Assistant Professor

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Zachary Garfield is an Assistant Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.

He is an interdisciplinary behavioral scientist and evolutionary anthropologist. He co- directs the Omo Valley Research Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research, education, and community development in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley. The project focuses on social, biological, and health research, with a strong commitment to supporting rural communities. Zachary holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Washington State University. Before joining UM6P, he was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, an interdisciplinary institute affiliated with the Toulouse School of Economics.

His research investigates the interplay between individual behavioral strategies and group dynamics, particularly during cultural transitions. He focuses on leadership, social learning, conflict resolution, and economic strategies, examining how they are shaped by group-level factors such as network dynamics, political structures, and cultural norms. His work is informed by adaptationist, behavioral-ecological, and cultural-evolutionary frameworks. Since 2015, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Southwest Ethiopia, studying forest-dwelling forager-horticulturalists and pastoralists in the savannah. Through the Omo Valley Research Project, he is developing a comprehensive dataset on diverse pastoralist groups, facilitating interdisciplinary cross-cultural and longitudinal research.

Zachary is deeply committed to studying subsistence-based populations while recognizing the importance of anthropologists as allies to marginalized communities. He aims to contribute to the development of robust theories of human behavior, social organization, and cultural evolution grounded in empirical evidence.
 

Courses
For the academic year 2022-2023

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