Zachary Garfield

Research interests

Cultural transitions, the evolution of leadership and followership, decision-making cognition, social structures and hierarchies

Biography

Zachary is an evolutionary anthropologist. He completed his Ph.D. at Washington State University and is now a Research Fellow at IAST. His research focuses on the evolution of human leadership, decision-making cognition, and the nature of social and political hierarchies across human societies, with special interest in how individual behavioral strategies interact with group dynamics in the contexts of cultural transitions. He addresses these topics through comparative research and fieldwork among multiple minority ethnic populations in southwest Ethiopia.