if either initiative is funded a competition will be set up with approximately ten large grants being made available.
9. Attended several seminars at the Social Sciences Division of the Santa Fe Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, and gave a talk at one.
10. I was approached by Greater Good Magazine, a new general readership journal which is sold on newsstands and is very much like Psychology Today but is more topical, to contribute to a special issue on Power. The specific contribution, which I agreed to write, was on the abuse of power from an evolutionary standpoint.
, 2006-2007
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Publications
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Book
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
Special Issue on Group Selection, for the journal Human Nature, 1999. (Christopher Boehm, Ed.).
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1998).
Krvna Osveta u Crnoj Gori. Podgorica, Montenegro: CID, 1986 revised book translated into Serbian: Serbian title is Blood Revenge in Montenegro. Titograd.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1986).
1986 Blood Revenge: The Enactment and Management of Conflict in Montenegro and Other Tribal Societies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [1984 book reprinted with revisions and new title].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1984).
1984 Blood Revenge: The Anthropology of Feuding in Montenegro and Other Nonliterate Societies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1983).
1983 Montenegrin Social Organization and Values: Political Ethnography of a Refuge Area Tribal Adaptation. New York: AMS Press.
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Book Chapter
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Boehm, C., Flack, J. Theories of Power in Primates.
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Boehm, C. Richard Alexander's Notion of Indirect Reciprocity and the Golden Rule.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2007).
A Short History of Altruism and Health. In, The Science of Altruism and Health. [Chapter 18] S. J. Post, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2007).
2007 The Natural History of Blood Revenge. In, Feud in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. B. Poulsen and J. B. Netterström, Eds. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2005).
How Did Moral Behavior Develop? In, You Decide! Current Debates in Ethics, B. Waller, ed., pp. 216-233. New York: Longmans. (Vol. NA). pp. 18. New York: Longman.
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Boehm, C. H., Jaisson, P., Levinson, S.
(2005).
2006 Interactions of Culture and Natural Selection in the Middle and Late Stone Age. In, Evolution and Culture : A Fyssen Foundation Symposium. P. Jaisson and S. Levinson, eds., pp. 79-103. Cambridge: MIT Press. I.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2004).
2004 The Prosocial Side of Moral Communities. In, Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective, P. Clayton and J. Schloss, eds., pp. 78-100. New York: Eerdmans.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2004).
2004 Large Game Hunting and the Evolution of Human Sociality. In, Origins and Nature of Sociality among Nonhuman and Human Primates. R.W. Sussman and A.R. Chapman, eds., pp. 270-287. New York: Aldine.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2002).
2002 An Ethological Perspective on World Order. Chapter for Evolutionary Perspectives on Aggression and Its Antidotes: Research and Policy Implications. N. Dess and R. Bloom, editors. New York: Praeger.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2000).
2000 Cultural Apprenticeship and Cultural Change: Tool Learning and Imitation in Chimpanzees and Humans. In, Biology, Brains, and Behavior: The Evolution of Human Development. S. T. Parker, J. Langer, and M. L. McKinney, editors, pp. 237-277. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. [Co-authored chapter with Patricia Greenfield, Ashley E. Maynard, and Emily Yut Schmidtling].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
1999 Forager Hierarchies, Innate Dispositions, and the Behavioral Reconstruction of Prehistory. In, Hierarchies in Action: Cui Bono? Michael W. Diehl, editor, pp.31-58. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 27. Carbondale: SIU Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
1994 Pacifying Interventions at Arnhem Zoo and Gombe. In, Chimpanzee Cultures, edited by Richard W. Wrangham, W. C. McGrew, Frans B. M. de Waal, and Paul G. Heltne. Pp. 211-226. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1997).
1997 Egalitarian Behavior and The Evolution of Political Intelligence. In, Machiavellian Intelligence II, edited by D. Byrne and A. Whiten. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1992).
1992 Segmentary "Warfare" and the Management of Conflict: Comparison of East African Chimpanzees and Patrilineal-Patrilocal Humans. In, Us Against Them: Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals. A. Harcourt and F. de Waal (eds). Pp. 137-173. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1992).
1992 Vocal Communication of Pan Troglodytes: Possibilities for Explaining Human Language Origins. In, The Origins of Human Language. B. Chiarelli and A. C. Ciani, eds. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1989).
1989 A Research Strategy for Studying Chimpanzee Vocal Communication in Isolation from Postural and Gestural Modes of Communication. In, Understanding Chimpanzees. Paul Heltne and Linda Marquardt, eds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1987).
1987 Capital Punishment in Tribal Montenegro: Implications for Law, Biology, and Social Control. In, Ostracism: A Social and Biological Phenomenon. M. Gruter and R. D. Masters, eds. New York: Elsevier.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1984).
1984 Mountain Refuge Area Adaptations. In, Cultural Adaptation to Mountain Environments. P. E. Beaver and B. L. Purrington, eds. Atlanta: University of Georgia Press.
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Essay
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
1999 Introduction. In, Human Nature Volume 10: Special Issue on Altruism and Natural Selection, Christopher Boehm, guest editor.
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Journal Article
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Boehm, C. H.
(2007).
Conscience Origins, Sanctioning Selection, and the Evolution of Altruism in Homo Sapiens. Current Anthropology.
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Boehm, C.
(2007).
