Citations (Google Scholar, 1/26/2026): 18,641 citations for 99 publications (excluding ephemera); Hirsch index = 53, i-10 index = 73
1. Books and Journal Issues
Hunter-Gatherer
Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archaeological Analyses. Bruce Winterhalder and Eric
A. Smith, editors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1981).
Inujjuamiut Foraging Strategies: Evolutionary Ecology of an Arctic Hunting Economy. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter (1991).
Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, Eric A. Smith & Bruce Winterhalder, editors. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter (1992).
Contested Arctic: Indigenous Peoples, Nation States, and Circumpolar Environments, Eric A. Smith and Joan McCarter, editors. Seattle: U of Washington Press (1997).
Special double issue on "The evolution of culture." Evolutionary Anthropology volume 12, issues 2 & 3. Edited by C. H. Janson and Eric A. Smith (2003).
Special issue on "Inequality and the intergenerational transmission of wealth" (8 articles). Current Anthropology February 2010, Vol. 51, No. 1: 7-126. Eric Alden Smith, editor.
Society and Environment: Research Methods and Design. Ismael Vaccaro, Eric A. Smith, and Shankar Aswani, editors. Cambridge University Press (2010).
The
Evolutionary Ecology of Inequality (theme issue), edited by Eric Alden
Smith, Jennifer E. Smith and Brian J. Codding (2023). Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378 (issue 1883).
Dyson-Hudson, Rada and Eric A. Smith (1978) Human territoriality: an ecological reassessment. American Anthropologist 80: 21-41. [Click here for version in Spanish]
Smith, Eric A.
(1979) Human adaptation and energetic efficiency. Human Ecology 7: 53-74.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Bruce Winterhalder (1981) New perspectives on hunter gatherer socioecology. In Hunter-Gatherer
Foraging Strategies, ed. B. Winterhalder and E.A. Smith, pp. 1-12. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(1981) The application of optimal foraging theory to the analysis of hunter
gatherer group size. In Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies, ed. B.
Winterhalder and E.A. Smith, pp. 36-65. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(1983) Anthropological applications of optimal
foraging theory: a critical review. Current
Anthropology 24: 625-51.
Smith, Eric A.
(1983) Evolutionary ecology and the analysis of human social behavior. In Rethinking
Human Adaptation, ed. R. Dyson Hudson and M.A. Little, pp. 23-40. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(1984) Anthropology, evolutionary ecology, and the explanatory limitations of
the ecosystem concept. In The Ecosystem Concept in Anthropology, ed. E.
Moran, pp. 51-85. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Winterhalder,
Bruce P. and Eric A. Smith (1992) Evolutionary ecology
and the social sciences. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior,
ed. E. A. Smith and B. Winterhalder, pp. 3-23. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de
Gruyter.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Bruce Winterhalder (1992) Natural selection and decision making: some fundamental
principles. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, ed. E. A.
Smith and B. Winterhalder, pp. 25-60. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Smith, Eric A. (1992) Human behavioral ecology I, II. Evolutionary Anthropology 1: 20-25, 50-55.
Smith, Eric A.
(1985) Inuit hunting groups: some simple models
incorporating conflicts of interest, relatedness, and central-place sharing. Ethology and Sociobiology 6:27-47.
(Reprinted in Human Nature: A Critical Reader, ed. Laura M. Betzig, pp
50-69. Oxford University Press, 1996).
Smith, Eric A.
(1987) On fitness maximization, limited needs,
and hunter-gatherer time allocation. Ethology and Sociobiology
8: 73-85.
Smith, Eric A.
(1987) Optimization theory in anthropology:
applications and critiques. In The Latest on the Best:
Essays on Evolution and Optimality, ed. John Dupre, pp. 201-49.
Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(1988) Risk and uncertainty in the
"original affluent society": evolutionary ecology of resource sharing
and land tenure. In Hunters and Gatherers: History,
Evolution, and Social Change, ed. T. Ingold, D. Riches, and J. Woodburn,
pp. 222-52. Oxford: Berg.
Smith, Eric A.
(1990) Risk and reciprocity: hunter-gatherer
socioecology and the problem of collective action (with Robert
Boyd). In Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies,
ed. E. Cashdan, pp. 167-191. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Smith, Eric
A. and
S. Abigail Smith (1994) Inuit
sex ratio variation: population control, ethnographic artifact, or parental
manipulation?
