My interests are in the evolution of social behaviour in human and non-human primates. I use Bayesian phylogenetic methods developed in evolutionary biology to explore the evolution of social systems, mating systems, marriage and kinship and investigate the causes of changes in those traits. My work has focused on the evolution of social organisation and the causes of the emergence of monogamy in primates on the one hand, and the causes of the evolution of monogamous marriage among Bantu cultures in sub-Saharan Africa on the other.