HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

James J. McKenna, Ph.D.
Professor, Anthropology; Director, Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep
Laboratory
Biography
James McKenna is the Edmond P. Joyce, C.S.C., Chair in Anthropology and director of the Mother-Baby
Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. He also serves on the Health Advisory
Board of La Leche League International. He has served on the executive committees of the American
Anthropological Association and Society for Medical Anthropology, and is a member of the American
Academy of Pediatrics. In 2003, McKenna was named faculty fellow by the Kaneb Center for Teaching
and Learning. He obtained his undergraduate training in anthropology at the University of California
(Berkeley), his master’s degree in anthropology at San Diego State University, and his Ph.D. in biological
anthropology at the University of Oregon-Eugene.
At the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, McKenna pioneered the first physiological
studies of mothers and infants sleeping together (co-sleeping) and apart, using electro-physiological recording technology, and helped give
birth to a new field of study: evolutionary medicine. Although his dissertation research focused on the social behavior of monkeys and apes,
he is currently known for his work in exploring the relationship between SIDS risk factors and parent-infant sleep environments—and for
establishing intellectual links between aspects of human evolutionary biology and research approaches to health and disease. He lectures
nationally and abroad on the importance of re-conceptualizing what constitutes healthy childhood sleep, and along with his undergraduate
students, continues to study family sleeping arrangements and the importance of breastfeeding in promoting the health of mothers and infants.
Lectures
Changing Concepts of Infant Care and Parenting: Sleeping With Baby, Breastfeeding, and
Infant Sleep Position
In the last decade especially, the scientific understanding concerning SIDS, breastfeeding, infant-sleep-position, and co-sleeping with infants
has changed in dramatic ways. In this lecture, both old and relatively new parents will be surprised by how culture and evolution transact to
affect women, infant development, and parenting, and give rise to the question: in how many ways can one successfully raise a human being?
Do Men and Women Speak in Two Different Tongues? If So, Why?
Anthropologists and linguists have noted that, when it comes to understanding language, not only does it appear that nonverbal (body) language
is essential in bringing accurate meanings to social and interactional settings, but failing to appreciate that men and woman are socialized to use
language in very different ways can lead to enormous misunderstandings. Moreover, in attempting to respect rank, by avoiding “direct” speech,
we can, at times, endanger our lives.
Human Aggression: Is it Really in the Genes?
Scientists and social critics alike frequently argue over whether it is our “human nature” or our economic and cultural imperatives that make
inevitable human conflict, violence, and warfare. Yet, a review of human evolutionary history, including the behavior of both monkeys and apes,
points to a very different way of viewing human aggression, one that switches the question around to ask: how is it and how did it happen that a
consideration of history requires us to conclude that humans may well be the most peaceful and altruistic of all? The question is not, why are we
so aggressive? But rather, why are we so peaceful?
The Society that Mistook Its Children for Bats
This lecture reviews western child care practices from the standpoint of human infant biology, western cultural history, cross-cultural
(anthropological) data, and the evolution of human infant vulnerabilities. An objective view of recommended infant child care practices that
favor infants sleeping alone in cribs with minimal, if any, nighttime feedings and contact, reveal that these practices closely resemble the
caretaking patterns of many bat species, but not primate species—the order of mammals to which humans belong. McKenna examines who
human infants are, what they need for healthy development, and how these social ideologies became entwined with—and mistaken for—
empirically validated knowledge about human infant biology. This confusion continues to impact both parents and children negatively.
Stone Age People in a Space Age World: Changing Concepts of Health and Illness
This lecture is based on McKenna’s edited book Evolutionary Medicine, that explores how new ways of conceptualizing, defining, preventing,
and potentially curing human illnesses and degenerative diseases are shown to be emerging from an unlikely source—models of human
evolutionary biology. This lecture furthers the understanding of natural selection and shows that evolution is alive and well in the new
millennium, and ready to emerge in our physicians’ offices. It also discusses medical research and patterns of healing.
70 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program
Categories
Family, Science, Social
Concerns