CARTA was established to better understand the origin of humans, or anthropogeny, in order to answer questions such as:
• Where did we come from?
• How did we get here? Founded on the conviction that answers are likely to come not from a single line of investigation, CARTA explores a wide variety of approaches within the biological, social, and biomedical sciences, as well as aspects of the arts and humanities, with important technological input from the physical, chemical, and computing sciences. The goals of CARTA are essentially scholarly, with attention to minimizing the usual obstacles of academia (e.g. CARTA began as researchers in diverse fields related to anthropogeny met in the La Jolla area over ten years ago, an effort coordinated by the UC San Diego Project for Explaining the Origin of Humans (POH). The group consisted of experts in San Diego and many others from around the world. The primary activity of the group was to organize transdisciplinary meetings in La Jolla, and to facilitate interactions via the internet. Since the founding of the original Project, many other intellectual and practical opportunities have surfaced, culminating in the establishment of a formal Organized Research Unit at UC San Diego, in close collaboration with interested faculty at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies: the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, or CARTA.
