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Welcome to the multidisciplinary seminar HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURAL CHANGE 1-2.11.2018

Multidisciplinary seminar HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURAL CHANGE 1-2.11.2018, University of Turku, Finland.

Organizer: BEDLAN-project (Biological Evolution and Diversification of LANguages)

Seminar is free of charge, but enrolment is needed for coffee booking.

Please enroll at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf_k5OCQkDIjDX5BzU1QOkp3FTK01lNYG-7XdZ9Hi2o-Z-ndA/viewform

Language: English, with the option for Finnish according to the language skills of the audience 
1.11. at 10-17 Natura IX, University of Turku 
2.11. at 9-17 Educarium, Edu1, University of Turku 

Programme

Thursday 1.11.2018: Principles for interdisciplinary work of human past

9.30-10.15 Morning coffee & sandwiches 
10.15-10.30 Outi Vesakoski/Päivi Onkamo: Forewords. Need for interdisciplinary discussion on human evolution and cultural change aka human past. 
10.30-11.00 Visa Immonen: Archaeological methods in studies of human past. 
11.00-11.30 Päivi Onkamo: What do genetics offer to studies of human past?  
11.30-12.30 Lunch (on your own expense)
12.30-13.00 Santeri Junttila and Outi Vesakoski: What does historical linguistics offer to studies of human past
13.00-13.30 Virpi Lummaa: Human evolutionary ecology
13.30-14.00 Sakari Salonen: Human past environments
14.00-14.30 Coffee 
14.30 -14.50 Kati Salo: Archaeological osteology – at the crossroads of biology and archaeology 
14.50 -15.10 Elina Salmela: Population genetics and past human populations 
15.10 -15.30 Luke Maurits: Phylogenetic linguistics 
15.30-15.45 Leg stretcher
15.45-16.05 Timo Vuorisalo: Challenges in interdisciplinary discussions 
16.05-17.00 Panel discussion: Problems and possibilities in interdisciplinary work? Santeri Junttila, Virpi Lummaa, Outi Vesakoski, Päivi Onkamo, J-P Taavitsainen. Chair: Jouko Lindstedt
 

Friday 2.11.2018: Recent research results from interdisciplinary work of human past

8.30-9.00 Outi Vesakoski & Elina Salmela: Forewords and first example, the review on the Holistic history of Uralic speaking area.    
9.00-9.30 Jouko Lindstedt: The Slavic spread in linguistics, history, archaeology, genetics, palaeoclimatology, and historical epidemiology.
9.30-10.00 Henrik Asplund/Jussi Moisio: on archeology, TBA
10:00 -10.30 Coffee
10.30-11:00 Ville Pimenoff: Archaeogenetics of humans and their pathogens
11.00-11:30 Kristiina Tambets and Outi Vesakoski: Genetic history of Uralic speaker populations is reflected in linguistic history 
11.30-12.00 Kerttu Majander: Recent results on aDNA – TBA
12:00-13:00 Lunch (on your own expense)
13.00-13.30 Miikka Tallavaara: Effects of environmental variation on Neolithic populations in Finland
13.30-14.00 Terhi Honkola: Linguistic diversification in ecological settings.
14:00-14.30 Simon Chapman/Jenni Pettay: Evolutionary ecology of human reproduction
14:30-15.00 Markku Oinonen: Early human diets based on isotope research 
15:00-15.30 Coffee 
15.30-16:00 Volker Heyd: Of the relationships of human genetics and archaeology 
16:00-17.00 “Nature or nurture” revisited: Social or environmental drivers of human cultural and biological evolution? Panelists: Miikka Tallavaara, Kirsi Salonen, Volker Heyd, Terhi Honkola, Kristiina Tambets. Chair: Outi Vesakoski.

Small changes to the program are still possible. 

For more information please contact Outi Vesakoski (outves@utu.fi) or Terhi Honkola (terhi.honkola@utu.fi)

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Read more about research in the BEDLAN project 
Holistic understanding of the human past is becoming ever more accessible: new methods in archaeology, genetics and linguistics are allowing inferences about historical processes which have previously been inaccessible to science. The ultimate aim in the mind of many researchers is to understand how the different angles of human history have affected each others. The overarching aim of BEDLAN is to to contribute to the studies of comprehensive human history.

