Greg Downey is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. A specialist in neuroanthropology, Greg studies especially how skill acquisition and training in demanding physical disciplines like dance and sport shape human psychological and biological capabilities. He has conducted field research in Brazil on capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art, in the United States on mixed martial arts fighting, and in Australia on rugby.
Greg is the author of Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology (MIT Press) and Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Reflections on the New Economy (Duke University Press).
When he's not teaching or doing anthropology, Greg and his wife, Tonia, breed horses and enjoy life on the sunny South Coast of New South Wales.