Sanctioning Selection, Lower-Level Teleology, and the Evolution of Self-Control. Journal of Cross-Cultural Research, special issue on Evolutionary Approaches in Cross-Cultural Research. Robert Quinlan, ed. Journal of Cross-Cultural Research, Special Issue on Evolutioanry Issues.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2004).
2004 What Makes Humans Economically Distinctive? A Three-Species Evolutionary Comparison and Historical Analysis. Journal of Bioeconomics 6: 109-135.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2001).
2001 Problem Solving Among Nonliterate People. Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis 27:225-250.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2000).
Conflict and the Evolution of Social Control, In Journal of Consciousness Studies 7:79-183, Special Issue on Evolutionary Origins of Morality; Leonard Katz, guest editor, 2000.
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Boehm, C. H.
(2000).
2000 Group Selection in the Upper Paleolithic. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7:211-215. Special Issue on Evolutionary Origins of Morality; Leonard Katz, guest editor. [Critique of Sober and Wilson, Unto Others].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1999).
1999 The Natural Selection of Egalitarian Traits. Human Nature 10: 205-252. [In Special Issue on Altruism and Natural Selection, Christopher Boehm, guest editor].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1997).
1997 Impact of the Human Egalitarian Syndrome on Darwinian Selection Mechanics. American Naturalist 150: 100-121.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1997).
1997 Hierarchy, Exchange, and the Levels of Natural Selection. Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 8:131-166.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1996).
1996 Emergency Decisions, Cultural Selection Mechanics, and Group Selection. Current Anthropology 37:763-793.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1993).
1993 Egalitarian Behavior and Reverse Dominance Hierarchy. Current Anthropology 34:227-254. [This paper won the Stirling Prize in Psychological Anthropology].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1991).
1991 Lower-Level Teleology in Biological Evolution: Decision Behavior and Reproductive Success in Two Species. Cultural Dynamics 4:115-134.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1989).
1989 Ambivalence and Compromise in Human Nature. American Anthropologist 91:921-39.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1985).
1985 Execution Within the Clan as an Extreme Form of Ostracism. Social Science Information 24:309-321.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1985).
1985 Execution Within the Clan as an Extreme Form of Ostracism. Social Science Information 24:309-321.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1984).
1984 Can Hierarchy and Egalitarianism both be Ascribed to the Same Causal Forces? Politics and the Life Sciences 1:34-37.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1983).
1983 The Evolutionary Development of Morality as an Effect of Dominance Behavior and Conflict Interference. In, Law, Biology and Culture: The Evolution of Law. M. Gruter and P. J. Bohannan, eds. Santa Barbara: Ross-Erikson. [Reprinted].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1982).
1982 A Fresh Outlook on Cultural Selection. American Anthropologist 84:105-124.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1982).
1982 The Evolutionary Development of Morality as an Effect of Dominance Behavior and Conflict Interference. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 5:413-422.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1982).
1982 Refuge Area Warrior Adaptations: Implications for the Study of Nomads. Nomadic Peoples 12:4-13.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1980).
1980 Exposing the Moral Self in Montenegro: The Use of Natural Definitions in Keeping Ethnography Descriptive. American Ethnologist 7:1-26.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1979).
1979 Some Problems with "Altruism" in the Search for Moral Universals. Behavioral Science 24:15-24.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1978).
1978 Rational Pre-Selection from hamadryas to Homo sapiens: The Place of Decisions in Adaptive Process. American Anthropologist 80:265-296.
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Magazine/Trade Publication
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Boehm, C. Greater Good.
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Other
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Boehm, C. H.
(1995).
1995 A Note on Scavenging by Wild Chimpanzees. Folia Primatologica 65:43-47. (Co-Authored with M. N. Muller, E. Mpongo, and C. B. Stanford).
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Boehm, C. H.
(1994).
1994 Reply to Erdal and Whiten: "On Human Egalitarianism: An Evolutionary Product of Machiavellian Status Escalation?" Current Anthropology 35:178-180. [This article by Erdal and Whiten was a critique of my 1993 article on egalitarian behavior; two authors were asked to write essays in reply].
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Boehm, C. H.
(1989).
1989 Vocal Communication of Wild Chimpanzees. Anthroquest 39:15-18.
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Boehm, C. H.
(1982).
1982 Primate Studies. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 5:410-412.
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Proceedings
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Boehm, C. H.
(1981).
1981 Parasitic Selection and Group Selection: A Study of Conflict Interference in Rhesus and Japanese Macaque Monkeys. In, Primate Behavior and Sociobiology: Proceedings of the International Congress of Primatology. A. B. Chiarelli and R. S. Corruccini, eds. Heidelberg: Springer.
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Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works
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database, Coded 14 cultures for addition to a hunter-gatherer database which will be made available to scholars through USC's Jane Goodall Research Center. , 2006-2007
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Honors and Awards
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Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2001-2002
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Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Weatherhead Fellowship, School of American Research, 1999-2000
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Stirling Prize in Psychological Anthropology, awarded at American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco: for paper on egalitarianism. , 1993-1994
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Guggenheim Fellowship, Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Grant, 1987-1989
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National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Academic year fellowship to study moral evolution, 1984-1985
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Guggenheim Fellowship, Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Grant, 1982-1983
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National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, NEH Summer Research Fellowship., 5/5/1981-8/1/1981
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Awarded "Distinction" for doctoral oral examination at Harvard University, 5/15/1972
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