The last ten years have fundamentally changed approaches to evolutionary systems in human culture. The sequencing of DNA from ancient human remains, including from our closest extinct relatives such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, has opened a new perspective to reconstruct the human past. We now have a much richer knowledge of how modern humans spread around the globe over the last hundred thousand years, which other hominid species they came into contact with and interacted with, and how modern human populations are related to one another. At the same time, we have glimpses into the past lives of humans and their relatives through the archaeological record -- through the bones, art, artifacts, and structures they have left behind and the imprint they have left on the landscape. This symposium is part of a special Humanities-Humanity seminar series organized by Claire Bowern and Serena Tucci on human evolution, population history and cultural/linguistic change. These events bring together a group of anthropologists, geneticists, historians, linguists, and musicologists investigating culture, cognition, and evolution, working between the humanities and sciences.
For this event we will host two invited speakers, Joachim Burger and Mark Thomas, who will present their work on human population history and genetic adaptations using DNA retrieved from ancient humans.
