Visiting scholars Paul Bingham and Joanne Souza from Stony Brook University will give a lecture regarding “What Human Evolution Can Teach Us about Our Anatomy, Sexuality, Behavior, History, and Politics” on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building as part of the ALLELE lecture series.
“We will describe selected results from our decade-long investigation of the evolutionary origins of humans – results that give us surprising new insights into our properties; our social, sexual, economic and political behaviors; our history and future,” Souza said.
Christopher Lynn, assistant professor of anthropology, said the speakers were selected because their coercion theory crosses several disciplines, and they recently collaborated with UA archaeologist John Blitz, who recommended they be invited.
“We are accustomed to evolutionists interpreting the prehistory of species, but this week’s speakers have utilized evolutionary principles to interpret the history of our species and the role of coercion in driving species, historical and cultural changes, which is just downright fascinating,” Lynn said.
Souza said the talk is important for students of subjects not immediately related to evolutionary theory, as well as those studying biology or anthropology.
“One impact of the recent vast increase in our understanding of our evolved human minds and behaviors is that the social sciences and humanities can now be unified with the natural sciences,” Souza said. “Thus, all the different ways we have tried to understand people – through literature, through social observation, through exploring their evolution – prove merely to be different facets of the same intellectual enterprise.”
The ALLELE series is sponsored by several departments of the University and features speakers on the forefront of evolutionary studies in free public talks.
“It is important that any scientific or liberal arts education provide exposure to its students to such fundamental theories if the University’s objective includes creating a critical and engaged citizenry, which I believe it is,” Lynn said. “The ALLELE series provides this exposure by bringing an eclectic array of speakers to campus in whose work evolutionary principles are central to demonstrate the breadth of the relevance of these principles.”
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
