Discover the nine components of our evolutionary pathway to wellness, our Evolved Nest featuring videos, podcasts and posts for each. Visit the Evolved Nest Initiative, a Kindred World nonprofit project.
Join the LIVE monthly discussions on the science of EN and her short films, Breaking the Cycle, the Evolved Nest, and Re-imagining Humanity. Watch the film below and register for the LIVE calls.
Join the Evolved Nest's online community on our ad-free, dedicated Mighty Networks platform.
Stay up to date on the latest research, articles, posts, podcasts, and interviews by reading the Evolved Nest posts on Kindred Magazine and subscribing to Kindred World's newsletters.
Presidential citation from American Psychological Association Division 24 (2024)
Included in an analysis of the top 2% of scientists worldwide (2020)
Winner of the Expanded Reason Award for her book NDHM (2017)
Winner of the William James Book award from the American Psychological Association (2015)
Invited speaker at the Whitehouse Conference on Character and Community (2002)
Tied for 11th place ranking for most productive educational psychologist in field from 1997-2001 (2004)
Awards for multiple books from the Invited to speak around the world from the American Educational Research Association
Fellow of American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Educational Research Association
Creator of Integrative Ethical Education, Triune-Ethics Meta-Theory, Evolved Nest Theory
Co-founder and host of EvolvedNest.org (since 2016)
Professor Emerita, University of Notre Dame (since 2020)
“This gem of a book, vast in erudition and insight and rich in mind-boggling scientific observation, will leave the reader both humbled and grateful.” — From the foreword by Gabor Maté, author of The Myth of Normal
“Darcia Narvaez and Gay Bradshaw invite us to turn to Nature and our nonhuman Animal relatives to learn the ways of ‘mothering’—of care for the earth, all her beings, and future generations.” — Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, ecofeminist, and food sovereignty activist
Accompanied by original art, The Evolved Nest is a beautiful resource for Nature advocates, parents-to-be, Animal lovers, and anyone who seeks to revitalize Earth wellbeing. Through lessons from the Animal world and scientific insights, The Evolved Nest shows how to restore natural wellness in our families and communities by living in harmony with Nature.
Each chapter explores a species-unique “evolved nest,” a way of living with Nature and raising families which has been perfected through evolution over millions of years to optimize development.
The Evolved Nest shows the heritages we share with Animal kin. You’ll learn:
● How Wolves display moral commitment
● How Elephant communities provide mutual lifetime care
● How Beavers not only work but foster a spirit of play in their children
● The emotional and social intelligence of Octopus
● How, when, and whether (or not) Brown Bears decide to have children
● What the neuroscience of child raising can teach you—whether you’re a parent, grandparent, caregiver, or child-free
Psychologists Drs. Darcia Narvaez and G. A. Bradshaw describe how each evolved nest offers inspiration for reexamining our own systems of nurturing, understanding, and caring for our young and one another. Combining stunning scientific facts with lessons from neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, we learn to understand and care deeply for our Animal kin and our innate place within the natural world.
The University of California Berkeley’s Science Center for the Greater Good selected Restoring the Kinship Worldview as one of the most thought-provoking, inspiring and practical science books of 2022.
“A richly creative approach to teaching Indigenous wisdom...”
— DAVID ABRAM, author of The Spell of the Sensuous
“An invaluable bundle of tenets and templates for the urgent project of decolonizng and rewilding our minds...”
— BILL PLOTKIN, Ph.D., author of Soulcraft
“This book is the perfect place to start the foundations of good relations...”
– TYSON YUNKAPORTA, Deacon U., and author of Sand Talk
“Mahalo Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez for this collection, this eloquence and grace through time so we can recognize and honor the common sense and purpose of continuity. All of it is needed now. We are all meant to wake up together.”
—MANULANI ALULI MEYER, director of Indigenous education, University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu
“A glorious prism of voices calling out to us to imagine a more inclusive and sustainable way of being. I ache for the kind of world that is invoked within these pages.”
