Anthropogeny is the study of human origins. It is not simply a synonym for

human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

, which is only a part of the processes involved in human origins. Many other factors besides natural selection were involved, ranging over climatic, geographic, ecological, social, and cultural ones. Anthropogenesis, meaning the process or point of becoming human, is also called

hominization Hominization, also called anthropogenesis, refers to the process of becoming human, and is used in somewhat different contexts in the fields of paleontology and paleoanthropology, archaeology, philosophy, and theology. Paleontology , paleoanthro ...

History of usage

The term ''anthropogeny'' was used in the 1839 edition of Hooper's ''Medical Dictionary'' and was defined as "the study of the generation of man". The term was popularized by

Ernst Heinrich Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and ...

(1834–1919), a German naturalist and

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, in his groundbreaking books, ''Natural History of Creation'' (German: ''Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschicht'') (1868) and ''The Evolution of Man'' (German: ''Anthropogenie'') (1874). Haeckel was one of the first biologists to publish on

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. Haeckel used the term Anthropogeny to refer to the study of comparative embryology and defined it as "the history of the evolution of man". The term changed over time, however, and came to refer to the study of human origins. The last use of the word ''anthropogeny'' in English literature was in 1933 by William K. Gregory. There was a gap in the usage of the term from 1933 to 1993. Anthropogeny was reintroduced in 1993 and in 2008 and is now back in academic use at the

Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) at the University of California, San Diego. Formally established in 2008, CARTA is a collaboration between faculty members of UCSD main ca ...

(CARTA) at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Anthropogeny vs. anthropology

The root in ancient Greek ''

anthropos Anthropos (ἄνθρωπος) is Greek for human. Anthropos may also refer to: * Anthropos, in Gnosticism, the first human being, also referred to as ''Adamas'' (from Hebrew meaning ''earth'') or ''Geradamas'' * ′Anthropos′ as a part of an ...

'' means human and ''

-logia ''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin '' -logi ...

'' means discourse or study, and '' -genesis'' means the process of creation or origin. ''Anthropology'', therefore, is quite literally the study of humans, whereas ''anthropogeny'' is the breakdown of the word anthropos again but with the link word -geny (γένη, γένος) which again literally means the study of the birth and creation of humans. According to the ancient Greeks who came up with the terms, anthropology is the sum of many sciences relating to human study. There is social, economic, civil and comparative anthropology. Anthropogony derives from the word 'anthropo' again and -gony (γόνοι), meaning 'the causing of, the birth of', both in a literal and metaphorical sense, referring to what caused by human born or/and conceived/created. Anthropogeny on the other, is whatever derives from humans. -geny ('γένης᾽), meaning 'the born' or who is born of, but also the gender. According to Gregory (1933), anthropologists are interested in measuring and quantifying aspects of being human, whereas anthropogenists are interested in "piecing together the broken story of the 'big parade' that nature has staged across the ages". According to the definition of the words, Gregory's statement is wrong. So anthropology is the study of humans and anthropogeny, is the study of what humans 'gave birth to', to its core definition, although there have been many confusions by those who do not really have an understanding of the words' origins. Modern anthropology is typically divided into four sub-fields:

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

biological anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an e ...

linguistic anthropology Linguistic anthropology is the Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages and has grown over the past cen ...

, and

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. The field of anthropology has origins in the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, and

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

. The field of anthropogeny is also influenced by the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, however, given that it is the study of the origin of humans, it is also influenced by fields ranging from

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

and

biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is a branch of ...

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

and

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. A comprehensive list of Domains of Scientific Discipline relevant to anthropogeny can be found in the

Matrix of Comparative Anthropogeny The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) at the University of California, San Diego. Formally established in 2008, CARTA is a collaboration between faculty members of UCSD main ca ...

(MOCA), associated with the

(CARTA), at the

References

External links

Matrix of Comparative Anthropogeny (MOCA)
{{Authority control Anthropology Origins

History of usage

Anthropogeny vs. anthropology

See also

References

External links