Evolutionary anthropology

Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour[1] and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Various fields and disciplines of evolutionary anthropology include:

• human evolution and anthropogeny
• paleoanthropology and paleontology of both human and non-human primates
• primatology and primate ethology
• the sociocultural evolution of human behavior, including phylogenetic approaches to historical linguistics
• the cultural anthropology and sociology of humans
• the archaeological study of human technology and of its changes over time and space
• human evolutionary genetics and changes in the human genome over time
• the neuroscience, endocrinology, and neuroanthropology of human and primate cognition, culture, actions and abilities
• human behavioural ecology and the interaction between humans and the environment
• studies of human anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and differences and changes between species, variation between human groups, and relationships to cultural factors

Part of a series on
Evolutionary biology
Darwin's finches by John Gould
Index Introduction Main Outline Glossary Evidence History
Processes and outcomes Population genetics Variation Diversity Mutation Natural selection Adaptation Polymorphism Genetic drift Gene flow Speciation Adaptive radiation Co-operation Coevolution Coextinction Divergence Convergence Parallel evolution Extinction
Natural history Origin of life Common descent History of life Timeline of evolution Human evolution Phylogeny Biodiversity Biogeography Classification Evolutionary taxonomy Cladistics Transitional fossil Extinction event
History of evolutionary theory Overview Renaissance Before Darwin Darwin Origin of Species Before synthesis Modern synthesis Molecular evolution Evo-devo Current research History of speciation History of paleontology (timeline)
Fields and applications Applications of evolution Biosocial criminology Ecological genetics Evolutionary aesthetics Evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary computation Evolutionary ecology Evolutionary economics Evolutionary epistemology Evolutionary ethics Evolutionary game theory Evolutionary linguistics Evolutionary medicine Evolutionary neuroscience Evolutionary physiology Evolutionary psychology Experimental evolution Phylogenetics Paleontology Selective breeding Speciation experiments Sociobiology Island biogeography Systematics Universal Darwinism
Social implications Evolution as fact and theory Social effects Creation–evolution controversy Theistic evolution Objections to evolution Level of support
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Evolutionary anthropology studies both the biological and the cultural evolution of humans, past and present. Based on a scientific approach, it brings together fields such as archaeology, behavioral ecology, psychology, primatology, and genetics. As a dynamic and interdisciplinary field, it draws on many lines of evidence to understand the human experience, past and present.

Studies of human biological evolution generally focus on the evolution of the human form. Cultural evolution involves the study of cultural change over time and space and frequently incorporates cultural-transmission models. Cultural evolution is not the same as biological evolution: human culture involves the transmission of cultural information (compare memetics), and such transmission can behave in ways quite distinct from human biology and genetics. The study of cultural change increasingly takes place through cladistics and genetic models.