Evolution and Culture

Darwin’s nineteenth-century theory of evolution is, without a doubt, one of the scientific theories that have most transformed our vision of the world as well as the way we understand our own species. Today, Darwinism sees the evolution of the human species as being not only biologically but also culturally based and, moreover, considers that it might even be impossible to distinguish one influence from the other. Our propensity for creativity, morality or working in concert with others are certainly features which have been given specific forms by our social and cultural settings but this would not have been possible without the human nature that favoured these traits, or the thousands of years of evolution that nurtured them. Recent discoveries in the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology confirm this intimate relationship between biology and culture. What is natural? What is acquired? It is possible that these questions are ceasing to make sense and we shall have to start understanding that human nature is a composite of biological-cultural complexity in constant transformation.

This lecture cycle is a continuation of the dialogue between the life sciences and the humanities which the B-Debate International Center for Scientific Debate Barcelona and the CCCB have jointly offered since 2011.

 

Saturday 19 October, at 7.30 p.m.

RISK AND DANGER: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM TRADITIONAL SOCIETIES?

Jared Diamond, biologist, physiologist and biogeographer, author of El mundo hasta ayer (Debate, 2013 – published in English by Viking as The World until Yesterday)

Moderator: Joandomènec Ros, Professor of Ecology at the University of Barcelona and President of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (Institute for Catalan Studies)

 

Monday 28 October, at 7.30 p.m.

WE THE AFRICANS: EIGHT POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HUMAN DIVERSITY

Guido Barbujani, Professor of Genetics and Population Genetics, Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology at the University of Ferrara

Moderator: Cristina Junyent, director of the Fundació Ciència en Societat (Science in Society Foundation)

 

Monday 4 November, at 7.30 p.m.

NATURAL SELECTION IN HUMANS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Jaume Bertranpetit, Professor of Biology at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona

Moderator: Montserrat Vendrell, Director-General of Biocat

 

Monday 11 November, at 7.30 p.m.

HOMO SAPIENS: AN UNKNOWN SPECIES?

Juan-Luis Arsuaga, Director of the Centre for Research on Human Evolution and Behaviour at the Complutense University of Madrid-Carlos III Health Institute, and Co-director of the Atapuerca team

Moderator: Núria Sebastián, Professor of Psychology, Department of Information and Communication Technologies at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona