Dartmouth Events

ANTH Colloquium - The Nature of Adolescence: A Pan Perspective
Dr. Rachna Reddy, Asst. Professor of Anthropology, University of Utah; Co-Director, Ngogo Chimpanzee Project

Humans have a multi-year life stage that begins with puberty and ends with a shift into full adulthood. This period is rife with social and emotional vulnerabilities that include rejection, injury, and the onset of lasting mental health problems. By contrast, in most species, including most primates, the transitory period to adulthood is relatively brief. To illuminate the evolution of this life stage, my research among both our closest living relatives--chimpanzees and bonobos--confirms not only the existence of an prolonged adolescent transition but further suggests that vulnerabilities experienced during adolescence may arise from behavioral adaptations aimed at both learning and the forging of social bonds with peers, mates and potential mentors. In developing this research, I’ll draw on both my fieldwork on bonobos at Kokolopori and Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo and my ongoing studies of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, where I co-direct the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project.

Rachna Reddy is an assistant professor of anthropology and environment, society and sustainability at the University of Utah. Her research aims to uncover the evolutionary foundations of human social learning and relationship development across the life course through studies of our closest living relatives: bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). At the heart of her work is the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, an ongoing 30-year study in Kibale National Park, Uganda that tracks the behavior, health, physiology, genetic relationships, and life history patterns of known individual chimpanzees who live in the largest known community in the world. Dr. Reddy incorporates perspectives from clinical psychology and developmental neuroscience into field research programs, with the goal of gaining insights relevant to understanding human mental health as well as our evolutionary origins. She is leading an NIMH-funded working group dedicated to understanding social and emotional vulnerability during adolescence through multispecies approaches. She has held postdoctoral positions at Duke University and Harvard University, and received her PhD from the University of Michigan.