Frontiers of human biology—Bridging scientific and political
boundaries
The international conference “Frontiers of Human Biology” was held
near Seferihisar, Turkey from September 15 to 18, 2018. The organizers were Prof. Elena Godina, Lomonosov Moscow State University,
Russian Federation and Prof. Barry Bogin, Loughborough University,
United Kingdom. Mr. Oktay Kaynak, an independent researcher, was
in charge of local arrangements. Twenty participants were included:
seven from Russia, eight from Turkey, three from the United Kingdom,
and one each from Portugal and Japan.
The first purpose of the conference was to highlight current
research on human biological approaches in studies of human evolution, the health of archeological samples of people from the Eurasian
region, growth and development of ancient and living people, and
human adaptation to ancient and current technologies. The second
purpose of the conference was to bridge social and cultural differences between research communities, as well as to support and
encourage researchers working in vulnerable political environments.
1 | CONFERENCE TALKS
Three leaps in human evolution by Mr. Oktay Kaynak emphasized the pivotal roles in human evolution of shallow water bipedalism at ~4MYA,
developmental modification of embryos and brain enlargement at
~2MYA, and cognitive thresholds leading to human cultural behavior.
Dr. Andrej Evteev spoke about mid-facial growth patterns in boys from
newborn to 5 years old and the associations between body and cranial
growth. He also related these to practical implications in bioarcheology.
Height growth as a target seeking process; but who sets the target? by Barry
Bogin described the community effects hypothesis for height variation.
Derived from Social Network Theory, this hypothesis tests the effects of
membership within and between communities and how contention for
status sets targets for adult height. Prof. Akira Yasukouchi presented
Adaptability to the artificial light in modern society from the perspective of
nonvisual effects, such as cortical arousal level, autonomic nervous activity, and circadian cycles—with practical applications to sleep. Inequalities
in childhood obesity: the impact of the socioeconomic crisis in Portugal by
Dr. Cristina Padez reported that from 2002 until 2016 the differences in
obesity rates between families with low and high SES nearly doubled to
prevalence of 33.1% and 18.4%, respectively.
Doctoral student Susan Ako reported on a mixed-methods survey of 273 infants <36 months old and their mothers from several
regions of Jigawa State, northern Nigeria. Her goal was to assess
interventions to prevent malnutrition and growth failure. The success of the interventions depended more on the social and political
organization of the region than on the provision of additional food,
clean water, or hygiene education. Two presentations dealt with
secular growth changes: Elena Godina and I. Khomyakova, Secular
changes in body morphology of Moscow children during the last
decades, and Dr. Bas¸ak Koca Özer, Secular changes in anthropometric
measurements of schoolchildren in Ankara, Turkey (1950–2017). Godina and Khomyakova found that Moscow children are taller and
much fatter. In contrast, Özer showed that Turkish boys became
much taller but now have narrower shoulders, while no significant
changes were noted for girls.
Archeological and skeletal research was presented by several
participants: Evaluation of Growth and Development in Havuzdere
Medieval Population: Infant and Child Skeletons by Dr. Ays¸egül
Özdemir and colleagues; Pleistocene period human migration in western Anatolia, by Dr. Ece Eren; New radiological techniques in the study
of the origin and adaptation of fossil and modern humans by Maria
Mednikova; Life and health of the Late Bronze Age subadults from
Southern Ural (a case of Neplyuevsky burial ground), by Dr. Marina
Karapetian and colleagues; Skeletal Sexing Standards of Human
Remains in Turkey by Dr. Öznur Gülhan; Growth processes in early
Middle Ages group from mid-mountain area of Northern Caucasus, following the anthropological materials of the Mamisondon series by
Dr. Natalia Berezina and Dr. Alexandra Buzhilova; and Growth patterns of ancient Russian groups from rural and urban areas by Alexandra Buzhilova and colleagues. These presentations focused on
paleopathology, the validity of dental hypoplasias and Harris lines as
health markers, uses of archeological data for current day forensic
analyses, and patterns of aging.
The final group of presentations covered the topics of On the
Heath-Carter somatotype in Russian children and adolescents: toward
the results of mass bioimpedance study by Dr. Sergey G. Rudnev and
colleagues; Morphological and functional features of Altai region wrestlers' bodies by Dr. Аdu V. Makhalin and colleagues; Patterns of physical
growth, and early old age weight, BMI, body fat, grip strength and mortality in Guatemala by Liina Mansukoski, UK PhD student; and Some preliminary results on the anthropometry of aged population in Turkey, by
Dr. Hasan H. Bas¸ibüyük & Dr. Gülüs¸an Ö. Bas¸ibüyük. These presentations highlighted novel uses of technology for data acquisition and
newer statistical methods for data analysis. Dr. Rudnev's lecture also
cautioned us about the use of routine school and hospital measurements, which he found to be inaccurate and, in too many cases, fraudulent (recorded but not really measured).
Received: 15 October 2018 Accepted: 30 October 2018
DOI: 10.1002/evan.21755
Evol Anthropol. 2018;1–2. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/evan © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1
Biological Anthropology is very much alive and active in Russia
and Turkey—as well as Portugal, Japan and the United Kingdom—but
publication in non-English journals often limits the impact of highquality research outside these countries. More direct engagement by
Western European and North American anthropologists with colleagues in other nations is needed to keep evolutionary anthropology
at the “Frontier” of methods and theory. Direct engagement is very
enjoyable, and a highlight of the conference was the opportunity in
each day for extended discussion and exchange of ideas at both the
formal lecture presentations and during afternoon and evening
social time.
We hope to repeat the experience in two years' time. A complete
program with abstracts is available from Barry Bogin (b.a.bogin@lboro.
ac.uk).
The author thanks the Municipality of Seferihisar and The Club
Resort Atlantis for superb accommodation and food.
ORCID
Barry Bogin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1688-0087
Barry Bogin
School of