Areas of interest
Cultural Evolution; Cross-Cultural Analyses; Cognitive Science of Religion; Extreme Rituals; Body Modification
Education
- MA: Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 2019
- BA (Hons.): Archaeology, Simon Fraser University 2017
Biography
I am broadly interested in the variability in human behaviour. How groups adapt to similar social problems with vastly different practices, or how groups grow to have similar practices for drastically different purposes.
My current research endeavours focus on addressing the variability in body modification rituals. My previous research in this area has centered on cultural finger amputation practices. My publications on cultural finger amputation have looked at the occurrence of these practices in the ethnographic, historical, archaeological, and folktale records and have found that finger amputation has been a surprisingly common custom in human history. My PhD work focuses on permanent body modification practices more broadly and provides a cross-cultural perspective on the variability of these customs and the cultural motivations for engaging in them.
Honours Research
A Test of Competing Hypotheses Concerning the Impact of Demography on Cultural Evolution
Masters Research
Ancient Maya Finger Caches: A Multidisciplinary Analysis
Other Activities
I am spending the first year of my doctoral program in Europe. I will be learning how to use comparative phylogenetic analyses with with Dr. Jamie Tehrani at Durham University in England. Then, I will be working with Dr. Felix Reide at Aarhus University in Denmark to conduct a survey of a European Mesolithic burial tradition.
In addition to my doctoral research, I am also an active field archaeologist having worked on sites in Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga, and Germany. Further, I am well versed in laboratory analyses with experience from the La Ferrassie project in France and five years as a laboratory assistant in the South Pacific Archaeology lab at SFU.
Publications
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. In Press. “Finger amputation as a cultural practice: Where, when, who, how, and why”. In: F. Manni & F. D’Errico (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Body Modification. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Mark Collard and Brea McCauley. In Press. “Religious sacrifice in the Ice Age? On ritual finger amputation as a potential explanation for the Gravettian hand images with incomplete fingers”. In: S. Hussain and G. Dusselforp (Eds). Sitting on the Fence: Negotiating Archaeology, Palaeoanthropology, Anthropology, and Philosophy.
Brea McCauley, Mark Collard, and Dennis Sandgathe. 2020. A cross-cultural survey of on-site fire use by recent hunter-gatherers: Implications for research on Palaeolithic pyrotechnology. Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology, 3, 566-584.
W. Chris Carleton, Brea McCauley, André Costopoulos, and Mark Collard. 2019. An evolutionary agent-based model casts doubt on Dunnell’s waste hypothesis for cultural elaboration. STAR: Science and Technology of Archaeological Research, 5(1): 1-17.
Brea McCauley. 2019. “Life expectancy in hunter-gatherers”. In: T. Shackelford & V. Weeked-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham.
Brea McCauley, David Maxwell, and Mark Collard. 2018. A cross-cultural perspective on Upper Palaeolithic hand images with missing phalanges. Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology, 1(4): 314-333.
Digital Publications
Brea McCauley. 2017. Why Archaeology Could Save Our Fish; SFU Faculty of Environment Undergraduate Op-Ed Contest Finalist. http://www.sfu.ca/fenv/news/why-archaeology-could-save-our-fish.html
Conference Presentations
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2024. Permanent Body Modification: Archaeological and Early Historical Evidence. [Podium] Anatomy, Alteration, Art: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on Permanent Body Modification. Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) symposium.
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2023. Finger amputation: A transdisciplinary study. [Podium] Society for American Anthropology / Canadian Anthropology Society Conference. Toronto, Canada.
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2023. Finger amputation in the ethno-historic, archaeological, and folktale records. [Podium + Session Organizer] Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting. Portland, U.S.A.
Brea McCauley, Fiona Jordan, Sean Roberts, Dimitris Xygalatas, and Mark Collard. 2022. Why do people engage in permanent body modification? A multidisciplinary review. [Podium] 4th Cultural Evolution Society Conference. Aarhus, Denmark.
Brea McCauley, David Maxwell, and Mark Collard. 2019 Finger Amputation Rituals among the Ancient Maya. [Podium]. 31st Annual Human Behaviour and Evolution Society Conference. Boston, Massachusetts.
Brea McCauley, David Maxwell, and Mark Collard. 2019. Upper Palaeolithic handprints with missing fingers: An ethnological perspective. Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting. [Podium + Session Chair]. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Brea McCauley, David Maxwell, and Mark Collard 2018.Upper Palaeolithic handprints with missing fingers: An ethnological perspective. [Podium]. 2nd Annual Cultural Evolution Society Conference. Tempe, Arizona.
Brea McCauley, Chris Carleton, André Costopoulos, and Mark Collard. 2018. Waste not wanted: testing Dunnell’s waste hypothesis with an agent-based model [Podium]. 30th Annual Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Brea McCauley, Dennis Sandgathe, and Mark Collard. 2018. Assessing archaeological assumptions about fire use through ethnographic survey [Podium]. 10th Annual International Young Archaeologists Conference. Vardzia, Georgia.
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2017. A test of competing hypotheses concerning the impact of demography on cultural evolution [Podium Presentation]. 1st Annual Cultural Evolution Society Conference. Jena, Germany.
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2017. A test of competing hypotheses concerning the impact of demography of cultural evolution [Podium Presentation]. 29th Annual Meeting of the Human Behaviour and Evolution Society. Boise, U.S.A.
Brea McCauley and Mark Collard. 2017. A test of competing hypotheses concerning the impact of demography on cultural evolution [Podium Presentation]. Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting. Vancouver, Canada.