Current Anthropology 35: 595-624.
Smith, Eric A.
(1996) Sex is not enough. In Evolution and Human Behavior: A Critical Reader,
ed. Laura M. Betzig, pp. 70-72. Oxford University Press.
Boone, James
L. and Eric A. Smith (1998) Is
it evolution yet? A critique of evolutionary archaeology Current
Anthropology 39:S141-S173.
Smith, Eric A.
(1998) Is Tibetan polyandry adaptive?
Methodological and metatheoretical critiques. Human Nature
9(3):225-261.
Winterhalder,
Bruce P. and Eric A. Smith (2000) Analyzing
adaptive strategies: human behavioral ecology at twenty-five. Evolutionary Anthropology
9:51-72.
Smith, Eric A.
(2000) Three styles in the evolutionary study
of human behavior. In Human Behavior and Adaptation: An Anthropological
Perspective, edited by Lee Cronk, William Irons, and Napoleon Chagnon, pp
27.46. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Rebecca Bliege Bird (2000) Turtle
hunting and tombstone openings: Generosity and costly signaling. Evolution and
Human Behavior 21:245-61.
Smith, Eric
A.,
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, and Kim Hill (2000) Evolutionary
analyses of human behaviour: a commentary on Daly & Wilson. Animal Behaviour 60:F20-F26.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Mark Wishnie (2000) Conservation and subsistence in
small-scale societies. Annual
Review of Anthropology 29:493-524.
Smith, Eric
A.,
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, and Kim Hill (2001) Controversies
in the evolutionary social sciences: A guide to the perplexed. Trends in Ecology & Evolution
16:128-135 (2001).
(Reprinted 2010 in Evolutionary
Psychology, Volume II, ed. S. Linquist & N. Levy. The International Library of Essays on
Evolutionary Thought, Ashgate Publishing.)
Bliege Bird,
Rebecca L., Eric A. Smith, and
Douglas W. Bird (2001) The hunting
handicap: costly signaling in male foraging strategies. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology
50:9-19.
Smith,
Eric A. (2001) On the
coevolution of cultural, linguistic, and biological diversity. In Language, Knowledge, and the
Environment: The Interdependence of Biological and Cultural Diversity,
edited by Luisa Maffi. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Gintis,
Herbert, Eric A. Smith and Samuel Bowles (2001) Cooperation
and costly signaling. Journal of Theoretical Biology 213:103-119.
Bliege Bird,
Rebecca L., Douglas W. Bird, Eric A.
Smith, and Geoff Kushnick (2002) Risk and
reciprocity in Meriam food-sharing. Evolution
and Human Behavior 23:297-321.
Smith, Eric
A.,
Rebecca Bliege Bird and Douglas W. Bird (2003) The
benefits of costly signaling: Meriam turtle hunters. Behavioral Ecology
14(1):116-126 (2003).
Janson, Charles H. and Eric A. Smith
(2003) The evolution of culture: new
perspectives and evidence. Evolutionary Anthropology 12(2):57-60.
Smith, Eric A.
(2003) Human cooperation: perspectives from
behavioral ecology. In Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation,
ed. P. Hammerstein, pp. 401-427. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(2004) Why do good hunters have higher
reproductive success? Human Nature 15(4):342-363.
Bliege Bird,
Rebecca and Eric A. Smith (2005) Signaling
theory, strategic interaction, and symbolic capital. Current
Anthropology 46(2):221-248.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Rebecca Bliege Bird (2005) Costly
signaling and cooperative behavior. In Moral Sentiments and Material
Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life, ed. H. Gintis,
S. Bowles, R. Boyd, and E. Fehr, pp. 115-148. Cambridge, MA: The
MIT Press.
Smith, Eric A.
(2006) Anthropological schisms. Anthropology
Newsletter, American Anthropological Association. January 2006, pp.
8-11.
Smith, Eric A.
(2007) Reconstructing the evolution of the
human mind.
In The Evolution of Mind, ed. S. Gangestad and J. Simpson, pp
53-59. NY: Guilford.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Jung-Kyoo Choi (2007) The
emergence of inequality in small-scale societies: Simple scenarios and
agent-based simulations. In The Model-based Archaeology of
Socionatural Systems, ed. T. Kohler and S. van der Leeuw, pp 105-119 & 241-244. Santa Fe: SAR Press.
