Project acronym 100 Archaic Genomes
Project Genome sequences from extinct hominins
Researcher (PI) Svante PaeaeBO
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Country Germany
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS2, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Neandertals and Denisovans, an Asian group distantly related to Neandertals, are the closest evolutionary relatives of present-day humans. They are thus of direct relevance for understanding the origin of modern humans and how modern humans differ from their closest relatives. We will generate genome-wide data from a large number of Neandertal and Denisovan individuals from across their geographical and temporal range as well as from other extinct hominin groups which we may discover. This will be possible by automating highly sensitive approaches to ancient DNA extraction and DNA libraries construction that we have developed so that they can be applied to many specimens from many sites in order to identify those that contain retrievable DNA. Whenever possible we will sequence whole genomes and in other cases use DNA capture methods to generate high-quality data from representative parts of the genome. This will allow us to study the population history of Neandertals and Denisovans, elucidate how many times and where these extinct hominins contributed genes to present-day people, and the extent to which modern humans and archaic groups contributed genetically to Neandertals and Denisovans. By retrieving DNA from specimens that go back to the Middle Pleistocene we will furthermore shed light on the early history and origins of Neandertals and Denisovans.
Summary
Neandertals and Denisovans, an Asian group distantly related to Neandertals, are the closest evolutionary relatives of present-day humans. They are thus of direct relevance for understanding the origin of modern humans and how modern humans differ from their closest relatives. We will generate genome-wide data from a large number of Neandertal and Denisovan individuals from across their geographical and temporal range as well as from other extinct hominin groups which we may discover. This will be possible by automating highly sensitive approaches to ancient DNA extraction and DNA libraries construction that we have developed so that they can be applied to many specimens from many sites in order to identify those that contain retrievable DNA. Whenever possible we will sequence whole genomes and in other cases use DNA capture methods to generate high-quality data from representative parts of the genome. This will allow us to study the population history of Neandertals and Denisovans, elucidate how many times and where these extinct hominins contributed genes to present-day people, and the extent to which modern humans and archaic groups contributed genetically to Neandertals and Denisovans. By retrieving DNA from specimens that go back to the Middle Pleistocene we will furthermore shed light on the early history and origins of Neandertals and Denisovans.
Max ERC Funding
2 350 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31
Project acronym 14Constraint
Project Radiocarbon constraints for models of C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems: from process understanding to global benchmarking
Researcher (PI) Susan Trumbore
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Country Germany
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary The overall goal of 14Constraint is to enhance the availability and use of radiocarbon data as constraints for process-based understanding of the age distribution of carbon in and respired by soils and ecosystems. Carbon enters ecosystems by a single process, photosynthesis. It returns by a range of processes that depend on plant allocation and turnover, the efficiency and rate of litter decomposition and the mechanisms stabilizing C in soils. Thus the age distribution of respired CO2 and the age of C residing in plants, litter and soils are diagnostic properties of ecosystems that provide key constraints for testing carbon cycle models. Radiocarbon, especially the transit of ‘bomb’ 14C created in the 1960s, is a powerful tool for tracing C exchange on decadal to centennial timescales. 14Constraint will assemble a global database of existing radiocarbon data (WP1) and demonstrate how they can constrain and test ecosystem carbon cycle models. WP2 will fill data gaps and add new data from sites in key biomes that have ancillary data sufficient to construct belowground C and 14C budgets. These detailed investigations will focus on the role of time lags caused in necromass and fine roots, as well as the dynamics of deep soil C. Spatial extrapolation beyond the WP2 sites will require sampling along global gradients designed to explore the relative roles of mineralogy, vegetation and climate on the age of C in and respired from soil (WP3). Products of this 14Constraint will include the first publicly available global synthesis of terrestrial 14C data, and will add over 5000 new measurements. This project is urgently needed before atmospheric 14C levels decline to below 1950 levels as expected in the next decade.
Summary
The overall goal of 14Constraint is to enhance the availability and use of radiocarbon data as constraints for process-based understanding of the age distribution of carbon in and respired by soils and ecosystems. Carbon enters ecosystems by a single process, photosynthesis. It returns by a range of processes that depend on plant allocation and turnover, the efficiency and rate of litter decomposition and the mechanisms stabilizing C in soils. Thus the age distribution of respired CO2 and the age of C residing in plants, litter and soils are diagnostic properties of ecosystems that provide key constraints for testing carbon cycle models. Radiocarbon, especially the transit of ‘bomb’ 14C created in the 1960s, is a powerful tool for tracing C exchange on decadal to centennial timescales. 14Constraint will assemble a global database of existing radiocarbon data (WP1) and demonstrate how they can constrain and test ecosystem carbon cycle models. WP2 will fill data gaps and add new data from sites in key biomes that have ancillary data sufficient to construct belowground C and 14C budgets. These detailed investigations will focus on the role of time lags caused in necromass and fine roots, as well as the dynamics of deep soil C. Spatial extrapolation beyond the WP2 sites will require sampling along global gradients designed to explore the relative roles of mineralogy, vegetation and climate on the age of C in and respired from soil (WP3). Products of this 14Constraint will include the first publicly available global synthesis of terrestrial 14C data, and will add over 5000 new measurements. This project is urgently needed before atmospheric 14C levels decline to below 1950 levels as expected in the next decade.
Max ERC Funding
2 283 747 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-12-01, End date: 2021-11-30
Project acronym AGATM
Project A Global Anthropology of Transforming Marriage
Researcher (PI) Janet CARSTEN
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary This research will create a new theoretical vision of the importance of marriage as an agent of transformation in human sociality. Marriage globally is undergoing profound change, provoking intense debate and anxiety. These concerns refract wider instabilities in political, economic, and familial institutions. They signal the critical role of marriage in bringing together - and separating - intimate, personal, and familial life with wider state institutions. But we have little up to date comparative research or general theory of how marriage changes or the long-term significance of such change. Paradoxically, social scientific and public discourse emphasise the conservative and normative aspects of marriage. This underlines the need for a new theoretical frame that takes account of cultural and historical specificity to grasp the importance of marriage as both vehicle of and engine for transformation. AGATM overturns conventional understandings by viewing marriage as inherently transformative, indeed at the heart of social and cultural change. The research will investigate current transformations of marriage in two distinct senses. First, it will undertake an ethnographic investigation of new forms of marriage in selected sites in Europe, N. America, Asia, and Africa. Second, it will subject ‘marriage’ to a rigorous theoretical critique that will denaturalise marriage and reintegrate it into the new anthropology of kinship. Research on five complementary and contrastive sub-projects examining emerging forms of marriage in different locations will be structured through the themes of care, property, and ritual forms. The overarching analytic of temporality will frame the theoretical vision of the research and connect the themes. The resulting six monographs, journal articles, and exhibition will together revitalise the study of kinship by placing the moral, practical, political, and imaginative significance of marriage over time at its centre.
Summary
This research will create a new theoretical vision of the importance of marriage as an agent of transformation in human sociality. Marriage globally is undergoing profound change, provoking intense debate and anxiety. These concerns refract wider instabilities in political, economic, and familial institutions. They signal the critical role of marriage in bringing together - and separating - intimate, personal, and familial life with wider state institutions. But we have little up to date comparative research or general theory of how marriage changes or the long-term significance of such change. Paradoxically, social scientific and public discourse emphasise the conservative and normative aspects of marriage. This underlines the need for a new theoretical frame that takes account of cultural and historical specificity to grasp the importance of marriage as both vehicle of and engine for transformation. AGATM overturns conventional understandings by viewing marriage as inherently transformative, indeed at the heart of social and cultural change. The research will investigate current transformations of marriage in two distinct senses. First, it will undertake an ethnographic investigation of new forms of marriage in selected sites in Europe, N. America, Asia, and Africa. Second, it will subject ‘marriage’ to a rigorous theoretical critique that will denaturalise marriage and reintegrate it into the new anthropology of kinship. Research on five complementary and contrastive sub-projects examining emerging forms of marriage in different locations will be structured through the themes of care, property, and ritual forms. The overarching analytic of temporality will frame the theoretical vision of the research and connect the themes. The resulting six monographs, journal articles, and exhibition will together revitalise the study of kinship by placing the moral, practical, political, and imaginative significance of marriage over time at its centre.
