Position Title
Graduate Student
Education
- 2021 - M.A. Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, Davis
- 2017 - B.A. Indigenous Development Studies (Gestión y Autodesarrollo Indígena), Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Mexico
- 2015 - Exchange semester, Anthropology department, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
About
I was trained in applied and cultural anthropology. I’m now interested in incorporating evolutionary theory and mixed methods to understand human behavioral and cultural diversity.
Retrospective and factorial surveys, economic games, and social learning experiments are among my preferred tools.
I am broadly interested in population-level behavior change. More specifically, how modernization is influencing the behavioral strategies and cultural dynamics of rural and indigenous populations in Latin America.
Advisor: Dr. Cristina Moya
Research Focus
Specific research interests include:
- Religious conversion (e.g., from Catholicism to Protestant Christianity)
- Model-based cultural transmission (i.e., success/prestige/similarity biases)
- Edible insect foraging traditions (and abandonment of)
Most of my field experience has been among Tsotsil and Tseltal Mayan communities from the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.
Selected Publications
Cruz y Celis Peniche, P. (2025). Do non-human animals copy successful and prestigious models? Disentangling payoff-biased transmission across taxa. Animal Behaviour, Vol. 219 (123018). [LINK]
Moya, C. & Cruz y Celis Peniche, P. (in press). Adaptive challenges for cognition underlying cultural learning. In M. L. Fisher (Editor-in-chief). APA Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 1, Section 2. [LINK].
Cruz y Celis Peniche, P. (2024). Are There Any True Formal Models of Success-and Prestige-Biased Social Learning?. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 24(5), 466-492. [LINK]
Cruz y Celis Peniche, P. (2021). Drivers of insect consumption across human populations. Evolutionary Anthropology, Vol. 31(1): 45-59. [LINK]
Moya, C., Cruz y Celis Peniche, P., Kline, M.A., & Smaldino, P.E. (2020). Dynamics of behavior change in the COVID world. American Journal of Human Biology, Vol. 32(3): e23485. [LINK].
Awards
2025 - Early Career Research Grant [Cultural Evolution Society]
2022 - NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant [National Science Foundation]
2021 - NSF 'Cultural Anthropology Methods Program' (CAMP) Fellowship [National Science Foundation]
2021 - H. Russel Bernard Graduate Student Paper Prize [Society for Anthropological Sciences]
2020 - Graduate Student Fellowship, Consequences of Formal Education for Science and Religion / Culture of Schooling Meta-Project [Issachar Fund / University of Texas, Austin]
2019 - Provost's Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences [University of California, Davis]
2019 - Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship [The U.S. - Mexico Commission for Educational & Cultural Exchange]