Manvir Singh

Manvir Singh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. His research integrates evolutionary, cognitive, and sociocultural approaches to study human behavior, focusing on topics such as shamanism, witchcraft, music, storytelling, and ancestral social organization. He conducts long-term ethnographic fieldwork, particularly with the Mentawai communities in Indonesia, and analyzes cross-cultural databases to explore these themes.

Education: PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University (2020); ScB in Applied Mathematics from Brown University (2012).

Research Interests:

• Cultural evolution of sociocultural traditions (e.g., shamanism, witchcraft)
• Evolutionary approaches to mental health and drug use
• Prehistoric social organization
• Justice systems in small-scale societies
• Global patterns in music and storytelling

Publications highlight interdisciplinary methods, with notable works on punitive justice mechanisms, universality in musical responses, and the cultural evolution of shamanism. His work bridges academic and public audiences through essays in outlets like The New Yorker.

Labs/Teams: Director of the Integrative Anthropology Lab, focusing on cross-cultural research and ethnographic collaboration.