Evolutionary Anthropology - Duke University

Evolutionary Anthropology from Duke University is a Campus Bachelor Anthropology degree that prepares you for a Science career. About Evolutionary Anthropology Evolutionary Anthropology (EvAnth) is the study of humankind's place in nature. Its central questions revolve around how humans arose from our primate ancestors, how our distinctive attributes - such as enhanced cognitive abilities, striding bipedal locomotion, and our extraordinary connections with culture and technology - came to be, and why, from an evolutionary perspective, we behave the way we do. Our focus on these questions connects us with our colleagues in the other natural and social sciences and in the humanities - with everyone who is working at some level on what it means to be human. To address questions of human nature and human evolution, biological anthropology concerns itself with the morphology, physiology, behavior and cognition of humans and non-human primates, seen from an evolutionary perspective. Central areas of research include the phylogenetic relationships among living and extinct groups of primates, the functional and adaptive significance of morphological variation in the order, and the socioecological underpinnings of behavioral variation within the order. Duke University is one of the world's premier centers for evolutionary anthropology . Our strength lies in our distinguished faculty, our excellent graduate students, and our unique resources for evolutionary anthropology, which the living animals of the Duke Lemur Center and the fossil and osteological collections of the Lemur Center's Division of Fossil Primates. We also benefit from strong allied programs in the life sciences and an outstanding medical school. The greatest strengths of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology (EvAnth) at Duke are in primate paleontology, primate functional morphology, and the behavioral ecology of primates. EvAnth's paleontologists are engaged in the search for and recovery of primate fossils on four continents, and exciting discoveries are being made on a regular basis. Functional morphologists in EvAnth continue a strong tradition of experimental approaches to investigating the evolution of form in primates, and are working to elucidate the mechanics of primate mastication and locomotion. BAA's primatologists conduct field-based work on the behavioral ecology of primates and other animals, and are actively conducting fieldwork on three continents. The mission of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology is to foster the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge about the evolutionary biology of humans and non-human primates. Accumulation of knowledge is achieved through a strong research program; dissemination is achieved through scientific publishing, teaching, and outreach to lay audiences. To accomplish this mission the department fosters the development of a strong intellectual community of faculty and students, with the understanding that discourse and cross-pollination of ideas amongst scholars (of all levels) effectively furthers both aspects of our mission. View more details on Duke University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Anthropology courses.