Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Greg Downey received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (1998). After a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University and working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame, he moved to Australia in 2006 and joined Macquarie University.
Greg’s first book, Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art (Oxford University Press, 2005), brought together an experience-centred, phenomenological analysis of the art of capoeira with research in psychology and the neurosciences about the effects of physical education on perception. He has also co-edited volumes, including The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology (MIT Press, 2012) with Daniel H. Lende, and Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Reflections on the New Economy (Duke University Press, 2006) with Melissa Fisher.
Greg is the former Editor-in-Chief of Ethos, the journal of the Socity for Psychological Anthropology; he often writes about his research and other anthropological interests on the weblog, Neuroanthropology (Neuroanthropology.net).
Research interests
Greg's research focuses on biocultural topics in anthropology, including evolution, therapy, agriculture, and the effects of skill acquisition and bodily training on motor and sensory learning. He has been a leader in neuroanthropology.
Greg is currently working with men in therapy, with vision impaired individuals who echolocate or use active sonar in their daily lives, and with groups of highly skilled individuals, such as free divers. He views these individuals as case studies of how cultural techniques and forms of training work with and alter the human nervous system.
Greg has also conducted a range of applied research in agriculture and Learning and Teaching. His agricultural projects have responded to industry needs, including to understand community acceptance of new technology in agriculture. His educational research has focused on ways to promote greater cross-cultural learning in university students travelling or studying abroad.
He has helped to supervise a wide range of research student projects, especially in psychological anthropology.
Teaching
Greg has taught a range of units in anthropology and socio-cultural theory, including running a field school in socio-cultural anthropology in Fiji in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific. He has won awards for his teaching, including the Macquarie University Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.
Over the course of his career, he has designed and delivered:
- Research Paradigms (Masters of Research core unit in theory)
- Psychological Anthropology: Body, Brain, Culture
- Culture and Human Rights
- Wealth, Poverty and Consumption
- Human Evolution and Diversity
- Doing Ethnography: Ethnographic Field Methods
- Advanced Seminar: Biocultural approaches to sport
- Introduction to Anthropology
- Cultural Difference and Social Change
- Black Music, World Market
- Radical Social Theory
- Societies and Cultures of Latin America
- The Anthropology of Perception
- Contemporary Civilization (Columbia University undergraduate social theory core)
External positions
Editor-in-Chief, Ethos, Society for Psychological Anthropology
1 Aug 2018 → 1 Aug 2023
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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CSIRO led: Pest READI: Regionally Enabled Agroecological Decision Intelligence
Parry, H., McGregor, A., Lee, H., Harrigan, N., Downey, G. & Taylor, P.
19/09/24 → 12/12/28
Project: Research
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HIA - Frontiers: The nutritional advantage of fresh produce: a focus on bioactive nutrients and their role in consumer demand
Sunna, A., Garcia-Bennett, A., Rodger, A., Stadler, F., Jamie, J., Ronto, R., Mason, P., Wynn, L., McGregor, A., Gorfinkel, L., Downey, G., Sherry, C., Tang, D., Wolfenden, H. & Barkat, I.
3/05/24 → 9/03/29
Project: Research
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JTF #61924: Concepts in Dynamic Assemblage: Cultural evolution and human ways of being
Fuentes, A. & Downey, G.
1/06/22 → 31/05/25
Project: Research
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New Initiatives in Neuroanthropology: Human echolocation and Brains in the Wild.
1/07/17 → …
Project: Research
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When the blind lead the blind: a sensory ethnography of human echolocation
1/01/17 → …
Project: Research
Research Outputs
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Ethnography vs. zombie methodologies: what anthropology can teach psychology about nonreproducibility
Downey, G., Feb 2024, In: American Ethnologist. 51, 1, p. 164-170 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)79 Downloads (Pure) -
Skill building in freediving as an example of embodied culture
Downey, G., 7 Oct 2024, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 379, 1911, p. 1-9 9 p., 20230150.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)64 Downloads (Pure) -
The incremental transformation of the body through freediving: a biocultural approach to reflexive bodily practices
Downey, G., Jun 2024, In: Ethos. 52, 2, p. 225-240 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile56 Downloads (Pure) -
Editorial: The solidarity imperative and changes at Ethos
Downey, G., Dec 2023, In: Ethos. 51, 4, p. 329-338 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review
7 Citations (Scopus) -
Linguistic relativity in cross-cultural context: converging evidence from neuroanthropology
Downey, G. & Gillett, A. J., Oct 2023, In: Topics in Cognitive Science. 15, 4, p. 693-697 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)43 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Downey, Greg (Recipient), 2013
Prize: Teaching award