Michael D. Gurven

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Michael D. Gurven
Photograph of Michael D. Gurven
Michael D. Gurven
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPennsylvania State University (B.A., 1996); University of New Mexico (Ph.D., 2000)
Known forCo-founder and co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project
Notable workSeven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer (Princeton University Press, 2025)
Scientific career
FieldsAnthropology; Human biology; Evolutionary medicine
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Thesis To Give and Give Not: The Evolutionary Ecology of Hunter-Gatherer Food Transfers  (2000)
Doctoral advisorKim Hill

Michael D. Gurven is an American anthropologist and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).[1] He is co-founder and co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, a long-running biomedical and anthropological study of the Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon.[2] His research integrates biodemography, human biology, and evolutionary anthropology to study human life history, aging, cardiovascular health, the evolution of cooperation, and health effects of modernization.[3] Gurven's findings on low rates of chronic diseases among the Tsimane and the evolutionary roots of human longevity have received widespread attention in outlets such as BBC News, Aeon, The Washington Post, and Scientific American.[4][5][6][7] He is the author of Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer (Princeton University Press, 2025), which challenges notions of short ancestral lifespans and has been reviewed in Arab News.[8][9]

Early life and education

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Gurven earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in anthropology and mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1996.[1] He completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of New Mexico in 2000; his doctoral dissertation was titled To Give and Give Not: The Evolutionary Ecology of Hunter-Gatherer Food Transfers.[10] His primary Ph.D. advisor was Kim Hill.[11] Early fieldwork and comparative research included work with the Ache, Hiwi, and Tsimane peoples.[3]

Academic career

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Gurven joined the UCSB Department of Anthropology as an assistant professor in 2001 and received tenure in 2007. He was promoted to full professor in 2011 and was named Distinguished Professor in 2024.[1] He chaired the Integrative Anthropological Sciences unit from its inauguration in 2008 through 2022.[12] He has served as Associate Director of the Broom Center for Demography and is core faculty in UCSB's Center for Aging and Longevity, and he is principal investigator on multiple NSF and NIH grants supporting work in demography, cardiology, infectious disease, and evolutionary medicine.[13]

Research

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Gurven is co-founder and co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project (since c.2002), which follows thousands of Tsimane individuals and produces longitudinal biomedical and demographic data. Major findings include:

  • Very low levels of coronary atherosclerosis among the Tsimane compared with many industrialized populations.[14]
  • Rapidly declining average body temperature in a tropical human population (2004–2018).[15]
  • Parasite infection patterns with measurable effects on fertility, immune function, and cardiovascular risk factors.[16][17]
  • Minimal evidence for a universal mid-life happiness dip in non-industrial populations.[18]
  • Evidence for slower brain aging and low arterial stiffness among elderly Tsimane.[19]

Awards and honours

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Media and public engagement

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Gurven has been featured in major outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Scientific American, Wired, BBC News, and Aeon, often discussing how insights from Indigenous populations can inform public health.[6][7][4][5] He has been interviewed on NPR about cultural barriers to healthcare access among the Tsimane.[22]

Selected publications

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  • Kaplan H., ..., Gurven M., Thomas, G. Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane. The Lancet. 2017;389(10080):1730–1739. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30752-3.[14]
  • Gurven M, Kaplan H. Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination. Population and Development Review. 2007;33(2):321–365. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00171.x.[23]
  • Davison R, Gurven M. "The importance of elders: extending Hamilton's force of selection to include intergenerational transfers". PNAS. 2022;119(28):e2200073119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2200073119.[24]
  • Gurven M, Stieglitz J, Trumble B, Blackwell AD, Beheim B, Davis H, Hooper P, Kaplan H. "The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine". Evolutionary Anthropology. 2017;26(2):54–73. doi:10.1002/evan.21515.[25]
  • Gurven M, Sarrieddine A, Lea A. "Health Disparities Among Indigenous Peoples". Annual Review of Anthropology. 2024;53:55–73. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-041222-101445.[26]