—HILLARY S. WEBB, PhD, cultural anthropologist at Goddard College and author of Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World
“This book is like brilliant sunlight from the past that reaches us now and illuminates our way forward. It’s Indigenous wisdom and more. For we also keep company with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez in conversation on how to change the world’s trajectory from one of domination over people and nature to relation, kinship, love, and bounty. To Life itself.”
—PETER H. KAHN JR., PhD, professor of psychology at University of Washington and author of Technological Nature
“As it becomes starkly obvious that our future, and life on and of the earth, are in peril, ancestral Indigenous voices are speaking the only words that can save us. The Kogi Mamas teach that everything is a manifestation of thought and that to listen is to think. Understanding ancestral eloquence is our last and best chance, and these pages can only help.”
—ALAN EREIRA, founder and chair at Tairona Heritage Trust and producer and director of From the Heart of the World
“Restoring the Kinship Worldview provides a much-needed and well-stocked medicine cabinet to begin healing how we think and talk about the suffering of our planet and its struggling inhabitants. Open your mind and heart to its multi-Indigenous balms that are administered through the psalms of elders and a dialogue that leaves us ready to begin anew.”
—HILLARY KEENEY, PhD, and BRADFORD KEENEY, PhD, founders of Sacred Ecstatics
A New Book from Darcia Narvaez, PhD, & Four Arrows. Restoring the Kinship Worldview was chosen by Greater Good’s editors as one of "the most thought-provoking, practical, and inspirational science books of the year." Read the introduction to the book here, and discover more posts on Kinship from Darcia and Four Arrows here.
Breaking the Cycle illustrates our capacity for breaking our current Cycle of Competitive Detachment and returning to the pattern of 95% of our human history: a healthy, peaceful Cycle of Cooperative Companionship. Breaking the Cycle is based on the multi-award-winning book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, Wisdom.
Join Darcia Narvaez and Lisa Reagan for a discussion of the Evolved Nest's short films, Breaking the Cycle, Reimagining Humanity, and the Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children. Watch the films and visit their websites for resources below.
Bring your questions and insights to the live discussions!
Thursday, September 25, 1pm ET – Register now
Wednesday, October 22, 4pm ET– Register now
Tuesday, November 11, 12pm ET– Register now
Wednesday, December 10, 3pm ET– Register now
From the immense Whale to the intriguing Octopus – all Animals share with humans brain structures and processes that give us the capacities for life’s rainbow of experiences: consciousness, thinking, feeling, loving, and dreaming.
Perhaps most importantly, we share common ways of raising our young: what is called the evolved nest. Evolved nests are practices that nurture physical and psychological wellbeing. Each child is “nested” with mother, family, community, and the rest of Nature as one seamless whole. Passed from generation to generation over millions of years, each Animal’s nest has been perfected to meet and match the needs of their young. Nestedness is evolution’s way of ensuring that everyone thrives. Each Animal’s evolved nest shares basic similarities but also unique differences.
The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children is the third short film in a series that includes Reimagining Humanity and Breaking the Cycle. This short film in an accompaniment to the acclaimed book, The Evolved Nest, by Darcia Narvaez and G.A. Bradshaw.
The goal of this film is to expand human imagination, based in deep history and transdisciplinary science, about human potential. We have not always been so stressed, disconnected and mindlessly destructive. For most of our species existence we have lived in cooperative companionship. The film illustrates what this looks like.
Human societies are built from individuals who begin life in relationship. The quality of community support for meeting children’s basic needs influences the state of health the child carries forward in all systems. Undercare in early life leads to less health in childhood and adulthood and a basic sense of disconnection—a Cycle of Competitive Detachment. This is not humanity’s heritage. Over 95% of our species history was spent in a Cycle of Cooperative Companionship, where children’s basic needs were met, leading to wellbeing in childhood and adulthood, with a deep sense of connection and skills to keep the cycle going.

“This is a game changer. It points to the fact that it is not enough to be trauma-informed. We must also provide for children’s basic needs, which our evolved nest does by its very nature. Cultures that are not attending to wellness-informed practices are not optimizing human potential, something sorely needed as we face numerous culture-caused crises.” – Darcia Narvaez, PhD

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