Publications

Codding, B.F. and Bliege Bird, R. (in press) The Division of Labor. In: Human Behavioral Ecology, Koster, Shenk and Scelza, eds.

Greenwood, L. Bliege Bird, R, Nimmo D.G. (2022) Indigenous burning shapes the structure of visible and invisible fire mosaics. Landscape Ecology.

Bliege Bird, R. and B.F. Codding (2022) The promise and peril of ecological and evolutionary modelling using cross-cultural datasets. Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Jones, J. H., Pisor, A., Douglass, K., Bliege Bird, R., Ready, E., Hazel, A., Hackman, J. V., Kramer, K., Kohler, T. A., Pontzer, H., & Towner, M. (2021). How Can Evolutionary and Biological Anthropologists Engage Broader Audiences? American Journal of Human Biology, 33(4).

Barclay, P., Bliege Bird, R., Roberts, G., & Számadó, S. (2021). Cooperating to show that you care: Costly helping as an honest signal of fitness interdependence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Morin E, Bird D, Winterhalder B, Bliege Bird R. (2021) Deconstructing hunting returns: can we reconstruct and predict payoffs from pursuing prey? J Archaeol Method Theory

Ellis, E. C., Gauthier, N., Klein Goldewijk, K., Bliege Bird, R., Boivin, N., Díaz, S., Fuller, D. Q., Gill, J. L., Kaplan, J. O., Kingston, N., Locke, H., McMichael, C. N. H., Ranco, D., Rick, T. C., Shaw, M. R., Stephens, L., Svenning, J.-C., & Watson, J. E. M. (2021). People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(17), e2023483118.

Marks-Block, T., Lake, F. K., Bliege Bird, R., & Curran, L. M. (2021). Revitalized Karuk and Yurok cultural burning to enhance California hazelnut for basketweaving in northwestern California, USA. Fire Ecology, 17(1), 6.

Bliege Bird, R. and D.W. Bird. (2021) Climate, landscape diversity and food sovereignty in arid Australia: the Firestick Farming Hypothesis. American Journal of Human Biology, e23527.

Morin, E., Bliege Bird R, and D.W. Bird. (2020) Mass procurement and prey rankings: Insights from the European rabbit. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12:262-276.

Bliege Bird, R., McGuire, C., Bird, D. W., Price, M. H., Zeanah, D., & Nimmo, D. G. (2020). Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(23): 12904–12914.

Koster, J., McElreath, R., Hill, K., Yu, D., Shepard, G., Vliet, N. van, Gurven, M., Trumble, B., Bliege Bird, R., Bird, D., Codding, B., Coad, L., Pacheco-Cobos, L., Winterhalder, B., Lupo, K., Schmitt, D., Sillitoe, P., Franzen, M., Alvard, M., … Ross, C. (2020). The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation. Science Advances, 6(26), eaax9070.

Smithwick, E. A. H., Caldwell, C., Klippel, A. K., Scheller, R., Tuana, N. A., Bliege Bird, R., Keller, K., Lucash, M., Nicholas, R., Olson, S., Ruckert, K., Oyler, J., Hegelson, C., & Huang, J. (2019) Transdisciplinary collaborative learning for triangulating ways of knowing across traditional and Western knowledge systems concerning future climate and forests. In Perz, Stephen (Eds.), Collaboration Across Boundaries. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bird, D., Bliege Bird, R., Codding, B., Zeanah, D. (2019) Variability in the organization and size of hunter-gatherer groups: foragers do not live in small-scale societies. Journal of Human Evolution 131: 96-108.

Crabtree, S., Bird, D and Bliege Bird R. (2019) Subsistence transitions and the simplification of ecological networks in the Western Desert of Australia. Human Ecology 47:165-177.

Dale G. Nimmo, Sarah Avitabile, Sam C. Banks, Joe Benshemesh, Ross Bradstock, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Kate Callister, Michael F. Clarke, Chris. R. Dickman, Tim S. Doherty, Don A. Driscoll, Malcolm Gill, Aaron C. Greenville, Angie Haslem, Luke T. Kelly, Sally A. Kenny, José J. Lahoz-Monfort, Connie Lee, Steven Leonard, Harry Moore, Thomas Newsome, Kate Parr, Euan Ritchie, Natasha Schedvin, Kathryn Schneider, James M. Turner, Simon Watson, Martin Westbrooke, Mike Wouters, Matthew White, Andrew F. Bennett (2018) Animal movements in fire prone landscapes. Biological Reviews 94:981-998.