Books

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Michael D. Gurven – CV" (PDF). University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  2. ^ "Tsimane Health and Life History Project". Gurven Lab, UCSB. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Gurven Lab – Research Overview". Gurven Lab, UCSB. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  4. ^ a b "The Amazon rainforest people who age more slowly than the rest of us". BBC News. August 17, 2024. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  5. ^ a b "What Amazonian lives tell us about heart health and longevity". Aeon. January 31, 2025. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  6. ^ a b Ingraham, Christopher (March 17, 2017). "These people eat monkeys and piranhas – they also have the lowest rates of heart disease ever measured". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Choi, Charles Q. (January 1, 2020). "Are Human Body Temperatures Cooling Down?". Scientific American. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer". Princeton University Press. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  9. ^ "What We Are Reading Today: 'Seven Decades' by Michael D. Gurven". Arab News. September 17, 2025. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  10. ^ Gurven, Michael D. (2000). "To Give and Give Not: The Evolutionary Ecology of Hunter-Gatherer Food Transfers". Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  11. ^ "Kim Hill – CV". Arizona State University. pp. 21 "Graduate student Ph.D. advisor". Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  12. ^ "Gurven Lab – UCSB". University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  13. ^ "Gurven Lab – Grants & Projects". Gurven Lab, UCSB. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  14. ^ a b Kaplan H, Thompson RC, Trumble BC, Wann LS, Allam AH, Beheim B, Frohlich B, Sutherland ML, Sutherland JD, Stieglitz J, Rodriguez DE, Michalik DE, Rowan CJ, Lombardi GP, Bedi R, Garcia AR, Min JK, Narula J, Finch CE, Gurven M, Thomas GS (2017). "Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study". The Lancet. 389 (10080): 1730–1739. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30752-3. PMID 28320636.
  15. ^ Gurven, Michael; Kraft, Thomas S. (2020). "Rapidly declining body temperature in a tropical human population". Science Advances. 6 (44) eabc6599. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.6599G. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc6599. PMC 7608783. PMID 33115745.
  16. ^ "Parasites Found to Influence Fertility in Women". The New York Times. November 24, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  17. ^ Gurven, Michael; Trumble, Benjamin C. (2016). "Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in evolutionary perspective: a critical role for helminths?". Evolution, Medicine & Public Health (1): 338–357. doi:10.1093/emph/eow028. PMC 5101910. PMID 27666719.
  18. ^ Gurven, Michael (2024). "Subjective well-being across the life course among non-industrialized populations". Science Advances. 10 (43) eado0952. Bibcode:2024SciA...10O.952G. doi:10.1126/sciadv.ado0952. PMC 11498220. PMID 39441925.
  19. ^ Kaplan H, Hooper PL, Gatz M, Mack WJ, Law M, Chui H, Sutherland ML, Rowan CJ, Allam AH, Thompson RC, Michalik DE, Lombardi GP, Miyamoto M, Rodriguez DE, Copajira J, Quispe Gutierrez R, Beheim B, Cummings D, Seabright E, Alami S, Garcia AR, Buetow K, Thomas GS, Finch CE, Stieglitz J, Trumble BC, Gurven M, Irimia A (2023). "Brain volume, energy balance, and cardiovascular health in two non-industrial South American populations". PNAS. 120 (13) e2205448120. Bibcode:2023PNAS..12005448K. doi:10.1073/pnas.2205448120. PMC 10068758. PMID 36940322.
  20. ^ "Anthropologist Michael Gurven wins prestigious Plous Award". UC Santa Barbara News. November 17, 2004. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  21. ^ "HBES Awards". Human Behavior & Evolution Society. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  22. ^ "Why Bolivia's Tsimane People Avoid Doctors And What Makes Them Change Their Mind". NPR. March 11, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
  23. ^ Gurven, Michael; Kaplan, Hillard (2007). "Longevity Among Hunter‑Gatherers: A Cross‑Cultural Examination". Population and Development Review. 33 (2): 321–365. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00171.x. JSTOR 25434609.
  24. ^ Davison, Raziel; Gurven, Michael (2022). "The importance of elders: extending Hamilton's force of selection to include intergenerational transfers". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (28) e2200073119. Bibcode:2022PNAS..11900073D. doi:10.1073/pnas.2200073119. PMC 9282300. PMID 35867741.
  25. ^ Gurven M, Stieglitz J, Trumble B, Blackwell AD, Beheim B, Davis H, Hooper P, Kaplan H (2017). "The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine". Evolutionary Anthropology. 26 (2): 54–73. doi:10.1002/evan.21515. PMC 5421261. PMID 28429567.
  26. ^ Gurven, Michael; Sarrieddine, Amina; Lea, Amanda (2024). "Health Disparities Among Indigenous Peoples: Exploring the Roles of Evolutionary and Developmental Mismatch on Cardiometabolic Health". Annual Review of Anthropology. 53: 55‑73. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-041222-101445.
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