Max ERC Funding
2 297 584 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2022-06-30
Project acronym APEG
Project Algorithmic Performance Guarantees: Foundations and Applications
Researcher (PI) Susanne ALBERS
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Country Germany
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE6, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Optimization problems are ubiquitous in computer science. Almost every problem involves the optimization of some objective function. However a major part of these problems cannot be solved to optimality. Therefore, algorithms that achieve provably good performance guarantees are of immense importance. Considerable progress has already been made, but great challenges remain: Some fundamental problems are not well understood. Moreover, for central problems arising in new applications, no solutions are known at all.
The goal of APEG is to significantly advance the state of the art on algorithmic performance guarantees. Specifically, the project has two missions: First, it will develop new algorithmic techniques, breaking new ground in the areas of online algorithms, approximations algorithms and algorithmic game theory. Second, it will apply these techniques to solve fundamental problems that are central in these algorithmic disciplines. APEG will attack long-standing open problems, some of which have been unresolved for several decades. Furthermore, it will formulate and investigate new algorithmic problems that arise in modern applications. The research agenda encompasses a broad spectrum of classical and timely topics including (a) resource allocation in computer systems, (b) data structuring, (c) graph problems, with relations to Internet advertising, (d) complex networks and (e) massively parallel systems. In addition to basic optimization objectives, the project will also study the new performance metric of energy minimization in computer systems.
Overall, APEG pursues cutting-edge algorithms research, focusing on both foundational problems and applications. Any progress promises to be a breakthrough or significant contribution.
Summary
Optimization problems are ubiquitous in computer science. Almost every problem involves the optimization of some objective function. However a major part of these problems cannot be solved to optimality. Therefore, algorithms that achieve provably good performance guarantees are of immense importance. Considerable progress has already been made, but great challenges remain: Some fundamental problems are not well understood. Moreover, for central problems arising in new applications, no solutions are known at all.
The goal of APEG is to significantly advance the state of the art on algorithmic performance guarantees. Specifically, the project has two missions: First, it will develop new algorithmic techniques, breaking new ground in the areas of online algorithms, approximations algorithms and algorithmic game theory. Second, it will apply these techniques to solve fundamental problems that are central in these algorithmic disciplines. APEG will attack long-standing open problems, some of which have been unresolved for several decades. Furthermore, it will formulate and investigate new algorithmic problems that arise in modern applications. The research agenda encompasses a broad spectrum of classical and timely topics including (a) resource allocation in computer systems, (b) data structuring, (c) graph problems, with relations to Internet advertising, (d) complex networks and (e) massively parallel systems. In addition to basic optimization objectives, the project will also study the new performance metric of energy minimization in computer systems.
Overall, APEG pursues cutting-edge algorithms research, focusing on both foundational problems and applications. Any progress promises to be a breakthrough or significant contribution.
Max ERC Funding
2 404 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym Babylearn
Project Neural mechanisms of learning in the infant brain : from Statistics to Rules and Symbols
Researcher (PI) Ghislaine, Marie-Therese, Aline DEHAENE-LAMBERTZ
Host Institution (HI) COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Infant is the most powerful learner: He learns in a few months to master language, complex social interactions, etc. Powerful statistical algorithms, simultaneously acting at the different levels of functional hierarchies have been proposed to explain learning. I propose here that two other elements are crucial. The first is the particular human cerebral architecture that constrains statistical computations. The second is the human’s ability to access a rich symbolic system. I have planned 6 work packages using the complementary information offered by non-invasive brain-imaging techniques (EEG, MRI and optical topography) to understand the neural bases of infant statistical computations and symbolic competence from 6 months of gestation up until the end of the first year of life.
WP1 studies from which preterm age, statistical inferences can be demonstrated using hierarchical auditory oddball paradigms.
WP2 investigates the consequences of a different pre-term environment (in-utero versus ex-utero) on the early statistical computations in the visual and auditory domains and their consequences on the ongoing brain activity along the first year of life.
WP3 explores the neural bases of how infants infer word meaning and word category, and in particular the role of the left perisylvian areas and of their particular connectivity.
WP4 questions infant symbolic competency. I propose several criteria (generalization, bidirectionality, use of algebraic rules and of logical operations) tested in successive experiments to clarify infant symbolic abilities during the first semester of life.
WP5-6 are transversal to WP1-4: WP5 uses MRI to obtain accurate functional localization and maturational markers correlated with functional results. In WP6, we develop new tools to combine and analyse multimodal brain images.
