A Shifting Theoretical Framework for Biological Anthropology in 2012

The research produced in biological anthropology over the past year spans a dizzying array of topics, methodologies, and perspectives on human evolution and variation. In this essay, I attempt to encapsulate a slice of that research into a broader discussion of the discipline. In this view, what stands out most notably in the past year's research is the way in which new observations, the product of new technologies and new interactions across disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries, have dramatically shifted understandings of long-studied anthropological questions. The origin of modern humans, the evolution of human birth, and the locomotion of our hominin ancestors are just three topics that exemplify such changes in perspective over the past year. An additional shift within the discipline is the increasing importance of open access and online forums for the research process.