Kit Opie
Contact details
Telephone: 01865 612379
Email: kit.opie@anthro.ox.ac.uk
http://oxford.academia.edu/KitOpie
Research topic
Pair living in humans and non-human primates. The research uses Bayesian phylogenetic modelling techniques to infer the evolutionary models and ancestral states of mating and social systems in humans and non-human primates.
Current research project
The evolution of primate social systems. Bayesian methods have enabled the investigation of the evolution of primate social systems demonstrating that primates evolved sociality early in their evolution, but only recently did more bonded structures including pair living and harem systems evolve.
Biography
Kit Opie is a DPhil student, supervised by Dr Susanne Shultz, at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. He holds a BA in Economics from Sussex University and an MSc in Human Evolution and Behaviour from University College London
Publications
Shultz, S., Opie, C., and Atkinson, Q.D. (2011) Stepwise evolution of stable sociality in primates. Nature 479: 7372.
Opie, K., and C. Power, 2008. Grandmothering and Female Coalitions: A Basis for Matrilineal Priority? In Early Human Kinship: From Sex to Social Reproduction. N. J. Allen, H. Callan, R. I. M. Dunbar and W. James (eds.) Oxford: Blackwell
