Anthropogeny is the study of human origins. It is not simply a synonym for human evolution

Human evolution

Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...

, which is only a part of the processes involved in human origins. Many other factors besides biological evolution were involved, ranging over climatic, geographic, ecological, social and cultural ones.

History of the term "anthropogeny"

The term "anthropogeny" was first used in the 1839 edition of Hooper's Medical Dictionary and was defined as "the study of the generation of man". The term was popularized by Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834–1919), a German naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

 and zoologist, in his groundbreaking books, Natural History of Creation (German: Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschicht) (1868) and The Evolution of Man (German: Anthropogenie) (1874). Haeckel was one of the first biologists to publish on evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

. Haeckel used the term Anthropogeny to refer to the study of comparative embryology and defined it as "the history of the evolution of man". The term changed over time, however, and came to refer to the study of human origins .

The last use of the word "anthropogeny" in English literature was in 1933 by William K. Gregory in "The New Anthropogeny: Twenty-Five Stages of Vertebrate Evolution From Silurian Chordate to Man", Science 77(1985): 29-40.There was a gap in the usage of the term from 1933 - 2008. Anthropogeny was reintroduced in 2008 and is now back in academic use at the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny ' is an Organized Research Unit at the University of California, San Diego...

 (CARTA) at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

.

Anthropogeny versus anthropology

The root anthropos

Anthropos

Anthropos Greek. 1. a human being, whether male or female 1. generically, to include all human individuals 2. to distinguish man from beings of a different order 1. of animals and plants...

means human, -logia means discourse or study, and -geny means origin.
Anthropology, therefore, is quite literally the study of humans, whereas anthropogeny is the study of the origin of humans.

According to Gregory (1933), anthropologists are interested in measuring and quantifying aspects of being human, Anthropogenists are interested in "piecing together the broken story of the 'big parade' that nature has staged across the ages".

There is a some overlap between anthropology and anthropogeny, as both are interested in the study of humans. The field of anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

, and social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

. Anthropology is typically divided into four sub-fields: social anthropology

Social anthropology

Social Anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular person: customs,...

 or cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...

, biological anthropology

Biological anthropology

Biological anthropology is that branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in paleoanthropology and in forensic anthropology...

, linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages, and has grown over the past 100 years to encompass almost any aspect of language structure and...

, and archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

. The field of anthropogeny is also influenced by the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, however, given that it is the study of the origin of humans, it is also influenced by fields ranging from anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 and biomechanics

Biomechanics

Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...

 to neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 and genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

.

A comprehensive list of Domains of Scientific Discipline relevant to anthropogeny can be found in the Museum of Comparative Anthropogeny (MOCA)

Museum of Comparative Anthropogeny (MOCA)

The Museum of Comparative Anthropogeny is affiliated with the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny at the University of California, San Diego.-External links:* * ] ]...

, associated with the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny ' is an Organized Research Unit at the University of California, San Diego...

(CARTA).