With this proposal, I hope to clarify the specificities of a neural functional architecture that are critical for human learning from the onset of cortical circuits.
Summary
Infant is the most powerful learner: He learns in a few months to master language, complex social interactions, etc. Powerful statistical algorithms, simultaneously acting at the different levels of functional hierarchies have been proposed to explain learning. I propose here that two other elements are crucial. The first is the particular human cerebral architecture that constrains statistical computations. The second is the human’s ability to access a rich symbolic system. I have planned 6 work packages using the complementary information offered by non-invasive brain-imaging techniques (EEG, MRI and optical topography) to understand the neural bases of infant statistical computations and symbolic competence from 6 months of gestation up until the end of the first year of life.
WP1 studies from which preterm age, statistical inferences can be demonstrated using hierarchical auditory oddball paradigms.
WP2 investigates the consequences of a different pre-term environment (in-utero versus ex-utero) on the early statistical computations in the visual and auditory domains and their consequences on the ongoing brain activity along the first year of life.
WP3 explores the neural bases of how infants infer word meaning and word category, and in particular the role of the left perisylvian areas and of their particular connectivity.
WP4 questions infant symbolic competency. I propose several criteria (generalization, bidirectionality, use of algebraic rules and of logical operations) tested in successive experiments to clarify infant symbolic abilities during the first semester of life.
WP5-6 are transversal to WP1-4: WP5 uses MRI to obtain accurate functional localization and maturational markers correlated with functional results. In WP6, we develop new tools to combine and analyse multimodal brain images.
With this proposal, I hope to clarify the specificities of a neural functional architecture that are critical for human learning from the onset of cortical circuits.
Max ERC Funding
2 554 924 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-02-28
Project acronym BABYRHYTHM
Project Oscillatory Rhythmic Entrainment and the Foundations of Language Acquisition
Researcher (PI) Usha Claire GOSWAMI
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Half of “late talkers”, infants who are not yet speaking by 2 years of age, will go on to develop language impairments. Currently, we have no reliable means of identifying these infants. Here we combine our developmental approach to phonology (psycholinguistic grain size theory), to the neural mechanisms underlying speech encoding (temporal sampling [TS] theory) and our work on the developmental importance of the speech amplitude envelope (AE) to open a new research front in the foundations of language acquisition. Recent adult research confirms our decade-long focus on the importance of sensitivity to AE ‘rise time’ in children’s language development, showing that rise times (‘auditory edges’) re-set the endogenous cortical oscillations that encode speech. Accordingly, we now apply our in-house state-of-the-art methods for measuring oscillatory rhythmic entrainment in children along with our recent theoretical and behavioural advances concerning AE processing to infant studies. Our core aim is to use the TS theoretical perspective and analysis methods to generate robust early neural and behavioural markers of phonological and morphological development: TS for infants. We have published the first-ever studies of oscillatory entrainment to speech rhythm by children and we have developed methods for technically-challenging EEG speech envelope reconstruction. We now apply these innovative methods to infant language learning and infant-directed speech. Using our cutting-edge EEG methods, we will deliver a novel and innovative road map for charting early language acquisition from a rhythmic entrainment perspective. Our recent 5-year study of rise time sensitivity in infants confirms the feasibility of a TS approach. As our focus is on prosody, syllable stress and syllable processing, our methods will apply across European languages.
Summary
Half of “late talkers”, infants who are not yet speaking by 2 years of age, will go on to develop language impairments. Currently, we have no reliable means of identifying these infants. Here we combine our developmental approach to phonology (psycholinguistic grain size theory), to the neural mechanisms underlying speech encoding (temporal sampling [TS] theory) and our work on the developmental importance of the speech amplitude envelope (AE) to open a new research front in the foundations of language acquisition. Recent adult research confirms our decade-long focus on the importance of sensitivity to AE ‘rise time’ in children’s language development, showing that rise times (‘auditory edges’) re-set the endogenous cortical oscillations that encode speech. Accordingly, we now apply our in-house state-of-the-art methods for measuring oscillatory rhythmic entrainment in children along with our recent theoretical and behavioural advances concerning AE processing to infant studies. Our core aim is to use the TS theoretical perspective and analysis methods to generate robust early neural and behavioural markers of phonological and morphological development: TS for infants. We have published the first-ever studies of oscillatory entrainment to speech rhythm by children and we have developed methods for technically-challenging EEG speech envelope reconstruction. We now apply these innovative methods to infant language learning and infant-directed speech. Using our cutting-edge EEG methods, we will deliver a novel and innovative road map for charting early language acquisition from a rhythmic entrainment perspective. Our recent 5-year study of rise time sensitivity in infants confirms the feasibility of a TS approach. As our focus is on prosody, syllable stress and syllable processing, our methods will apply across European languages.
Max ERC Funding
2 614 275 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31
Project acronym BARRIERS
Project The evolution of barriers to gene exchange
Researcher (PI) Roger BUTLIN
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS8, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Speciation is a central process in evolution that involves the origin of barriers to gene flow between populations. Species are typically isolated by several barriers and assembly of multiple barriers separating the same populations seems to be critical to the evolution of strong reproductive isolation. Barriers resulting from direct selection can become coincident through a process of coupling while reinforcement can add barrier traits that are not under direct selection. In the presence of gene flow, these processes are opposed by recombination. While recent research using the latest sequencing technologies has provided much increased knowledge of patterns of differentiation and the genetic basis of local adaptation, it has so far added little to understanding of the coupling and reinforcement processes.
In this project, I will focus on the accumulation of barriers to gene exchange and the processes underlying increasing reproductive isolation. I will use the power of natural contact zones, combined with novel manipulative experiments, to separate the processes that underlie patterns of differentiation and introgression. The Littorina saxatilis model system allows me to do this with both local replication and a contrast between distinct spatial contexts on a larger geographic scale. I will use modelling to determine how processes interact and to investigate the conditions most likely to promote coupling and reinforcement. Overall, the project will provide major new insights into the speciation process, particularly revealing the requirements for progress towards complete reproductive isolation.
Summary
Speciation is a central process in evolution that involves the origin of barriers to gene flow between populations. Species are typically isolated by several barriers and assembly of multiple barriers separating the same populations seems to be critical to the evolution of strong reproductive isolation. Barriers resulting from direct selection can become coincident through a process of coupling while reinforcement can add barrier traits that are not under direct selection. In the presence of gene flow, these processes are opposed by recombination. While recent research using the latest sequencing technologies has provided much increased knowledge of patterns of differentiation and the genetic basis of local adaptation, it has so far added little to understanding of the coupling and reinforcement processes.
In this project, I will focus on the accumulation of barriers to gene exchange and the processes underlying increasing reproductive isolation. I will use the power of natural contact zones, combined with novel manipulative experiments, to separate the processes that underlie patterns of differentiation and introgression. The Littorina saxatilis model system allows me to do this with both local replication and a contrast between distinct spatial contexts on a larger geographic scale. I will use modelling to determine how processes interact and to investigate the conditions most likely to promote coupling and reinforcement. Overall, the project will provide major new insights into the speciation process, particularly revealing the requirements for progress towards complete reproductive isolation.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 927 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-02-28
Project acronym BISON
Project Bio-Inspired Self-Assembled Supramolecular Organic Nanostructures
Researcher (PI) Ehud Gazit
Host Institution (HI) TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Country Israel
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS9, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Peptide building blocks serve as very attractive bio-inspired elements in nanotechnology owing to their controlled self-assembly, inherent biocompatibility, chemical versatility, biological recognition abilities and facile synthesis. We have demonstrated the ability of remarkably simple aromatic peptides to form well-ordered nanostructures of exceptional physical properties. By taking inspiration from the minimal recognition modules used by nature to mediate coordinated processes of self-assembly, we have developed building blocks that form well-ordered nanostructures. The compact design of the building blocks, and therefore, the unique structural organization, resulted in metallic-like Young's modulus, blue luminescence due to quantum confinement, and notable piezoelectric properties. The goal of this proposal is to develop two new fronts for bio-inspired building block repertoire along with co-assembly to provide new avenues for organic nanotechnology. This will combine our vast experience in the assembly of aromatic peptides together with additional structural modules from nature. The new entities will be developed by exploiting the design principles of small aromatic building blocks to arrive at the smallest possible module that form super helical assembly based on the coiled coil motifs and establishing peptide nucleic acids based systems to combine the worlds of peptide and DNA nanotechnologies. The proposed research will combine extensive design and synthesis effort to provide a very diverse collection of novel buildings blocks and determination of their self-assembly process, followed by broad chemical, physical, and biological characterization of the nanostructures. Furthermore, effort will be made to establish supramolecular co-polymer systems to extend the morphological control of the assembly process. The result of the project will be a large and defined collection of novel chemical entities that will help reshape the field of bioorganic nanotechnology.
