Sex, Bodies, Bioculture, and Health: Where Are We?

The range of variation in bodies and lives in the context of sex and gender is a major element in the development and experience of health and well-being. Yet, in the current moment there is much debate about how to assess and engage such variation and how to best apply that in care for individuals and communities. A biocultural approach drawing on the biological and social sciences, and rooted in anthropological framings, offers a robust perspective and a toolkit to help both researchers and practitioners engage gender/sex. Drawing on his own work and research across anthropology, biology, and the greater social sciences, Dr. Agustín Fuentes provides an overview of such an approach and offer some suggestions for bridging sex, bodies, and health.

Agustín Fuentes is a Professor of Anthropology and the Chair of the Anthropology Department at Princeton University. Fuentes completed undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and Zoology and an MA and PhD in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. His research spans four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, gender/sex, and race and racism.