Borgerhoff
Mulder, Monique, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell, Jan Beise, Greg Clark,
Ila Fazzio, Michael Gurven, Kim Hill, Paul L. Hooper, William Irons, Hillard
Kaplan, Donna Leonetti, Bobbi Low, Frank Marlowe, Richard McElreath, Suresh
Naidu, David Nolin, Patrizio Piraino, Rob Quinlan, Eric Schniter, Rebecca Sear,
Mary Shenk, Eric A. Smith,
Christopher von Rueden, and Polly Wiessner (2009) Intergenerational
wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies.
Science 326:682-688.
Lyle, Henry
F., Eric Alden Smith
and Roger Sullivan (2009) Blood donations as costly signals of donor quality. Journal
of Evolutionary Psychology 7(4):263-286.
Bowles,
Samuel, Eric Alden Smith ,
and Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2010) The
emergence and persistence of inequality in premodern societies: Introduction.
Current Anthropology 51(1): 7-17.
Smith, Eric
Alden,
Kim Hill, Frank W. Marlowe, David Nolin, Polly Wiessner, Michael Gurven, Samuel
Bowles, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Tom Hertz, and Adrian Bell (2010) Wealth transmission and
inequality among hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology 51(1):
19-34.
Smith, Eric
Alden,
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Samuel Bowles, Michael Gurven, Tom Hertz, and Mary
K. Shenk (2010) Production
systems, inheritance, and inequality in premodern societies: Conclusions. Current
Anthropology 51(1): 85-94.
Smith, Eric
Alden,
Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Mary K. Shenk, and Michael
Gurven (2010) Intergenerational
wealth transmission and inequality in premodern societies: Reply. Current
Anthropology 51(1): 119-126.
Smith, Eric
Alden (2010) Communication
and collective action: The role of language in human cooperation. Evolution and Human Behavior
31:231-245.
Smith, Eric Alden (2011) Endless forms: Human behavioral
diversity and evolved universals. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society 366:325-332.
Smith, Eric Alden, Michael Gurven, and
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2011) Letter in
response to Kuper & Marks. Nature 470:166-168.
Bliege Bird, Rebecca, Brooke Scelza, Douglas W. Bird, and Eric Alden Smith . The hierarchy of virtue:
mutualism, altruism, and signaling in Martu women's cooperative hunting. Evolution and Human Behavior
33:64-78 (2012).
Lyle, Henry F. and Eric
Alden Smith (2012) How
conservative are evolutionary anthropologists? A survey of political attitudes.
Human Nature 23(3):306-322.
Trumble,
Benjamin C., Daniel Cummings, Christopher von Rueden, Kathleen A. O'Connor, Eric
A. Smith, Michael Gurven, and Hillard Kaplan (2012) Physical competition
increases testosterone among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists: a test of the
"challenge hypothesis." Proceedings of the Royal Society B
279:2907-2912.
Chabot-Hanowell, Benjamin and Eric Alden Smith (2013) Territorial and non-territorial
routes to power: Reconciling evolutionary ecological, social agency and
historicist approaches. In Territoriality in Archaeology (ed. J. Osborne
& N. P. VanValkenburgh). Washington, D.C.: Archaeological Papers of the
American Anthropological Association.
Smith, Eric A.
(2013) Evolutionary anthropology. Encyclopedia of Theory in Social and
Cultural Anthropology, ed. J. McGee and R.L. Warms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Trumble,
Benjamin C., Daniel K.Cummings,
Kathleen A. O'Connor, Darryl J. Holman, Eric
A. Smith, Hillard S. Kaplan, and Michael D. Gurven (2013) Age-independent
increases in male salivary testosterone during horticultural activity among
Tsimane forager-farmers. Evolution and Human Behavior 34 (5):
350-357.
Smith, Eric A.
(2013) Agency and adaptation: new
perspectives in evolutionary anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology
42:103-120.
Trumble,
Benjamin C., Eric A. Smith, Kathleen
A. O'Connor, Hillard S. Kaplan, and Michael D. Gurven (2014) Successful hunting increases testosterone and
cortisol in a subsistence population. Proceedings
of the Royal Society B 281.