Summary
Peptide building blocks serve as very attractive bio-inspired elements in nanotechnology owing to their controlled self-assembly, inherent biocompatibility, chemical versatility, biological recognition abilities and facile synthesis. We have demonstrated the ability of remarkably simple aromatic peptides to form well-ordered nanostructures of exceptional physical properties. By taking inspiration from the minimal recognition modules used by nature to mediate coordinated processes of self-assembly, we have developed building blocks that form well-ordered nanostructures. The compact design of the building blocks, and therefore, the unique structural organization, resulted in metallic-like Young's modulus, blue luminescence due to quantum confinement, and notable piezoelectric properties. The goal of this proposal is to develop two new fronts for bio-inspired building block repertoire along with co-assembly to provide new avenues for organic nanotechnology. This will combine our vast experience in the assembly of aromatic peptides together with additional structural modules from nature. The new entities will be developed by exploiting the design principles of small aromatic building blocks to arrive at the smallest possible module that form super helical assembly based on the coiled coil motifs and establishing peptide nucleic acids based systems to combine the worlds of peptide and DNA nanotechnologies. The proposed research will combine extensive design and synthesis effort to provide a very diverse collection of novel buildings blocks and determination of their self-assembly process, followed by broad chemical, physical, and biological characterization of the nanostructures. Furthermore, effort will be made to establish supramolecular co-polymer systems to extend the morphological control of the assembly process. The result of the project will be a large and defined collection of novel chemical entities that will help reshape the field of bioorganic nanotechnology.
Max ERC Funding
3 003 125 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31
Project acronym BM
Project Becoming Muslim: Conversion to Islam and Islamisation in Eastern Ethiopia
Researcher (PI) Timothy Insoll
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary "
Why do people convert to Islam? The contemporary relevance of this question is immediately apparent.""Becoming Muslim"" will transform our knowledge about Islamisation processes and contexts through archaeological research in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia, and examine this in comparison to other regions in sub-Saharan Africa via publication and a major conference. Assessing genuine belief is difficult, but the impact of trade, Saints, Sufis and Holy men, proselytisation, benefits gained from Arabic literacy and administration systems, enhanced power, prestige, warfare, and belonging to the larger Muslim community have all been suggested. Equally significant is the context of conversion. Why were certain sub-Saharan African cities key points for conversion to Islam, e.g. Gao and Timbuktu in the Western Sahel, and Harar in Ethiopia? Archaeological engagement with Islamisation processes and contexts of conversion in Africa is variable, and in parts of the continent research is static. This exciting 4-year project explores, for the first time, Islamic conversion and Islamisation through focusing on Harar, the most important living Islamic centre in the Horn of Africa, and its surrounding region.
Islamic archaeology has been neglected in Ethiopia, and is wholly non-existent in Harar. Excavation at 5 key sites: 2 shrines, 2 abandoned settlements, 1 urban site, will permit evaluation of urban Islam, the veneration of saints, pilgrimage and shrine based practices, rural Islam, architecture and jihad, changes in lifeways, and early and comparative evidence for Islam and long-distance trade, through analysis of, e.g. architecture, epigraphy, burial orientation, imported artifacts, and faunal and botanical remains. Although it is fully acknowledged that conversion to Islam and Islamisation processes are not universal, my project is groundbreaking in developing and applying a transferable methodology for the archaeological explanation of ""Becoming Muslim"" in sub-Saharan Africa."
Summary
"
Why do people convert to Islam? The contemporary relevance of this question is immediately apparent.""Becoming Muslim"" will transform our knowledge about Islamisation processes and contexts through archaeological research in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia, and examine this in comparison to other regions in sub-Saharan Africa via publication and a major conference. Assessing genuine belief is difficult, but the impact of trade, Saints, Sufis and Holy men, proselytisation, benefits gained from Arabic literacy and administration systems, enhanced power, prestige, warfare, and belonging to the larger Muslim community have all been suggested. Equally significant is the context of conversion. Why were certain sub-Saharan African cities key points for conversion to Islam, e.g. Gao and Timbuktu in the Western Sahel, and Harar in Ethiopia? Archaeological engagement with Islamisation processes and contexts of conversion in Africa is variable, and in parts of the continent research is static. This exciting 4-year project explores, for the first time, Islamic conversion and Islamisation through focusing on Harar, the most important living Islamic centre in the Horn of Africa, and its surrounding region.
