Heiner Fangerau, Frank Kressing, Matthis Krischel 

While the sciences and the humanities today seem separated by the questions they ask and the methods they use to answer them, they have a rich history of connections and reciprocal references. These connections are exemplified by polymaths like Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), August Schleicher (1821-1868) and Franz Boas (1858-1942) who bridged the divide between the natural and human sciences. By the middle of the 19th century, evolution was picked up as a common theme and similar models to classify observed diversity based on common descent were developed in biology and linguistics. Since this period,
linguists have maintained the connection to biological models of evolution and classification and new impulses in biology have often been applied to linguistics.

The common historical narrative states that these models have been originally developed in biology and only later transferred to the study of culture. We aim to correct this narrative by showing that they were developed in an interdisciplinary context and that early cross-references were multidirectional. We aim to explore these references systematically and will uncover the co-development of evolutionary approaches and systems of classification in the study of the natural world and human culture.

To that effect, we will reconstruct the connection between evolutionary biology and comparative linguistics from the middle of the 19th century until the end of the 20th century. We will shows how models, methods and metaphors were developed and transferred. We will put special emphasis on analyzing how the meaning of similar terms differs across disciplines and how similar concepts are described in specific terms according to discipline. Personal and professional
contacts, as well as correspondences and citation by scholars from these different disciplines will be our main objects of inquiry.

Beyond that, we will explore whether the development of evolutionary thought and classification based on common descent themselves fit an evolutionary model of the development of science. Once an abstract model of evolution has been identified, we will test it for self-reference.

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