The Ik became infamous during the 1970s for their allegedly selfish and loveless culture. This characterization came about as a result of the publication of The Mountain People, an ethnography written by the anthropologist Colin Turnbull. In collaboration with colleagues at the Human Generosity Project, our research has uncovered the cooperative nature of Ik culture, exploding the myth of "the loveless people".

​The Baka are an ethnic group of BaYaka hunter-gatherers, who live on the western side of the Congo Basin. I've examined emergent inequality in a small Baka community on the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. This research suggested that incorporation into the global economy has catalysed gender inequality and nascent Big Man politics, though the Baka are still less patriarchal than neighbouring farming peoples.

The Mbuti and Efe are adjacent groups of hunter-gatherers who live in the Ituri Forest on the eastern side of the Congo Basin in the DRC. Both groups subsist primarily by gathering and hunting but the Mbuti are still highly mobile and have rigorously egalitarian social organization. My research on Mbuti & Efe mythology has revealed motifs that encourage equality including those that may be considered feminist.

The gender politics of Congo Basin hunter-gatherers (such as the Mbuti) are surprisingly egalitarian. This is achieved through complementary but flexible gender roles and strong female coalitions in daily & ritual life. Such coalitions have interesting implications for human evolutionary history, because they facilitate women's freedom to choose their reproductive and residence partners, which in turn facilitates cooperative child-rearing.The female-biased gene flow pattern of African hunter-gatherers suggests an ancient tendency towards matrilocal residence and the importance of women's kinship networks.

Family relationships are influenced by the fitness interdependence between family members and the structures of families. Interdependence can manifest in cooperation or competition, while family structure is dependent on larger patterns of social organization, which are culturally variant. Humans are remarkable in that co-operative childcare extends well beyond parental care, including even conspecifics who are not close kin. However, there is considerable variation in the composition and structure of these networks. Traditional societies rely on matrilineal, patrilineal or bilateral associates while post-demographic transition societies rely more on the nuclear family and institutional care.

​Fitness interdependence is an umbrella term used to describe cooperation that arises from mutual dependence for survival or reproduction. This includes the inclusive fitness of genetic relatives but also mating partnerships and risk-pooling networks. Humans have complex brains that allow complex social organization, such as the use of symbols and the creation of institutions like rules, norms and belief systems. Culturally variant kinship systems and religions may be viewed as formal systems of social organization, which regulate cooperation and competition in accordance with optimal fitness outcomes for the ecology. Humans may also calculate the probability of fitness interdependence outcomes at the level of conscious perception.

A child's brain is like a social learning sponge. Mimesis and the use of symbols are behaviours that characterise human learning, differentiating us from our chimp & bonobo relatives. But children prefer to learn from those who resemble them, which means cultural information from in-groups is funnelled their way. One of the most relevant in-groups are people of the same gender.

The experience of violence is a traumatic part of human life that requires psychological healing. I am interested in indigenous ways of managing the experience of violence and the memories it creates. Both Mbuti and Ik people have had very significant experiences of coming under attack by outsiders. I have found the retellings of these experiences of victimhood extremely moving. Mimetic ritual also seems to be a way that the Ik people manage their experience of violence, and organize mutual aid to cope with attacks from outsiders and the aftermath of raids.