Islamic archaeology has been neglected in Ethiopia, and is wholly non-existent in Harar. Excavation at 5 key sites: 2 shrines, 2 abandoned settlements, 1 urban site, will permit evaluation of urban Islam, the veneration of saints, pilgrimage and shrine based practices, rural Islam, architecture and jihad, changes in lifeways, and early and comparative evidence for Islam and long-distance trade, through analysis of, e.g. architecture, epigraphy, burial orientation, imported artifacts, and faunal and botanical remains. Although it is fully acknowledged that conversion to Islam and Islamisation processes are not universal, my project is groundbreaking in developing and applying a transferable methodology for the archaeological explanation of ""Becoming Muslim"" in sub-Saharan Africa."
Max ERC Funding
1 031 105 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym BodyCapital
Project The healthy self as body capital: Individuals, market-based societies and body politics in visual twentieth century Europe.
Researcher (PI) Christian Bonah
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DE STRASBOURG
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary From testicular grafting (1920s) to step counting watches (2014), the perceptions and practices of health seeking individuals have been marked by continuities and profound changes during a twentieth century largely shaped by the advent of a communication society. Visuals can be a source to understand transformations by postulating an interactive, performative power of mass media in societies. Which roles did visuals play in changes from public health and human capital collective understandings of the healthy self to new (sometimes debated) perceptions and practices of our bodies as forms of individual capital in an increasing market-economized world?
Pursuing these questions, the project focuses on four fields of investigation -food/nutrition; movement/exercise/sports; sexuality/reproduction/infants and dependency/addiction/overconsumption- in Germany, France and Great Britain studied with an entangled history framework.
Within this scope the project aims at understanding (1)how visuals shape our health related self-understandings and practices in a continuity/discontinuity from the bio-political to the bio-economic logic. (2) The project will explore and explain how and why understandings of body capital differ or overlap in European countries. (3) The project will analyse if and how visual media serve as a promotion-communication hyphen for twentieth century preventive-self understanding.
With a visual perspective on a long twentieth century, the project seeks to better understand changes and continuities in the history of health intertwined with the history of media. This will provide new insights into how the internalization of bodycapital has evolved throughout the past century, how transformations in the media world (from film to TV to internet) play out at the individual level and how health challenges and cultural differences in body perceptions and practices persist in producing social distinction in an age of global information and advanced health systems.
Summary
From testicular grafting (1920s) to step counting watches (2014), the perceptions and practices of health seeking individuals have been marked by continuities and profound changes during a twentieth century largely shaped by the advent of a communication society. Visuals can be a source to understand transformations by postulating an interactive, performative power of mass media in societies. Which roles did visuals play in changes from public health and human capital collective understandings of the healthy self to new (sometimes debated) perceptions and practices of our bodies as forms of individual capital in an increasing market-economized world?
Pursuing these questions, the project focuses on four fields of investigation -food/nutrition; movement/exercise/sports; sexuality/reproduction/infants and dependency/addiction/overconsumption- in Germany, France and Great Britain studied with an entangled history framework.
Within this scope the project aims at understanding (1)how visuals shape our health related self-understandings and practices in a continuity/discontinuity from the bio-political to the bio-economic logic. (2) The project will explore and explain how and why understandings of body capital differ or overlap in European countries. (3) The project will analyse if and how visual media serve as a promotion-communication hyphen for twentieth century preventive-self understanding.
With a visual perspective on a long twentieth century, the project seeks to better understand changes and continuities in the history of health intertwined with the history of media. This will provide new insights into how the internalization of bodycapital has evolved throughout the past century, how transformations in the media world (from film to TV to internet) play out at the individual level and how health challenges and cultural differences in body perceptions and practices persist in producing social distinction in an age of global information and advanced health systems.
Max ERC Funding
2 492 124 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
