Friday, June 01, 2012

Culture-Gene Interactions in Human Origins - 3 Talks


From the University of California at San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, this is another installment in the CARTA (the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny) series of talks that have been held for the past few years. I could be biased, but this sounds like another take on E.O. Wilson's sociobiology.
The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny* (CARTA) was established in a collaboration between faculty at UC San Diego and at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, along with interested scientists at other institutions. CARTA became a UC San Diego recognized Organized Research Unit (ORU) in January 2008.

As the word anthropogeny implies, the primary goal of CARTA is to “explore and explain the origins of the human phenomenon.” In other words, finding the answers to the two age-old questions regarding humans:
  • Where did we come from?
  • How did we get here?
CARTA is a virtual organization formed in order to promote transdisciplinary research into human origins, drawing on methods from a number of traditional disciplines spanning the humanities, social, biomedical, biological, computational & engineering and physical & chemical sciences.

*Anthropogeny: The investigation of the origin of man (humans); Oxford English Dictionary, 2006. (1839 HOOPER Med. Dict., Anthropogeny, the study of the generation of man.)

CARTA Brochure
Interested in learning more about CARTA? We invite you to download the CARTA brochure, which provides a concise overview of CARTA's mission and activities.





This series of short lectures looks at how cultural traditions have shaped, and continue to shape, our genomes with the following presentations:
  • Origins of Modern Human Behavior (Alison Brooks)
  • Culture-led Gene-culture Coevolution (Peter Richerson)
  • Human Adaptations to Diverse Environments (Anna Di Rienzo) 
(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/carta for more video)

No comments: