the Society’s Mission

The Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies aims at associating scientists and students of various scientific disciplines interested in the application of the evolutionary perspective in the following research areas: biology, ecology, human behavior, and culture studies. By creating an idiosyncratic evolutionary platform we intend to break the barriers between traditional divisions in human studies. We believe that traditional classifications of scientific fields may enhance scholarly collaboration and organization of conferences within societies and associations; however, these classifications more and more frequently do not meet the requirements of modern interdisciplinary scientific approaches. In our opinion, transcending the boundaries, which often reflect the 19th-century divisions of the scientific fields (e.g. biology, psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology), becomes almost a duty for contemporary scholars. The existing divisions encourage the isolation of academic societies that should be cooperating on the platform of certain fundamental paradigms. Just as it is for the study of any kind of organism, the theory of evolution constitutes such an undisputed paradigm for human studies. We do not want scientific isolationism, connected with incomprehensible concepts or terminology accumulated over time, to stimulate divisiveness and self-sufficiency in research, as this may only lead to unnecessary multiplication of approaches to human studies. We are convinced that in light of the newest research on the border of traditional scientific fields, there has been a devaluation of the diversity of conceptualizations in the traditional canon of the division of sciences that ignores the traditional evolutionary perspective. We realize that many scientific approaches to human biology, psychology, or sociology do not take the evolutionary aspect into consideration. We want the Society to make an effort to integrate scholars who apply the evolutionary paradigm in their study. Unfortunately, it is still not common to meet human biologists at national psychology conferences; as well as psychologists, sociologists, or linguists at conferences on human biology, or broadly-defined anthropology. We wish that all people whose scientific investigation focuses on the human subject, and who want to interpret their results from the evolutionary perspective feel comfortable among researchers who operate within different fields of human studies, during conferences and other thought-sharing events organized or initiated by the Society.

Thus, as a part of our activity, we want to promote a multidisciplinary, pluralistic, and evolutionary approach to human nature. We want to create a multicentre scientific environment ready to collaborate in research on human evolution, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, human ethology, evolution and genetics of culture, behavioral genetics, as well as evolutionary economics, medicine, or archaeology.

The Society will put its mission into practice through:

• organizing regular national and international conferences and scientific workshops;

• supporting projects and scientific cooperation in the above-mentioned fields;

• creating a multicentre network of scholars that aim at scientific cooperation, education, and exchange programs for students;

• publishing information about ongoing research, scientific cooperation, available funds and scholarship offers;

• collecting funds necessary to fulfill the above-mentioned goals;

• popularizing knowledge.