Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Toulouse
Manvir Singh is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. He is interested in the origins of universal or near-universal cultural practices, including music, marriage, shamanism and witchcraft.
essayAnthropology
Primitive communism
Marx’s idea that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is widely influential and quite wrong
Manvir Singh
essayAnthropology
Beyond the !Kung
A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale
Manvir Singh
essayLove and friendship
Is marriage over?
Marriage is practised in every society yet is in steep decline globally. Is this it for longterm intimate relationships?
Manvir Singh
essayStories and literature
Orphans and their quests
The sympathetic plot is a type of story, rich in tropes, that is universal to human cultures. With one big twist…
Manvir Singh