Anthropology

Adoption is the appropriation of an individual by a family unrelated biologically. This relationship forms part of the Western civilization cultural code. We also know that adoption exists outside the Western social space and can be historically traced in written sources. However, what is the concept of adoption in pre-literary societies? Adoption is ethnographically documented also in these societies, but questions concern its frequency and social function. In other words: how often adoption occurs in pre-literary or archaic societies, why it happens and whether this phenomenon can be detected beyond the existence of written sources. The aim of this work is to conduct a broad scale cross-cultural research. In addition to the questions formulated above, the goal will also be to identify cultural correlates that can be associated with adoption.
Material: primary data source: HRAF (https://hraf.yale.edu/), phylogenetic supertree by J.Zrzavý team (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep29890).
Metody: multivariate statistics, GIS models.

Supervisor

doc. Mgr. Petr Květina, Ph.D.

The topic aims at the further development of methods for forensic person identification, both expert-based and automated. Forensic person identification is a set of techniques that allow forensic experts to establish the identity of a person by matching the identifying characteristics of an unknown person (a victim, witness, or perpetrator) with those of a specific target or set of potential candidates. The primary identifying characteristics are typically fingerprints, dental records, and DNA, while physical appearance (e.g., face, body build, stature, clothing) is often considered a secondary identifying characteristic (referred to in biometrics as soft biometric traits). This topic focuses on the latter, particularly facial morphology and posture, as these traits are accessible in a non-cooperative environment and often without human assistance. They can also be applied to image-based forensic evidence (surveillance videos, photographs, films etc.), which greatly increases their importance in establishing identity in the forensic settings.

Current advances in AI-based automated algorithms have made it possible to automate many identification tasks, with deep learning and deep neural networks being the leading computational strategies. However, the automated methods have largely been adopted from the field of biometrics and face recognition and are isolated from the day-to-day requirements of forensic identification casework. They are also fundamentally different from expert-based approaches that rely on visual or metric assessment of individual identifying traits.

The topic aims to bridge the gap between traditional (anthropological) identification of persons and automated (biometric) approaches.

Candidates are expected to have a background in biometrics or biology. Knowledge of automated algorithms, coding, image processing, and the concept of forensic sciences is welcome.
The topic may lead to the following individual projects:

1) Image-based forensic person identification
2) Probability-based strength of evidence in forensic identification
3) From Bertillon to artificial intelligence: posture, body build, stature in person identification
4) Forensic person identification using 3D acquisition modalities
5) Multimodal person identification

MORE INFORMATION: https://anthro.sci.muni.cz/en

PLEASE NOTE that all interested candidates must contact the prospective supervisor (urbanova@sci.muni.cz) for an informal interview before initiating the formal application process for doctoral studies.

Supervisor

prof. RNDr. Petra Urbanová, Ph.D.

Most human pathogens either coevolved with primate lineages, including those that led to Homo sapiens, or were transmitted from animals during domestication processes. Some of the parasites evolved with mankind for thousands or millions of years and can reflect human behavior, habitat use, and environmental and cultural conditions. Therefore, understanding of human evolution and population history can be expanded by ecological and evolutionary research on our parasites. Soil-transmitted helminths (STH), such as hookworms, nodular worms, or whipworms, and snail-borne schistosomes occur in a range of primate hosts, humans including. The patterns of parasite infections are mostly influenced by spatial proximity of suitable (reservoir) hosts, hosts’ food habits, and in humans also by lifestyle in general. People in communities with low socioeconomic status are more threatened by STH infections which further negatively impact the quality of their life. On the other hand, the absence of parasites in urban human populations has probably led to a higher occurrence of some autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, or some allergies. Ecological and evolutionary studies of parasites in sympatric primate hosts, including humans, can tell us more about the evolutionary history of the hosts, host species divergence, or parasite adaptation mechanisms. The proposed PhD topic aims to investigate how the host’s lifestyle impacts the parasite communities inhabiting the host’s gastrointestinal system using combination of traditional anthropological approaches and different tools ranging from microscopy, nucleic acid amplification tests, high-throughput sequencing, phylogenetic methods, including whole mitochondrial genome analyses or molecular clock, a tool used to determine the timing of species divergence which can elucidate the co-evolution of the hosts. Non-human primates living in habitats differing in biodiversity, including sympatry with other (non-human) primates and various human populations differing in the lifestyle, e. g., (nomadic) pastoralists, rural and urban communities, across Africa will be the model hosts.

Individual projects within this topic could be specified as follows:

1) Relationship of the lifestyle and parasitic infections in hunters-gatherers, rural and urban communities, and primate hosts in Central Africa

2) Impact of the habitat diversity, including co-occurrence of multiple primate species, on the helminth infections in African great apes with focus on mountain gorillas

3) Molecular clock in selected soil-transmitted helminths infecting primates as a tool for mapping the hosts’ evolution

PLEASE NOTE that before initiating the formal application process to doctoral studies, all interested candidates are required to contact the future supervisor.

Supervisor

Mgr. Klára Petrželková, Ph.D.

1) Biological effect of upward social mobility and social inequality

The aim of this study would be an assessment of selectiveness of social mobility in relation to height. It has been shown that taller persons have greater chance to get higher social position than smaller persons. But upward social mobility could be moderates by the level of social inequality. The study should include 3-4 European countries contrasting in social inequality assessed by commonly used indexes like Gini coefficient. Social mobility would be defined as a changes of the social position of studies person in comparison to his father social position, measured by achieved education level and/or profession. The study could use the social media as a source of information, this would be also novel approach.

2) Polymorphisms of dopaminergic genes: DRD4, DRD2, COMT and DAT1 and risk taking behaviour. Study of (Czech or Polish or Slovak) soldiers taking part in combat missions

The aim of the study is an assessment of relationship between frequencies of certain polymorphisms of dopaminergic genes and risk taking behaviour. There are many reports showing association between polymorphism of DRD4 gen with some personality traits like novelty seeking. Other studies have indicated relationship between long allele of DRD4 with such risk taking behaviour like gambling and financial risk. However, there is a lack of research reporting association between such behaviour and polymorphisms in other dopaminergic genes. There is also no any data showing relationship between those polymorphisms and risk behaviour exposing human life. Proposed study will be based on comparison of frequencies of polymorphisms in three groups: (1) soldiers taking part and (2) not taking part in combat missions and (3) control group of males, who are not soldiers.

3) Role of permanent stress in emerging and sustaining the social differences in biological condition.

The aim of this study would be to assess the stress level based on chemical analysis of hairs and estimation of glucocorticoids and cortisol metabolites level in persons from different social strata. There are many findings pointing out the differences in health and biological conditions between people differed in level of education and job position. Controlling for elements of lifestyle, it would be interesting to assess the role of permanent stress.

4) Body length proportion and age at peak height velocity.

The aim of the study would be to find which length measures and their proportions are the best predictors of age at peak height velocity (APHV). It is well known that the peak height velocity starts with acceleration of growth long bones from lower extremities. So, using the longitudinal data and measures of segments of lower and upper extremities it would be possible to find a certain ratio of certain segments which would be the best predictors of APHV.

Supervisor

prof. Slawomir Marek Koziel, DSc.