BEDLAN makes its share by adding the historical linguistics knowledge of Uralic languages to the holistic history of Uralic speaker area, and finally adding the Uralic history - the story of Taiga - to the global history of human. This is done via three main lines of study: 

  1. Patterns of linguistic divergence.
  2. Mechanisms of linguistic divergence.
  3. Methodological development to study the (potential) joint dispersion and evolution of cultural and genetic history.

 


 

Other News

New Paper: Sex differences in adult mortality rate mediated by early-life conditions

Our latest paper shows that early-life environment is associated with sex differences in adult mortality and expected lifespan. Out now in Ecology Letters:
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/ele.12888

Read more
Figure 3a+b, from Griffin et al. 2017

New Paper: What have humans done for evolutionary biology?

Our review of the contribution of human studies to evolutionary biology is out now in Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1866/20171164

Read more

The first Phoenix Award was given to Virpi Lummaa

Virpi was given the inaugural Phoenix Award from the Turku Finnish University Society on Friday in recognition of and encouragement for her consistently creative and internationally high-quality re

Read more

Visiting researcher: Silke van Daalen

We had the pleasure of hosting Silke van Daalen from the University of Amsterdam for three weeks this September. Silke is a PhD student working with Hal Caswell on identifying individual stochasticity in life-history traits of long-lived populations with a mathematical modelling approach, and came to learn about our dataset and how she might be able to use it in her work. We wish her the best of luck with the rest of her PhD studies, and hope to see her again soon!

Read more

Seili Project Meeting 20.09-22.09.17

Another year, another project meeting! This time we stayed on the beautiful island of Seili, again with the lovely people from the Myanmar Timber Elephant Project, for a few days of talks, drinks, and sauna. Needless to say, there is plenty of interesting and exciting work underway - keep your eyes peeled for the results, coming soon (hopefully) to peer-reviewed journals near you!
 

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Learning From Our Past: Karelia-project's kick-off meeting in Turku 19.4.2017

John Loehr with his workgroup received EUR 225.000 grant from Kone Foundation in 2016 for their project Learning from the past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life.
Karelia-project had their kick-off meeting at the University of Turku 19.4.2017. Intense discussions, good spirit and a lot of inspiration among the team!

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Virpi Lummaan mummohypoteesi paljastaa luonnonvalinnan oveluuden

Menikö luonnonvalinnalla jotain pieleen: Miksi nainen elää menopaussin jälkeen lähes saman mokoman vaikkei voi saada jälkeläisiä?

Read more
Virpi Lummaa

Post-doctoral research position in human evolutionary ecology

Our multidisciplinary research team is looking for a post-doctoral researcher for a three-year project investigating life history, social integration and the influence of kin in forced migrants in a 20th century Finnish population.

The project is an exciting opportunity to investigate the consequences of forced migration of over 400000 people during World War II from an evolutionary ecology and sociology viewpoint. These migrants encountered much the same traumas and faced similar prejudices and resentment that current migrants face today, making the study of this population particularly appropriate to gain insight into the present and future of current migrants.
 

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Learning From Our Past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life

John Loehr with his workgroup received EUR 225.000 grant from Kone Foundation in 2016 for their project Learning from the past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life.

The plight of migrants has come to the forefront recently as masses of people have migrated to Europe seeking asylum from predicaments faced at home. Many people in Finland seem to have forgotten that over 400,000 Finnish people had to abandon their homes in Karelia as a result of World War II. In this cross-disciplinary project, directed by John Loehr, an ecological scientist, biologists, sociologists, historians and demographic researchers study how enforced migration has affected family relations, having children, and integration into the community.

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Kimmo Pokkinen's birthday party at the university

Kimmo Pokkinen is a man behind the Finnish church book data which he has been collecting for years. He had a big day recently and there was a fair reason to serve some birthday cake for him at the university. Congratulations!

Read more
Carly, Verane, Simon, Kimmo, Virpi, Jenni, Samuli, Martin, Mirkka
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Prof. Virpi Lummaa

Academy Professor
virpi.lummaa (at) utu.fi

Dr. Anne Hemmi

Research Coordinator
hemmi (at) utu.fi

University of Turku
Department of Biology
Natura
Vesilinnantie 5
20014 University of Turku
Finland

Academy of Finland
University of Turku