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Evolutionary Anthropology is the study of the evolution and ecology of humans and other primates, grounded in an understanding of evolutionary theory. Environmental Anthropology focuses on the relations between people and environments, and extends the study of human ecology to applied subjects such as conservation and development. These sub-disciplines are united by their interest in how humans influence and have been influenced by their environments, and by their quantitative and mixed methods research approaches.
UCL Anthropology's Evolutionary and Environmental Anthropology section is one of the largest groups of academics in Europe that focuses on these subjects. We conduct research on several related themes that also form the core of our teaching programmes and weekly seminar series.
Evolutionary Anthropology
The Evolutionary Anthropology research cluster researches the evolution of physiology, behaviour and culture of humans and non-human primates. There is a particular focus on human and primate behavioural ecology and the evolution of social systems, evolutionary medicine and public health, primate conservation, and the evolution of human cultural norms and cultural evolution in general.
Staff interests include:
- Primate ecology, behaviour and conservation, with current fieldwork focused on the Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project in Tanzania (Alex Piel) and the Tsaobis Baboon Project in Namibia (Alecia Carter)
- Sociality and social structure, kinship, mathematical and computational modelling of social evolution and hunter-gatherer studies
- Childrearing systems in developed populations, consequences of alloparenting, social support, applied evolutionary anthropology and public health (Emily Emmott)
- Palaeoanthropology, Pleistocene hominins, dental anthropology, human brain evolution and quantitative approaches to the study of human evolution at macro- and microevolutionary scales (Aida Gómez-Robles)
- Human evolutionary ecology including life history, cultural evolution and kinship, currently focused in Africa, central Asia and China (Ruth Mace)
- Evolutionary approaches to human behaviour and health: social learning and cultural evolution, social networks, childrearing practices, dietary patterns and physical activity levels in Congo hunter-gatherers and implications on the diseases of modernity (Gul Deniz Salali)
- Origins and evolution of primate radiations including evolutionary anatomy and the interaction of primate evolution with environmental change (Christophe Soligo)
Evolutionary Anthropology blog
Environmental Anthropology
Environmental Anthropology's research cluster, Human Ecology Research Group (HERG), focuses on the impact of resource policy and management on people’s livelihoods, health and wellbeing and the impacts of changing resource use on the environment and biodiversity.
Staff interests include:
- Sustainability of socio-ecological systems, with a focus on conservation social sciences and applied research in the Latin America (e.g. Amazon forest and Pantanal wetland) (Rafael Chiaravalloti)
- The interaction between conservation and human development, and rangeland use in sub-Saharan Africa (Katherine Homewood)
- Human ecology and aquatic resource use in Asia, with application to the management of natural resources (Caroline Garaway)
- The social dimensions of human-environment relationships, impacts of conservation on well-being and the governance of pastoralist systems (Emily Woodhouse)