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Themes
Panel on Evolutionary Perspectives on Demography (2004-2007)
Chairs Membership Council Liaison IUSSP Secretariat Contact Person |
Terms of ReferenceOur goal is to capitalize on major theoretical growth in the
field of evolutionary biology – specifically evolutionary
ecology. This has been filtering into the social sciences since
the late 1980s, but has had limited impact on the field of demography.
Our focus is on the role of kin in shaping fertility (numbers
and timing of offspring) and parental investment decisions, in
life course analyses, and on the cues and processes of demographic
transitions. Our particular objective is to establish a comparative
data base that collaborators can use to test evolutionary predictions
for human demographic variation, particularly in small scale communities.
Such a database requires calibrations of measures of fertility,
parental investment, kin interactions, and ecological variation. |
Programme of Activities
International Seminar on Trade-offs in Female Life Histories:
Raising New Questions in an Integrative Framework
Bristol, United Kingdom, 23-25 July 2008
Past activities
IUSSP Seminar: Ecology of the Male Life Course. Rauischholzhausen, Germany 10-12 October 2006
Programme Committee: Ulrich Mueller (Principal Organizer), Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Debra Judge, Hilly Kaplan
Session at the General Population Conference at Tours (July 18-23, 2005) entitled :Evolutionary Ecology, Kinship and Reproduction. This session addressed how and why the costs of child production and child rearing are subsidized by different categories of kin, and how this differs between populations.
Side meeting: We have also organised a side meeting at the Tours Conference to discuss the feasibility of using meta-analytical methods to conduct comparative analyses of the determinants of fertility and mortality, and to run a workshop in the collection of comparative data on the life course. We anticipate convening a seminar in 2006 to work further towards this goal.