Welcome
Human dispersal across the globe and adaptation to local environments are inextricably associated with the capacity for culture. Culture has not halted human genetic evolution, but has influenced its directions. How biology and culture interact is therefore a central problem in understanding human evolution, dispersal, diversity and health. We seek to tackle key questions about the cultural, behavioural and genetic processes underlying human evolution and diversity through the Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture (CCBC).
The centre facilitates inter-disciplinary research including gene-culture coevolution, evolutionary psychology, behavioural ecology, population genetics and cultural evolution. Our researchers are from anthropology, archaeology, biological sciences, business, mathematics and psychology, from Durham and externally.
Research Themes
Our research interests cover disease, domestication, innovation and social learning, mate choice, cultural diversification, and social systems. Navigate using the left-hand panel to find out more.
Tipping-Points Workshop
(20 February 2012)
"Tipping points and the spread of buzzwords, labels and ideas".
2-3rd July 2012, Durham University: REGISTRATION IS FULL.
Submit abstracts by Mon. 2nd April 2012 to <span ><span >Pojanath.Bhatanacharoen@durham.ac.uk
Download details (see below news items)
<p >I would like to invite you to give a paper at the diffusion of ideas,
<p >labels and buzzwords conference (see attached flyer) which will be held <p >on 2-3 July 2012 in Durham. This conference is the launch event for a <p >Leverhulme project which is looking at tipping points and the agency in <p >metaphors, but the intention is that the conference will deal with a <p >range of broader issues of how ideas diffuse and spread through <p >populations. The conference will be small and is by necessity invite <p >only (there will be no general call for papers) - so if you have any <p >colleagues whom you work with or might fit with the conference, please <p >pass their names and contact details along, and we will do our best to <p >invite them as well, constraints allowing. Following the conference, <p >depending on the contributions, I would anticipate publishing an edited <p >volume of the interdisciplinary papers. <p >
<p >The conference will begin in the morning on Monday 2 July, ending in the <p >afternoon on the Tuesday 3 July. We can offer you accommodation, as <p >well as the cost of a standard class return rail ticket to Durham. There <p >will be a conference dinner on the evening of 2 July. There is no <p >conference fee. We have set the deadline for abstracts at 2 April 2012, <p >but if you plan to attend can you send Pojanath Bhatanacharoen <p >(<span >Pojanath.Bhatanacharoen@durham.ac.uk) an indication of your intention <p >as soon as you can - this will help us with planning and organization.
- EHBEA 2012 Conference Flyer (last modified: 18 October 2011)
- Tipping Points Workshop 2012 (last modified: 20 February 2012)
News Archive
CCBC Summer Meeting: 30th June 2011, 1-5pm, Anthropology common Room.
Seminar: Tom Morgan, Laland Lab, St Andrews. Cultural transmission biases in humans. 20th June 2011, 2pm, Anthropology seminar room.
Workshop: Centre for Iranian Cultural Studies first workshop on June 6th 2011: 'From Human Niche Construction to Imperial Power: The Next Step in the Study of Ancient Iranian Water Systems'.
Theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. on Human Niche Construction, 27th March 2011.
Seminar: Counting coconuts for the chief: coevolution in language and culture
Fiona Jordan (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics). 4th May 2011.
2010
Congratulations! £427K NERC grant ‘Reconsidering Austronesian Homeland and dispersal models using genetic and morphological signatures of domestic animals’
Caroline Walters is starting an interdisciplinary PhD scholarship to investigate cultural influences on disease and health-related behaviour (start Oct 2010).
Workshop: ‘Archaeological Phylogenies Clinic’ organised by Tehrani and Arroyo-Kalin to develop cultural phylogenetics projects using archaeological datasets (May 2010).
Workshop: ‘Darwinising Folklore Workshop’ organised by Tehrani and M. Smith to develop AHRC grant proposal on evolution of folktales and folk music with British-based ethnomusicologists and folklorists (June 2010)
Workshop: ‘The Spread of Disease with Farming in Neolithic Europe’ (organised by Chris Scarre & Jeremy Kendal).
Workshop: ‘Interdisciplinary view of Plague in rural and urban Europe’ (organized by Rus Hoelzel)
Workshop: “The influence of visual media on physical attraction: cross-cultural studies” (organised by Lynda Boothroyd)
Workshop: Agent-based modelling workshop on hominoid foraging strategies (organised by Bob Layton)
Workshop: ‘Innovation versus Invention in the Creative Industries’ – workshop combining biological, economics, media and anthropological perspsectives, co-sponsored by CCI (ARC Centre), Queensland University of Technology. Organised by Alex Bentley.
2009
CCBC co-director Alex Bentley will be leading one of the five working sections on this 5-year project to study Tipping Points in economic
and environmental systems.
Using phylogenetic analysis, Jamie Tehrani has discovered ancient origins of fairy tale evolution. The work, presented at the British Science Festival, has been widely reported.
Sept 2009.
CCBC has been awarded a substantial seed-corn fund from Durham University to develop interdisciplinary grant applications through 2009-10.
Contact Details
Durham UniversityDawson Building,
South Road,
Durham,
DH1 3LE
U.K.
Tel. +44 (0)191 334 1630