WG Human Ethology (AGHE)
Speaker:
|
Prof. Dr. Wulf Schiefenhövel |
Prof. Dr. Kerrin Christiansen-Much |
Goals:
What and who is man? Searching for answers to the Conditio humana is central to human ethological research. What is the interplay between genetically transmitted phylogenetic and traditional, genetically transmitted ontogenetic mechanisms that both form an individual? Upon which basic principals of biopsychology does the foundation of conscious sensation, thinking, and behaviour rest? The work engaged in by members of the AGHE utilize, above all, evolutionary and social biological and transcultural research avenues, including the following themes: sexuality, reproduction, birth, early childhood, parental behaviour, chronobiology, aggression and aggression control, cognition, social skin care, emotion and expression, communication, cultural ethology, anthropology of eating and nutrition, political ethology, development of beliefs in justice and morals, evolutionary medicine and psycology, and co-evolutionary processes between nature and culture.
Several serious problems that characterize our modern industrial society, for example, infantile colic, sudden infant death syndrome, infertility, anorexia nervosa / bulemia, allergies (e.g. gluten), hypertension, stress related illness, short-sightedness, numerous degenerative diseases, loneliness, and other psycological burdens, can be explained as "mismatch", which is the failure to adapt to present life standards. Our organism, with its multifaceted functions, was formed by conditions and circumstances that existed in the evolutionary environment of adaptation (EEA).
The four fundamental questions in evolutionary biology frequently play a role in research: phylogenetic relationships and - ecological and innerspecies adaptation as ultimate factors, as well as - ontogenetic relationships and - causative agents, that is, cause/effect relationships as proximate factors.
A main objective is to combine the various points of effort attempting to explain human behaviour, and interdisciplinary cooperation with other fields such as psycology, ethnology, sociology, archaeology, philosophy, history, and political science is therefore particularly promoted. Beginning with the assumption that all people on Earth comprise a bio-psycic unit, the study of universalities stands as one goal, another is gaining a better understanding of individual, culturally specific manifestations.
The following international meetings have been held:
- 1992 Berlin
- 1993 Salzburg
- 1995 Andechs
- 1996 Berlin
- 1998 Göttingen
- 1999 Andechs
- 2001 Seewiesen
