Felicia Madimenos, QC Anthropology

Felicia Madimenos is broadly trained biological anthropologist whose research focuses on human variation in health and how evolutionarily novel factors shape human biology. Since 2007, she has conducted fieldwork in Amazonian Ecuador, and currently serves as Co-Director of the Shuar Health and Life History Project . The project focuses on a number of different dimensions of health, subsistence, economy, and demography among the Shuar forager-horticulturalists. Many Shuar, as is common in developing regions, are currently experiecing rapid integration into a market economy. Her research documents the biological consequences of this transition while highlighting the ways in which local ecological conditions shape Shuar life history. Madimenos' work has implications for the evolution of health and disease and allows for a better understanding of chronic disease risk in industrialized countries.