Munro Lecture - 'The past 12,000 years of behaviour, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today' The world began to change in fundamental ways beginning some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago with the origins and spread of farming. Originating in the Middle East, and expanding globally from many centres, the domestication of and increasing reliance on food crops – maize, wheat, and rice – coupled with a shift from moving about the landscape to living in large, settled farming communities set into motion a series of challenges to health and well-being that remain with us today and well into the future. Linked with this development was the remarkable growth in population from around 10 million in the terminal Pleistocene, prior to when farming began, to the present 8 billion (and rapidly climbing). An increase in dependence on food crops today predicts continued and mounting challenges to human health and wellbeing on a global scale. The worldwide shift to raising crops provides the context for many of our health challenges, especially as these challenges relate to old and new infectious diseases. However, the story is made more complex by outcomes of the transition to and dependence on farming to include increasing inter-community competition, violence, and warfare as relating to access to productive land and other resources. It is under these circumstances that we see the rise in inter-community conflict, subsistence transitions, and dramatically increased population size and density shaping the context for the origins and spread of crowd-based infectious diseases, competition, warfare, and ecological challenges. The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and deaths of seven million globally comes as no surprise given the conditions and circumstances laying the foundation for the success of deadly viruses and other newly emerging pathogens. Such are the predicted outcomes of the lives of many when viewed in the context of fundamental dietary transitions beginning in the Neolithic millennia ago. This lecture utilizes the records of paleopathology, stable isotopes, pathogen genomes and ancient DNA, body mass and stature, and paleodemography to identify and interpret fundamental changes in health and well-being, providing the behavioral contexts and consequences of the most impactful subsistence transition in human evolution. This event will be followed by a drinks reception. Clark Spencer Larsen Image Clark Spencer Larsen is Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. He is former President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Larsen is an internationally known authority on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings. He has authored or edited 35 books and monographs, including Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton and The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work, and Violence over Two Millennia (co-edited with Richard H. Steckel, Charlotte A. Roberts, and Joerg Baten). His research pertains to the last 10,000 years of human evolution, a period of time involving dramatic alterations in and challenges to diet, health, and well-being. In addition to his research projects in Turkey and Europe, Larsen is the co-director of the Global History of Health Project, an international collaboration involving the study of ancient skeletons in order to track health changes over the last 10,000 years. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His National Academy of Sciences Inaugural Article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 was awarded a Cozzarelli Prize. Please register at the Eventbrite link. May 18 2023 17.15 - 19.30 Munro Lecture - 'The past 12,000 years of behaviour, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today' Professor Clark Spencer Larsen will deliver this Munro lecture on 18 May, 2023. Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School Find the venue Register (free)
Munro Lecture - 'The past 12,000 years of behaviour, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today' The world began to change in fundamental ways beginning some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago with the origins and spread of farming. Originating in the Middle East, and expanding globally from many centres, the domestication of and increasing reliance on food crops – maize, wheat, and rice – coupled with a shift from moving about the landscape to living in large, settled farming communities set into motion a series of challenges to health and well-being that remain with us today and well into the future. Linked with this development was the remarkable growth in population from around 10 million in the terminal Pleistocene, prior to when farming began, to the present 8 billion (and rapidly climbing). An increase in dependence on food crops today predicts continued and mounting challenges to human health and wellbeing on a global scale. The worldwide shift to raising crops provides the context for many of our health challenges, especially as these challenges relate to old and new infectious diseases. However, the story is made more complex by outcomes of the transition to and dependence on farming to include increasing inter-community competition, violence, and warfare as relating to access to productive land and other resources. It is under these circumstances that we see the rise in inter-community conflict, subsistence transitions, and dramatically increased population size and density shaping the context for the origins and spread of crowd-based infectious diseases, competition, warfare, and ecological challenges. The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and deaths of seven million globally comes as no surprise given the conditions and circumstances laying the foundation for the success of deadly viruses and other newly emerging pathogens. Such are the predicted outcomes of the lives of many when viewed in the context of fundamental dietary transitions beginning in the Neolithic millennia ago. This lecture utilizes the records of paleopathology, stable isotopes, pathogen genomes and ancient DNA, body mass and stature, and paleodemography to identify and interpret fundamental changes in health and well-being, providing the behavioral contexts and consequences of the most impactful subsistence transition in human evolution. This event will be followed by a drinks reception. Clark Spencer Larsen Image Clark Spencer Larsen is Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. He is former President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Larsen is an internationally known authority on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings. He has authored or edited 35 books and monographs, including Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton and The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work, and Violence over Two Millennia (co-edited with Richard H. Steckel, Charlotte A. Roberts, and Joerg Baten). His research pertains to the last 10,000 years of human evolution, a period of time involving dramatic alterations in and challenges to diet, health, and well-being. In addition to his research projects in Turkey and Europe, Larsen is the co-director of the Global History of Health Project, an international collaboration involving the study of ancient skeletons in order to track health changes over the last 10,000 years. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His National Academy of Sciences Inaugural Article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 was awarded a Cozzarelli Prize. Please register at the Eventbrite link. May 18 2023 17.15 - 19.30 Munro Lecture - 'The past 12,000 years of behaviour, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today' Professor Clark Spencer Larsen will deliver this Munro lecture on 18 May, 2023. Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School Find the venue Register (free)
May 18 2023 17.15 - 19.30 Munro Lecture - 'The past 12,000 years of behaviour, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today' Professor Clark Spencer Larsen will deliver this Munro lecture on 18 May, 2023.
