Research Interests

Robert Foley’s research has focused on the evolution and ecology of humans, especially their behaviour and adaptations. Much of this work has concentrated on understanding humans in terms of general Darwinian patterns and processes, and relating human evolution to more general models of evolution. Among his contributions are the development of off-site archaeology, community ecology and co-evolutionary approaches to hominin evolution, ecological models for human evolution, phylogenetic methods for analysing technological, cultural, social and linguistic evolution, the multiple dispersal model of human origins, and multi-disciplinary approaches to the evolution of human diversity. His research combines traditional palaeoanthropological investigations with emerging approaches such as and, agent-based modelling and human behavioural and cognitive experiments. This research has included early African hominins, the evolution of modern humans, and more recent prehistory and anthropology. He has carried out field projects in Africa and Melanesia. He is currently involved in major field projects in northern and central Kenya