Lyle, Henry F.
and Eric Alden Smith
(2014) The
reputational and social network benefits of prosociality
in an Andean community . Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 111 (13): 4820-4825.
Smith, Jennifer E., Sergey Gavrilets, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder,
Paul L. Hooper, Claire El Mouden, Daniel Nettle, Christoph Hauert, Kim Hill,
Susan Perry, Anne E. Pusey, Mark van Vugt, and Eric A. Smith (2016) Leadership in mammalian
societies: emergence, distribution, power, and payoff. Trends in Ecology & Evolution
31 (1): 54-66. (see also Supplementary
Material)
Mattison,
Siobhan, Eric A. Smith , Mary K. Shenk, and Ethan
Cochrane (2016) The
evolution of inequality. Evolutionary
Anthropology 25:184-199.
Smith, Eric
Alden (2016) Status effects
on men's reproductive success. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (USA) 113(39): 10739-10741.
Smith, Eric
A. and
Benjamin Chabot-Hanowell (2017) Resource defense. In Encyclopedia
of Evolutionary Psychological Science, ed. T.K. Shackelford & V.A.
Weekes-Shackelford. Springer.
Hooper, Paul
L., Eric A. Smith, Timothy A. Kohler, Henry Wright and Hillard S. Kaplan
(2018) Ecological and social dynamics
of territoriality and hierarchy formation. In Principles of Complexity:
An Introduction to Complex Adaptive Systems and Human Society, ed. Jeremy
A. Sabloff et al., pp. 105-130. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ross, Cody T.,
Adrian V. Jaeggi, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Jennifer E. Smith, Eric Alden
Smith, Sergey Gavrilets, and Paul L. Hooper (2020) The multinomial index: A robust measure of
reproductive skew. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287:20202025.
Smith, Eric
Alden
and Brian J. Codding (2021) Ecological
variation and institutionalized inequality in hunter-gatherer societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences USA 118(13):e2016134118.
Smith, Eric
Alden,
Siobhán C. Mattison, and Robert J. DiNapoli (2023) Institutionalized
inequality in small-scale societies. In Organizational Complexity and
Institutional Dynamics: How Social Rules Have Shaped the Evolution of Human
Societies Throughout Human History, ed. Peter J. Richerson, Jenna Bednar,
Thomas Currie, Sergey Gavrilets,and
John Wallis. Cultural Evolution Society. https://institutionaldynamicsbook.culturalevolutionsociety.org/
Ross, Cody T.,
Paul L. Hooper, Jennifer E. Smith, Adrian V. Jaeggi, Eric Alden Smith,
Sergey Gavrilets…Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2023) Reproductive inequality in humans and other
mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(21):
e2220124120
Mattison,
Siobhán, Chris von Rueden, and Eric Alden Smith (2023). The evolution of inequality.
In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies, ed. George R. Goethals,
Scott T Allison & Georgia J. Sorenson, pp 335-337. SAGE Publications, Inc.,
Thousand Oaks, CA. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071840801
Smith, Eric
Alden,
Jennifer E. Smith, and Brian J. Codding (2023) Toward an evolutionary ecology of
(in)equality. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (doi: RSTB-2022-0287).
Smith, Eric
Alden
and Bruce Winterhalder (2024) Foreword: Reflections
on five decades of human behavioral ecology. In Human Behavioral Ecology,
ed. by Jeremy Koster, Brooke Scelza and Mary Shenk, pp xi-xiii. Cambridge U
Press.
Schruth, David, Chrsitopher N.
Templeton, Darryl J. Holman and Eric A. Smith (2024) The origins of musicality in the motion of
primates. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 184(1):
e24891. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24891
Smith, Eric Alden and Brian J. Codding (2026) Explaining inequality
in Northwest Coast and Native California societies: A critical assessment. Journal
of Archaeological Research, doi.org/10.1007/s10814-025-09215-y.
Smith, Eric
Alden
and Brian J. Codding. False kings and
imagined protestants: Why schismogenesis does not explain variation in Pacific
Coast foraging societies. Under review.
Smith, Eric
Alden
and Lynette Shaw. Ecological and demographic factors shaping the emergence of
patron-client systems. Manuscript.