Scars for survival: high cost male initiation rites are strongly associated with desert habitat in Pama-Nyungan Australia (2024)
Journal Article
Learmouth, D., Layton, R., & Tehrani, J. (2024). Scars for survival: high cost male initiation rites are strongly associated with desert habitat in Pama-Nyungan Australia. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.02.003

Costly ritual behaviours have frequently been of interest to evolutionary researchers seeking to understand whether they have an adaptive benefit. Here we examine the costliness of initiation rituals across a large group of hunter-gather societies in... Read More about Scars for survival: high cost male initiation rites are strongly associated with desert habitat in Pama-Nyungan Australia.

Kinship Without Words (2020)
Journal Article
Layton, R. (2021). Kinship Without Words. Biological Theory, 16(3), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-020-00346-7

This article seeks to identify at what point in hominid evolution language would have become adaptive. It starts by recalling the distinction between kin-selected altruism and reciprocal altruism, noting that the former is characteristic of social in... Read More about Kinship Without Words.

Antiquity and social functions of multi-level social organisation among hunter-gatherers. (2012)
Journal Article
Layton, R., O'Hara, S., & Bilsborough, A. (2012). Antiquity and social functions of multi-level social organisation among hunter-gatherers. International Journal of Primatology, 33(5), 1215-1245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s+10764-012-9634.z

Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations (2011)
Journal Article
Rowley-Conwy, P., & Layton, R. (2011). Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1566), 849-862. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0307

Why social scientists don't like Darwin and what can be done about it. (2010)
Journal Article
Layton, R. (2010). about it. Journal of evolutionary psychology (Budapest. Online), 8(2), 139-152. https://doi.org/10.1556/jep.8.2010.2.4

Fission-fusion dynamics : new research frameworks. (2008)
Journal Article
Aureli, F., Schaffner, C., Boesch, C., Bearder, S., Call, J., Chapman, C., …van Schaik, C. (2008). Fission-fusion dynamics : new research frameworks. Current Anthropology, 49(4), 627-654. https://doi.org/10.1086/586708

Renewed interest in fission‐fusion dynamics is due to the recognition that such dynamics may create unique challenges for social interaction and distinctive selective pressures acting on underlying communicative and cognitive abilities. New framework... Read More about Fission-fusion dynamics : new research frameworks..

La structure iconographique d'un art rupestre est-elle une clef pour son interprétation? (2006)
Journal Article
Sauvet, G., Layton, R., Lenssen-Erz, T., Taçon, P., & Wlodarczyk, A. (2006). La structure iconographique d'un art rupestre est-elle une clef pour son interprétation?. Zephyrus. Revista de Prehistoria y Arqueología, 59, 195-208

Develops a method for discriminating between different social contexts in which rock art is created and applies the method to ethnographic and archaeological case studies.

Agency, structuration and complexity. (2003)
Journal Article
Layton, R. (2003). Agency, structuration and complexity

Art and agency - a reassessment (2003)
Journal Article
Layton, R. (2003). Art and agency - a reassessment. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9(3), 447-463. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.00158

In his book, Art and agency, Alfred Gell presents a theory of art based neither on aesthetics nor on visual communication. Art is defined by the distinctive function it performs in advancing social relationships through 'the abduction of agency'. Art... Read More about Art and agency - a reassessment.