The 2021 Conference Days

27–29 January 2021 (online)

Theme 1: Humanity(ies): definition(s), diversity and limits

Invited speaker: Thierry Hoquet – How many human species are there? –

At present, humanity is represented by a single species, Homo sapiens, clearly distinguishable from other primates. However, several human species coexisted over the course of hominin evolutionary history, raising the question: “What does it mean to be human?” Whether with reference to the diversification of hominins, to the entire genus Homo, or only to our species H. sapiens, what biological, cultural and social criteria could make it possible to define humanity—or humanities—and can this truly be done? Present-day human populations are characterised by great biological diversity, inherited from a long history of migrations, adaptations to new environments and genetic exchanges with closely related species, and which continues with recent changes in our abiotic and biotic environment—social, cultural, technological and medical. Characterising these evolutionary forces acting on human groups (as well as on their suite of traits) must integrate data that are both rich, heterogeneous and multi-source [(palaeo-)genetics, development, morphology, physiology, behaviour, (palaeo-)ethnology, (palaeo-)primatology, etc.]. The aim of this session is to take stock, from a transdisciplinary perspective, of research relating to the action of these evolutionary forces, in particular selection pressures (past, present and future) acting on behaviours, phenotypes and genotypes. It will also involve discussing their relevance in the context of a definition of humanity, its limits, and the arbitrariness inherent in any definition.

Keywords : selection, evolutionary forces, variation, Homo sapiens, genus Homo, hominins

Scientific Committee: Guillaume Daver, Anne Le Maître, Aurélien Mounier, Sandrine Prat, Sébastien Vilotte

Theme 2: Between the living and the dead: cross-perspectives on a relative and fluctuating boundary

Invited speaker: Marc-Antoine Berthod – At the heart of death: passage from life to death and ethnographic engagement –

Are the deceased absent, or simply invisible? Are they part of society, or are they excluded from it? Where is the boundary between the living and the dead? These questions have no universal answer: each society, each group, each individual, in every period, defines its own reference points and weaves relationships with its dead that are specific to it. Thus, the very criteria defining the state of biological death vary from one society to another; as for social death, it takes diverse forms of expression, the result of a complex interaction with the living. This session proposes to examine this boundary between two worlds, from Prehistory to the present day, primarily through our disciplines of biological anthropology and funerary archaeology, but also from the perspective of other fields (e.g., history, medicine, sociology, theology). The inscription of funerals in time, the handling of the corpse or its remains, the location of the cemetery and the grave, its internal organisation—are these not indeed clues to the forms of relationship that the living may maintain with their deceased during the funerary rite but also, or even especially, after their passage into the other world (e.g., post-burial practices, mourning, commemoration)? We invite you to submit contributions based on syntheses, case studies, or methodological or epistemological reflections.

Keywords: corpse, relationship to the dead, society, rites of passage, memory, funerary time and spaces

Scientific Committee: Fanny Bocquentin, Cécile Buquet, Hemmamuthé Goudiaby, Sacha Kacki, Eline Schotsmans

Theme 3: Research news

This theme will bring together the discipline’s recent achievements, whether new discoveries or methodological advances.

Programme: Abstracts: