Diversifying Methods in Evolutionary Anthropology: Exploring Autophotography as a Quasi-Naturalistic Observational Method

Understanding human behaviour requires simultaneous consideration of “nature and nurture”, yet biocultural enquiry within anthropology remains uncommon. In part, this may stem from historical divisions the between sub-disciplines of anthropology where biological anthropology has specialised in quantitative methods and socio-cultural anthropology in qualitative ones, often leading to siloed approaches and hindering biocultural collaborations. The study of human behaviour within evolutionary anthropology has emerged from a robust methodological tradition of naturalistic observations, mirroring participant observations commonly deployed in socio-cultural research. This offers opportunities for evolutionary anthropologist to go “beyond the quantitative” to facilitate biocultural investigations. However, perhaps due to increasing challenges and impracticalities with observing participants across private spaces, this method has declined in popularity over the last 50 years. Following recent emerging interest in biocultural mechanisms and methodological diversification within evolutionary anthropology, we explore and reflect on autophotography (a visual qualitative method where participants showcase their lives through photographs) as a quasi-naturalistic method. In doing so, we demonstrate how integrating creative methods into evolutionary anthropology may help bridge methodological divides and enhance biocultural enquiry.