Results of human evolution research in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

The results of anthropological research into human evolution have been discussed. Only two research places in CSSR have been engaged with the human evolution: the Department Anthropos in the Moravian Museum in Brno and the Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Praha. The first of them has been mainly concerned with the paleontological and archeological research reported elsewhere. In the second, the following main questions of human evolution have been discussed: the evolution of bipedal locomotion, the morphological aspects, both qualitative and quantitative ones, the locomotion in other primates and various aspects of their behaviour have been studied. In this connection also various questions of the evolution the of human mind and social consciousness were studied. Special attention has been paid to role of neoteny in the evolution of man and to the import of synergism of the main evolutionary factors. As one of the main results is the principle of sociogenesis viewed and its various aspects. Its top product is human consciousness integrating the most important results of human thinking. Much attention has been paid to its evolution on the basis of the principle of reflection. Also the philosophical and ideological consequences of the sociogenesis as the main trend in the evolution of organisms have been elaborated in detail.