Moritz M, Behnke R, Beitl CM, Bliege Bird R., Chiaravalloti RM, Clark JK, Crabtree, SA, Downey S, Hamilton IM, Phang SC, Scholte P, Wilson JA (2018) Emergent Sustainability in Open Property Regimes. PNAS.

Bliege Bird, R. and D. Nimmo (2018) Restore the lost ecological functions of people. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2:1050–1052. [Altmetric score 214, 98^th percentile of all papers of similar age, 26 citations, 10/7/2020]

Bliege Bird, R., E. Ready and E.A. Power (2018) The social significance of subtle signals. Nature Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0298-3. [Altmetric score 107, 97^th percentile of all papers, 22 citations]

Bliege Bird R., Douglas W. Bird, Luis E. Fernandez, Nyalanka Taylor, Wakka Taylor, Dale Nimmo (2018) Aboriginal burning promotes fine-scale pyrodiversity and native predators in Australia’s Western Desert. Biological Conservation, 219, 110–118. [96^th percentile on social media, 19 citations]

Zeanah, D.W., Codding, B.F., Bliege Bird, R., & Bird, D.W. (2017) Mosaics of fire and water: the co-emergence of anthropogenic landscapes and intensive seed exploitation in the Australian arid zone. Australian Archaeology, 83, 2–19.

Bird, D.W. and R. Bliege Bird (2017). Signaling theory and durable symbolic expression. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art, B. David and I McNiven, eds. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190607357.013.39

Bird, D.W., Bliege Bird R, Taylor N, and Codding BF (2016) A landscape architecture of fire: cultural and ecological emergence in Australia’s Western Desert. Current Anthropology, special issue Integrating Anthropology: Niche Construction, Cultural Institutions, and History, P. Wiessner and A. Fuentes (eds). 57(S13): S65-S79.

Bird, D.W., Bliege Bird, R, and Codding BF (2016) Pyrodiversity and the Anthropocene: the role of fire in the Broad Spectrum Revolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 25:105-116.

Roos, C.I., Scott, A.C., Belcher, C.M., Chaloner, W.G., Aylen, J., Bliege Bird, R., Coughlan, M.R., Johnson, B.R., Johnston, F.H., McMorrow, J. and Steelman, T. (2016) Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 371(1696): 20150469.

Bliege Bird R, Bird DW and Codding BF (2016) People, ENSO, and fire in Australia: fire regimes and climate controls in hummock grasslands. Phil Trans Roy Soc B 371(1696):20150343. [Altmetric score 13, top 25%, 27 citations)

Codding, B. F., Zeanah, D. W., Bliege Bird, R., Parker, C. H., & Bird, D. W. (2016). Martu ethnoarchaeology: Foraging ecology and the marginal value of site structure. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 44, 166-176.

Bliege Bird R, Codding BF, and Bird DW (2016) Economic, Social and Ecological Benefits of Hunting, Sharing and Fire in the Western Desert of Australia. In: 21^st Century Hunting and Gathering, Codding, B.F. and Kramer, K., eds. SAR press: Santa Fe, NM. (in press)

Codding BF, Bliege Bird R, Bird DW and Zeanah D. (2016) Alternative Aboriginal Economies: Martu Livelihoods in the 21st Century. In: 21^st Century Hunting and Gathering, Codding, B.F. and Kramer, K., eds. SAR press: Santa Fe, NM. (in press)

Bliege Bird, R, and Power, E.A. (2015) Prosocial signaling and cooperation among Martu hunters. Evolution and Human Behavior 36: 389-397.

Zeanah D, Codding BF, Bird DW, Bliege Bird R, Veth P (2015) Diesel and damper: disintensification among the Martu of Western Australia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39:51–62.

Bliege Bird R. (2015) Disturbance, complexity, scale: new approaches to the study of human-environment interactions. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 44:241–257.

Bliege Bird R and Codding BF (2015) The sexual division(s) of labor. In: Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn, eds. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 1–16. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0300/abstract

Price OF, Pausas JG, Govender N, Flannigan M, Fernandes PM, Brooks ML, Bliege Bird R. 2015. Global patterns in fire leverage: the response of annual area burnt to previous fire. International Journal of Wildland Fire 24:297–306.

Codding BF, Bliege Bird R, Kauhanen P, Bird DW. (2014) Conservation or co-evolution? Dynamic effects of Aboriginal burning and hunting on kangaroo populations in Western Australia. Human Ecology 42(5):659-669.

Scelza, B.A., Bird, D.W., and Bliege Bird R. (2014) Bush Tucker, Shop Tucker: production and consumption in an Aboriginal outstation. Journal of Ecology of Food and Nutrition 53(1) 98-117.

Jones, J.H. and Bliege Bird, R. (2013) The marginal valuation of fertility. Evolution and Human Behavior 35:65-71.

Bliege Bird, R., Taylor N, Codding B.F., Bird D.W. (2013) Niche construction and Dreaming logic: Aboriginal patch mosaic burning increases populations of varanid lizards (Varanus gouldii) in Western Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 280(1772), DOI: 20132297.

Jones J.H., Bliege Bird R., & Bird D.W. (2013) To kill a kangaroo: understanding the decision to pursue high-risk/high-gain resources. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280: DOI: 20131210.

Bird D.W., Codding, B.F., Bliege Bird, R, Zeanah ,D.W., Taylor, C.J. (2013) Megafauna in a Continent of Small Game: Archaeological Implications of Martu Camel Hunting in Australia's Western Desert. Quaternary International 297:155-166.

Bliege Bird, R., Codding, B. F., Kauhanen, P. G., & Bird, D. W. (2012). Aboriginal hunting buffers climate-driven fire-size variability in Australia’s spinifex grasslands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(26), 10287–10292.

Bliege Bird, R., B. Scelza, D. Bird and E.A. Smith (2012) The hierarchy of virtue: mutualism, altruism, and signaling in Martu women’s cooperative hunting. Evolution and Human Behavior 33:64-78.

Codding, B. F., Bliege Bird, R. and Bird, D.W. (2011) Provisioning offspring and others: risk–energy trade-offs and gender differences in hunter–gatherer foraging strategies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278(1717): 2502-2509.

Codding, B.F., Bird, D.W. and Bliege Bird, R. (2010) Interpreting abundance indices: some zooarchaeological implications of Martu foraging. Journal of Archaeological Science 37:3200-3210.

Bird, D.W. and Bliege Bird, R. (2010) Competing to be leaderless: food sharing and magnanimity among Martu Aborigines. In: The Emergence of Leadership: Transitions in Decision-Making from Small-Scale to Middle Range Societies. Kantner, J. and K. Vaughn, eds, pp .21-49. School of American Research Advanced Seminar.

Bliege Bird, R, Codding, B.F. and Bird, D.W. (2009) What explains differences in men's and women's production? Determinants of gendered foraging and production inequalities among Martu. Human Nature 20: 105-129.

Bird, D.W., Bliege Bird, R., Codding, B.F. (2009) In pursuit of mobile prey: Martu hunting strategies and archaeofaunal interpretation. American Antiquity 74:3-29.

Bliege Bird, R., D.W. Bird, B.F. Codding, C. Parker, J. Holland Jones (2008) The fire-stick farming hypothesis: Anthropogenic fire mosaics, biodiversity and Australian Aboriginal foraging strategies. Proc Nat Acad Sci 105(39):14796-14801.

Bliege Bird, R. and D. Bird (2008) Why women hunt: risk and contemporary foraging in a Western Desert Aboriginal community. Current Anthropology 49(4):655-693.

Scelza, B. and Bliege Bird, R. (2008) Group structure and female cooperative networks in Australia’s Western Desert. Human Nature19:231–248.

Bliege Bird, R. (2007) Fishing and the sexual division of labor among the Meriam. American Anthropologist 109:442-451.

Bliege Bird R and Smith EA (2005) Signaling theory, strategic interaction, and symbolic capital. Current Anthropology 46(2): 221-248.

Bird DW, Bliege Bird R and Parker CH (2005) Aboriginal burning regimes and hunting strategies in Australia’s Western Desert. Human Ecology 33: 443-464.

Smith EA and Bliege Bird R (2005) Costly signaling and prosocial behavior. In: Moral Sentiments and Material Interrests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life, eds H. Gintis, S. Bowles, R. Boyd, and E. Fehr. Pp 115-148. MIT press: Cambridge.

Bliege Bird R. and D. Bird (2005) Human hunting seasonality. In: Primate Seasonality, ed. D. Brockman and C. van Schaik, pp. 243-266. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (2005) Evolutionary and ecological understandings of the Economics of Desert Societies: comparing the Great Basin USA and the Australian Deserts. In Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives, P.M. Veth, M. Smith, and P. Hiscock (eds), pp. 81-99. London: Blackwell Scientific.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (2005) Mardu children’s hunting strategies in the Western Desert, Australia: foraging and the evolution of human life histories. In Hunter Gatherer Childhoods, B.S. Hewlett and M.E. Lamb eds, pp. 129-146. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Bird DW, Bliege Bird R, and Parker CH (2004) Women who hunt with fire. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004(1): 90-96.

