Human beings, like other living beings, are products of biological evolution. Just as the theory of evolution constitutes a logic for biology, evolutionary approaches provide a framework for the study of human beings. They shed light on the study of our psychology, our social organization, our cultural knowledge, the forms that take our cooperation and conflicts, the history of our migrations, and our health and disease. They enable us to understand both what is universal and part of human nature and, through the study of cultural evolution, the origin of differences between societies. Finally, by considering together the genetic, environmental and cultural determinants of human behavioural and physiological variation, evolutionary approaches are uniquely placed to shed new light on medical practices and public policies, which will help devise innovative solutions to societal challenges.

 

The development of these approaches requires collaborations between scientists from traditionally distant disciplines: evolutionary biologists, psychologists, anthropologists, geneticists, linguists, primatologists, economists, political scientists, historians, etc. This vast research program was structured on an international scale with the creation of the scientific society "Human Behavior and Evolution Society", essentially centered in the United States. More recently, the scientific society "European Human Behavior and Evolution Association" has developed in Europe. This “Réseau transdisciplinaire prioritaire” aims at strucuring this interdisciplinary dynamic on a French scale.