Carsten Niemitz

Carsten Niemitz (born September 29, 1945 in Dessau ) is a German anatomist , behavioral scientist , environmentalist, human and evolutionary biologist .

Live and act

Niemitz studied biology , mathematics , medicine and art history at the universities of Giessen, Freiburg, Göttingen and at the Free University of Berlin. In 1970 he graduated as a biologist. From 1968 to 1971 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt . From 1971 to 1973 he spent in the jungle of Sarawak on Borneo . After returning to Germany, he received his doctorate in biology in 1974 . In 1975 he received the license to teach anatomy and until 1978 was an assistant at the Anatomical Institute of the University of Göttingen. At the age of 32 he was appointed to a professorship for human biology at the Free University of Berlin , which he held as head of the institute until his retirement in 2010.

In 1987, Niemitz became an advisor to the IUCN through acceptance into the Species Survival Commission . In 1993 he was also offered a professorship for zoology at the University of Essen and was visiting professor for special zoology and evolutionary biology at the University of Potsdam . He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Historical Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin. During a research trip to Sulawesi in 1991 , he discovered the primate species Tarsius dianae . In 1996 he introduced an initiative in the Anthropological Society to renounce the use of the term race , which was later officially decided by the society. In 2000 he reached 2nd place in the awarding of the Communicator Prize of German Science by the DFG and the Studienstiftung der Deutschen Wissenschaft.

In addition to many studies in the fields of field research on primates and biomechanics , the evolution of human language and writing with studies on the communication of the great apes formed one of his research focuses. He was one of those who advocated the theory of facial expressions and gestures as a forerunner of human writing skills from an early age. In short, his thesis was that the ability to read and write is biologically older than that of language, because such visual communication was only supplemented later by vocal-acoustic signals. In the late eighties and nineties he was one of the haunting warnings of the overexploitation of tropical rainforests. Since 2000, Niemitz has developed an "amphibious theory" of the evolution of the upright human posture and the upright gait, according to which "in a period of our evolution it was just wading and the use of the shore that shaped today's human beings sustainably and significantly". Niemitz rejects the much more extensive water monkey theory , which assumes a real aquatic (water-living) phase in evolution - hominization . In addition to his anatomical work and field studies, his practical experience stems from research trips, for example to the Amazon and Congo basins . The theory of evolution was filmed in 2011. Since 2010 in particular, Niemitz has also emerged with forensic publications. Since 2017 he has almost exclusively worked as an environmentalist. His list of publications includes around 400 titles with a whole series of books. He has also become active as a textbook translator and as a radio, film and television author.

Memberships

Niemitz is a member of many specialist societies. From 1992 he was deputy chairman, from 1994 to 1998 chairman of the Anthropological Society and from 2008 to 2010 chairman of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory (BGAEU). From 1992-2014 he was deputy chairman of the Urania Kulturgemeinschaft in Berlin, a center for the exchange between science and the public. Together with Nils Seethaler and Benjamin P. Lange, he organized the 11th MVE annual conference in Berlin in 2010. Since 2013 he has been the patron of the Friends of the Julius Riemer Collection in the Museum of the Municipal Collections in the Zeughaus in Lutherstadt Wittenberg .

Dedication names

2019 was Koboldmaki -Art tarsius niemitzi of the Togian Islands named after Carsten Niemitz.

Selection of works

• On the biometrics of the genus Tarsius Storr, 1780 (Tarsiiformes, Tarsiidae). A functional morphological study as a contribution to the systematics and phylogeny of the Koboldmakis using electronic computing means with the attempt to synopsis of morphological and ethological results. Dissertation Giessen 1974.
• On the functional morphology and biometry of the genus Tarsius Storr, 1780 (Mammalia, Primates, Tarsiidae). Derivation of evolutionary mechanisms in a primate. (= Courier Research Institute Senckenberg. 25). 1977, DNB 780552660 .
• Heritage and environment. On the nature of human disposition and self-determination. Suhrkamp publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-28246-8 .
• The rainforest book. Parey publishing house, Berlin / Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-489-53434-4 .
• The evolution of the upright posture and gait - a review and new synthesis. In: Natural Sciences. No. 3, 2010, pp. 241-263. doi: 10.1007 / s00114-009-0637-3
• with Sigrun Niemitz: genetic research and genetic engineering. Fears and hopes. Springer Verlag, Berlin 1999.
• The secret of walking upright. Our evolution was different. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51606-8 .
• Focal points and perspectives of modern physical anthropology. Verlag Leidorf, 2006, ISBN 3-86757-141-4 .
• with K. Kreutz and H. Walther: Against the concept of race in its application to humans. In: Anthropologischer Anzeiger. No. 4, 2006, pp. 463-464.
• Save humanity? Let's do it! Oekom Verlag, Munich 2019. ISBN 978-3-96238-165-3

Movie

• The secret of walking upright. Documentary, Germany, 2011, 43 min. Director: Ingo button Jo Siegler Production: Maakii Film Production, WDR , arte ( Summary of arte)

Web links

• Literature by and about Carsten Niemitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lecture: The secret of walking upright - idw
• dctp.tv: Interview by Alexander Kluge: About laughing and walking upright (RTL, SAT1 etc.)
• Carsten Niemitz: Unstable and Slow Natural Science Review , Volume 60, Issue 2, 2007 ( PDF , 573 kB)

swell

1. ↑ fh-bingen.de .
2. ↑ Niemitz C 2000: A theory on the evolution of human bipedalism - Die Amphibische Generalistenheorie. In: Zeller, U. (ed.): Origin and evolutionary transformations in mammals. Pp. 46-48. MfN - Humboldt University, Berlin and Niemitz C 2004, pp. 1–256
3. ↑ Niemitz 2006, pp. 204-210.
4. ↑ Ingo Knopf, Jo Siegler: The secret of the upright walk. ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Documentary, 2011, 43 min., WDR , arte and: Press release: The human being is a “bank animal” , FU Berlin , March 15, 2012.  
   
5. ↑ Niemitz, Carsten: 2011: Identification of people on the basis of photographs - a contribution to the discussion of methods in the light of current case law. Niemitz 2018: Age estimation of children from a non-European ethnic group using images. Kriminalistik, 72nd year, pp. 157-161. Ed .: DAR German car law. Extra 81. Jg. S. 768-771 .
6. ↑ 11th annual meeting of the MVE list - human behavior in ... , accessed on January 11, 2019
7. ↑ MVE Conference 2010 in Berlin: Program - MVE list , accessed on 11 January 2019
8. ↑ Myron Shekelle, Colin P. Groves, Ibnu Maryanto, Russell A. Mittermeier, Agus Salim and Mark S. Springer: A New Tarsier Species from the Togean Islands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, with References to Wallacea and Conservation on Sulawesi. Primate Conservation 2019 (33) 2019, pp. 1–9