Human Biodemography

To provide students with theoretical and empirical knowledge on the evolution of growth, reproduction and survival in humans.
To understand how human societies have incorporated genetic, biological and behavioural traits into the construction of their social organizations.

• Population biology and Life-history theory – Diversity of the life-cycles, main concepts in ecology and population biology; measures and models in population dynamics and evolution.
• Human life-history and demography – Humans amongst mammals and primates; human demographic history.
• Infancy and childhood – Biological, behavioral and cultural determinants of mortality and growth; early life effects.
• Adult reproductive life – Adolescence, mating choices, marriage practices; males and females fertility and fecundity; evolution of menopause and andropause.
• Old ages and senescence – Aging in modern population; ecology, genetic and biology of aging; evolutionary theory of senescence; allelic spectrum of old age diseases in humans.

Methods used

For students, the validation of the ECTS necessitate the success of an exam (consisting of half knowledge questions and half an essay answering an open question). For others,  presence alone allows validation