Carter M, Barham A, O’Connor S, Veth P, Bird DW, and Bliege Bird R (2004) The Meriam Islands archaeological project: preliminary results of excavations on Mer and Dauar, eastern Torres Strait. In: Torres Strait Archaeology and Material Culture, ed I. McNiven and M. Quinnell, pp. 163-182. Memiors of the Queensland Museum: Brisbane.

Bird DW, Bliege Bird R, and Richardson JL (2004) Meriam ethnoarchaeology: shellfishing and shellmiddens. In: Torres Strait Archaeology and Material Culture, ed I. McNiven and M. Quinnell, pp. 183-197. Queensland Museum: Brisbane.

Carter M, Barham A, Bird DW, O'Connor S, and Bliege Bird R. (2004) Archaeology of the Murray Islands, Torres Strait: implications for a regional prehistory. In: Woven Histories, Dancing Lives: Torres Strait Islander Identity, Culture, and History, R. Davis, ed., pp. 234-258. London: Australian Aboriginal Studies Press.

Smith EA, Bliege Bird R, and Bird DW (2003) The benefits of costly signaling: Meriam turtle hunters and spearfishers. Behavioral Ecology 14(1)116-126.

Bliege Bird R, Bird DW, Smith EA, and Kushnick G, (2002) Risk and reciprocity in Meriam food sharing. Evolution and Human Behavior23:297-321.

Bliege Bird R. and Bird DW (2002) Constraints of knowing or constraints of growing? Fishing and collecting among the children of Mer. Human Nature 13:239-267.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (2002) Children on the reef: slow learning or strategic foraging? Human Nature 13:269-297.

Hawkes K and Bliege Bird R (2002) Showing off, handicap signaling, and the evolution of men’s work. Evolutionary Anthropology, 11:58-67.

Bliege Bird R, Smith EA, and Bird DW (2001). The hunting handicap: costly signaling in male foraging strategies. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50:9-19.

Smith EA and Bliege Bird R (2000) Turtle hunting and tombstone opening: public generosity as costly signaling. Evolution and Human Behavior 21:245-261.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (2000) The ethnoarchaeology of juvenile foraging: shellfishing strategies among Meriam children. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 19:461-476.

Bliege Bird R (1999) Cooperation and conflict: The behavioral ecology of the sexual division of labor. Evolutionary Anthropology 8:65-75.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (1997) Contemporary shellfish gathering strategies among the Meriam of the Torres Strait Islands, Australia: testing predictions of a central place foraging model. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:39-63.

Bliege Bird R and Bird DW (1997) Delayed reciprocity and tolerated theft: the behavioral ecology of food sharing strategies. Current Anthropology 38(1):49-78.

Bliege Bird R, Bird DW, and Beaton JM (1995) Children and traditional subsistence activities on Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait, Australia. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1995(1): 2-17.

Commentaries, Book Reviews, and Other Publications

Codding, B.F., D.W. Bird, and R. Bliege Bird (2015). The real cost of closing remote communities. Arena Magazinehttp://arena.org.au/the-real-cost-of-closing-remote-communities-by-brian-f-codding-douglas-w-bird-and-rebecca-bliege-bird/.

Codding BF and Bliege Bird R (2012) Should I stay or should I go now? The spatial dynamics of foraging and diminishing returns. Comment on J. O’Connell and J. Allen ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: modeling the colonization of Sahul. Australian Archaeology 74:18-19.

Codding BF, Bliege Bird R, Bird DW (2011). Women, men, risk and energy: a reply to Koster’s paradox of Aché foraging. Proceedings of the Royal Society B doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1458.

Bird DW, Bliege Bird R, Parker CH (2010) Burning and hunting in Australia’s Western Desert. In: Human Ecology: contemporary research and practice. D.G. Bates and J. Tucker, eds., Pp 127-142. Springer.

Bird DW, Bliege Bird R, Parker CH (2004). Women who hunt with fire: Aboriginal resource use and fire regimes in Australia’s Western Desert. Arid Lands Newsletter, 54(1): ISSN 1092-5481.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (2001) Comment on K. Hawkes et al.: Hunting and nuclear families: some lessons from the Hadza about men’s work. Current Anthropology 42(5).

Hawkes K, Bliege Bird R, and Bird DW (1998) Comment on D.S. Wilson: Hunting, sharing, and multilevel selection, Current Anthropology 39(1):89-90.

Bliege Bird R., Smith EA, and Bird DW (1997) Quantitative ethnography and the study of human social behavior. Anthroquest.

Bird DW and Bliege Bird R (1997) The science of foragers: evaluating variability among hunter-gatherers. Antiquity 71:477-480.