Evolutionary anthropology is the study of humankind's place in nature.
Understanding our place in nature is an age-old mission that crosses many disciplines. Our mission is focused on understanding who we are and how we came to look and act the way we do from an evolutionary perspective. In that goal we pursue studies of anatomy, behavior, genetics, physiology, ecology, and many other areas in humans and our close relatives – the primates.
Charles Darwin put it well:
“He who wishes to decide whether man is the modified descendant of some pre-existing form, would probably first enquire whether man varies, however slightly, in bodily structure and in mental faculties; and if so, whether the variations are transmitted to his offspring in accordance with the laws which prevail with the lower animals.”
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871)