Archive for the W.W. Howells Book Award Category

2014 W.W. Howells Book Award Winner

The selection committee for the W.W. Howells Book Award in Biological Anthropology is pleased to announce the 2014 winner. This year’s award will go Lynne A. Isbell for her book, The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well, published by Harvard University Press (2009). In this book, Isbell develops her intriguing “Snake Detection Theory,” arguing that snake predation was an important influence on primate evolution and that selection for the ability to detect snakes played a major role in the evolution of the primate visual system.  Lynne received the award at the BAS Business meeting, December 5, 2014. Congratulations, Lynne!

For more information on the W.W. Howells Book Award, given by the Biological Anthropology Section of the AAA, or for a list of previous winners, click here.

2011 W.W. Howells Book Award Results

The 2011 W.W. Howells Book Award was presented to Wenda Trevathan for her book, Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women’s Health. Oxford University Press.

The book was recognized as an insightful and compelling consideration of the importance of evolution to women’s biology and health.

“Written by a leading light in the field of evolutionary medicine, Wenda Trevathan’s Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives describes how many contemporary health problems, particularly those of women, are the result of a mismatch between our “Stone Age” bodies that evolved over millions of years and our current (and radically changed) life styles. Thorough, authoritative, and easy to understand, this book offers suggestions for making informed decisions that impact the health of contemporary women and that of their children and their children’s children. Run, don’t walk (or stroll bipedally), to give this important and elegantly written book to your favorite bride-to-be, mother-to-be, mother, grandmother, or great grandmother! Inquisitive men will also find this book engaging.” –Dean Falk, Ph.D., Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University.

Letter from Karen Strier to BAS members

Download the letter

109th Annual Meeting

109th Annual Meeting was held in New Orleans, November 17-21, 2010.

The Distinguished Lecture was given by Ken Weiss: “What Darwin got wrong and why it matters.”

The 2010 WW Howells Award winner is Bernard Chapais (University of Montreal) for his book, Primeval Kinship: How Pair-Bonding Gave Birth to Human Society.