ArticleslgStudy

biology

Ruth Mace

Ruth Mace is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ruth Mace rather than just read about it. In short: Ruth Mace FBA (born 9 October 1961) is a British anthropologist, biologist, and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history, and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution.

Key takeaways

  • Ruth Mace belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Ruth Mace to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Ruth Mace from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ruth Mace FBA (born 9 October 1961) is a British anthropologist, biologist, and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history, and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at University College London.

Early life and education Mace was born on 9 October 1961 in London, England to David Mace and Angela Mace. She was educated at South Hampstead High School, an all-girls private school in South Hampstead, London, and at Westminster School, an independent school within the precincts of Westminster Abbey that has a mixed-sex sixth form. She studied zoology at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1983 and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1987. Her doctoral thesis was titled "The dawn chorus: Behavioural organisation in the great tit (Parus major)".

Academic career Having completed her doctorate, Mace began her academic career as a research fellow at Imperial College London; she held a NERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Then, from 1989 to 1991, she was a lecturer in the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. In 1991, Mace moved to the Department of Anthropology of University College London: she was a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer from 1991 to 1999, and Reader in Human Evolutionary Ecology from 1999 to 2004. In 1994, having met Mark Pagel at University College, the two co-authored "The Comparative Method in Anthropology", that used phylogenetic methods to analyse human cultures, pioneering a new field of science — using evolutionary trees, or phylogenies, in anthropology, to explain human behaviour. In 2004, she was appointed Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology. From 2005 to 2010, she was also Editor-in-Chief of Evolution and Human Behavior. From 2018, she was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Human Sciences. Since 2010, she has served as Head of Biological Anthropology at University College London.

Personal life Mace's partner is Mark Pagel, professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading. Together they have two sons.

Honours In 2003, Mace gave the Curl Lecture, a prize lectureship of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 2008, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.

Selected works Milner-Gulland, E. J.; Mace, Ruth (1998). Conservation of Biological Resources: with case studies contributed by other authors. Oxford: Blackwell Science. ISBN 978-0865427389. Mace, Ruth; Holden, Clare J.; Shennan, Stephen, eds. (2005). The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: A Phylogenetic Approach. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1844720996. Sear, Rebecca; Mace, Ruth (January 2008). "Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival". Evolution and Human Behavior. 29 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001. Gillian, Bentley; Mace, Ruth, eds. (2009). Substitute Parents: Biological and Social Perspectives on Alloparenting in Human Societies. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1845451066.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ruth Mace

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ruth Mace claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ruth Mace before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ruth Mace ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ruth Mace

In research
Ruth Mace appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Ruth Mace in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Ruth Mace is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 20th-century British anthropologists, 20th-century British biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Ruth Mace outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ruth Mace in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Ruth Mace means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Ruth Mace out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ruth Mace in simple terms?

Ruth Mace FBA (born 9 October 1961) is a British anthropologist, biologist, and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history, and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution.

Why does Ruth Mace matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ruth Mace?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ruth Mace.

Tags

  • 1961 births
  • 20th-century British anthropologists
  • 20th-century British biologists
  • 20th-century British women biologists
  • 20th-century British women writers
  • 20th-century British writers
  • 21st-century British anthropologists
  • 21st-century British biologists
  • 21st-century British women scientists
  • 21st-century British women writers
  • 21st-century British writers
  • 21st-century women biologists

Keep exploring