56 | New Scientist | 22 June 2019
The back pages Me and my telescope
Ruth Mace studies the evolutionary roots of
human behaviour on the Tibetan plateau. She
thinks it is the best place to be if the apocalypse
happens, but advises against believing it willFirst up, do you have a telescope?
No, but I used to as a kid. I watched the moon
out of my bedroom window quite a bit.As a child, what did you
want to do when you grew up?
I wanted to be a zoologist.Explain what you do
in one easy paragraph.
I try to understand human behaviour in an
evolutionary light, as an adaptation to the
environment. I am interested in everything
from life history and social organisation to
witchcraft and religion. I have worked in
Africa, the UK and now China.What do you love most
about what you do?
I have loved visiting some corners of the
borderlands in western China, stumbling
across unexpected happenings such as sky
burials and horse festivals.Sum up your life in a one-sentence
elevator pitch...
I am an anthropologist, using evolutionary
theory to understand why we do what we do.What’s the most exciting thing
you’ve worked on recently?
One matrilineal population I am studying in
western China has no marriage in the sense
that we understand it. I first visited about
three years ago and we are trying to gather
data as quickly as possible, as the
anthropological diversity of the
region is disappearing fast.Were you good at science at school?
Ye s.If you could send a message back to
yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Be more confident and proactive.What’s the best piece of
advice anyone ever gave you?
Make sure you ask for your own pay rises,
because no one else will.If you could have a conversation with any
scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
My grandfather, C. A. Mace, a psychologist and
philosopher who died when I was 9. His obituary
in The Times said that he “helped establish
psychology as an empirical science”. While
our approaches were different, we were
both interested in what motivates behaviour.
I would dearly love to have a chat with him now.What’s the best thing you’ve read or seen
in the past 12 months?
The TV series Skint Britain: Friends without
benefits. It shows what happens to the UK’s
poorest when they are given a month’s social
security benefits all in one go. Within weeks,
some were losing their homes and kids, and
hunting rabbits for food. If the politicians who
dreamed up that scheme had come to my class
on human behavioural ecology, they might have
realised that making life less predictable was
going to make people’s decision-making more
short-term, not longer-term. For some relief after
that, try the exact opposite: Crazy Rich Asians.How useful will your skills
be after the apocalypse?
Useless. My only hope would be if it occurred
when I was out on the Tibetan plateau, where
the yak herders are pretty self-sufficient and
very hospitable.Do you have an unusual hobby, and
if so, please will you tell us about it?
Sometimes, I try to learn Mandarin, with no
discernible progress. My excuse is that reactivity
of the FOXP2 language gene declines with age.OK, one last thing: tell us something
that will blow our minds...
I have been studying eschatological (“end times”)
beliefs in Islamic sects. We seem to have found
that those sects that believe in the apocalypse
are actually more likely to go extinct. ❚Ruth Mace is professor of evolutionary
anthropology at University College London“ Islamic sects
that believe in
the apocalypse
actually seem
more likely to
go extinct”
PORTRAIT: COURTESY OF RUTH MACE. PHOTO: ZOONAR GMBH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO