Contacts
Ben is a transdisciplinary human ecologist whose work examines present-day socioecologies from a bio-cultural evolutionary perspective. His primary research documents ancient human self-domestication via emergent social mediation of male dominance competition and aggression. This work links contemporary men’s social dominance and persistent violence to colonising and exploitative social and ecological outcomes, and suggests continued mediation of social competition as essential to sustainable human futures.
Research interests
- Human evolution
- Human self-domestication
- Sex and gender in sociocultural niche construction
- Coproduction of socioecological systems
- Agent-based modelling
Publications
Gleeson, B. T., & Wilson, L. A. B. (2023). Shared reproductive disruption, not neural crest or tameness, explains the domestication syndrome. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290(1995), 20222464. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2464
Gleeson, Ben Thomas. (2020). Masculinity and the Mechanisms of Human Self-Domestication. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-019-00126-z
Bruner, E., & Gleeson, B. T. (2019). Body Cognition and Self-Domestication in Human Evolution. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01111
Gleeson, Ben T. (2019). Human Self-Domestication. In T. K. Shackelford & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science (pp. 1–3). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3856-1
Gleeson B. and Kushnick G. (2018), ‘Female status, food security, and stature sexual dimorphism: Testing mate choice as a mechanism in human self-domestication’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology. https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.1002/ajpa.23642
Gleeson B. (2016), ‘Cultivating Ecological Perception: Creativity within Undergraduate Explorations of Human Ecology and Ecological Agriculture’, Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics, Vol. 3, 1. https://bit.ly/3hBjFFh
Gleeson B. (2015), ‘Terra Nullius in Australian Environmentalism and Agriculture: Implications for ecologically based intra-action within a living landscape’ PAN: Philosophy, Activism, Nature, No. 11. https://bit.ly/3lxX9ON
Photo essays
Gleeson B. (2023), ‘Minangkabau pig hunting’, Inside Indonesia, 151. https://www.insideindonesia.org/photo-essay-minangkabau-pig-hunting
Presentations
Gleeson B. 2021, ‘Masculine Behavioural Dynamics in Human Self-domestication’, Biological Anthropology Research Seminars, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU.
Gleeson B. 2018, ‘Male violence and self-domestication in human evolution’, Australasian Society for Human Biology 33rd Annual Conference, Advances in Human Biology: Education, Research and Technology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Gleeson B. 2017, ‘Agroecology and Ecogeomorphology: Novel Ecosystems Perspectives May Aid Rehabilitation of Eroded Grazing Landscapes’, Society for Human Ecology Conference, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines.
Gleeson B. 2016, ‘The Effect of Female Social Status on Human Stature Sexual Dimorphism: Evidence of Self-Domestication?’, ANU Student Research Conference.
Gleeson B. 2013 ‘Landcare of the future’, Once and Future Landscape Care Forum with Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe at the Braidwood Two-Fires Festival of Arts and Activism.
Posters
Gleeson B. 2019, ‘Male Violence and Social Dominance: An Integrated approach is overdue’, NECTAR Collaboration Across the Boundaries Conference, ANU, Acton, ACT.
Gleeson B. 2017, ‘Non-Destructive Revegetation: A Novel Approach to Landcare Practice’, Compassionate Conservation Conference, Leura, NSW.