Anthropogenic Evolution
Where do we humans come from as humans? How do our ancestral traits influence today’s life and the world we live in?
Even though human beings and mammals share many biological traits, the cumulative development of technology, language and culture has led to fundamental changes in our relationships with the environment, other living beings, and ourselves. This has influenced and will continue to influence how human beings have evolved in the ecological niche they have, to a large part, created themselves.
The research field of Anthropogenic Evolution focuses on biocultural evolutionary dynamics within the Homo genus, including humanity’s pivotal role in the Anthropocene, by studying the biology and behavior of human beings in a broad context. This approach includes both theoretical and empirical examinations of how environmental changes and socio-cultural and technological transitions have influenced and will continue to affect the biology, biography, and health of human beings and other organisms.
This research comprises, for instance, the evolutionary interrelations of genes and culture, with the inclusion of paleoanthropological and archaeological data, and using genomic, medical, demographic, behavior-related, and socioeconomic sources.
Research Groups "Anthropogenic Evolution"
| Research Group | Institute | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Douka | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Paleoproteomics and Early Human Migration |
| Fieder | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Evolutionary Demography, Behavior Genetics |
| Higham | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Archaeological Sciences, Radiocarbon Dating |
| Kirchengast | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Human Life History |
| Kuhlwilm | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Evolutionary genomics |
| Mitteroecker | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Theoretical and Evolutionary Biology |
| Pinhasi | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Ancient DNA Extraction and Analysis |
| Schaefer | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Human Behavioral Biology |
| Stahlschmidt | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Microarchaeology of Sediments |
| Weber | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Functional Morphology, Human Evolution, Virtual Anthropology |
| Wilfing | Uni Vienna - Faculty of Life Sciences | Human Ecology, Anthropological Collection |