Darwin’s Theory of Evolution: Impact on Anthropology and Culture

Posted on Feb 27, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and its Impact

Darwin’s theory of evolution represents a scientific revolution of the first order, very important in the 19th century. What is anthropology? It is the study of human beings within the realm of culture as symbolic beings.

Darwin’s Theory: A Summary

Darwin’s theory states that the evolution of species is the result of two factors:

  • Genetic variability: Individual mutations within the species make some members more or less able to adapt to the struggle for life in their environment.
  • Natural selection: The inheritance of traits that best allow organisms to adapt to environmental conditions to survive.

The Theory of Evolution: A Great Innovation

Darwin’s theory is a great innovation for three reasons:

  1. Life itself is conceived as a new target or field of scientific research. The emergence of biology as a research branch reorganized all previous scientific theories.
  2. It distinguishes between the physical model, where research is related to a mechanistic and atomistic vision of reality explainable by mathematical methods, and the biological model, which has an evolutionary connotation and changes with its own significance. In the explanation of the biological model:
  • Living things are explained under the function they play within the whole.
  • The genetic information of each individual is connected with the project to be undertaken by the whole group (to secure life).
It corrects the great separation between humans and other species.

Culture, Freedom, and Human Needs

The need for culture is imposed by the shortcomings of our nature. Man has no instincts that allow him to survive. Animals are genetically programmed to satisfy their needs in a fixed form. The difference lies in the process of hominization/humanization. Through reflection, humans developed a loss or disappearance of instincts, and in their place, developed freedom. Our nature enables us to perform cultural processes in freedom. The essence of being human is the freedom that culture entails. Culture and historicity are the result of what we are and do. It is the human being who reflects biological responsibility.

The biological responsibility of the human being is to avoid becoming destructive to nature, and to take accountability for the destruction of nature, because we are responsible for what we do.

Why is This Theory a Major Cultural Event?

Some religious authorities have seen the theory of evolution as contradicting the idea of creation. They confuse the Bible, which is a book of faith, with a book of science. Religion and science are not antagonistic and can be supplemented to meet human needs.

Evolution and the Human Species: Supporting Evidence

Evidence supporting the evolution of species includes:

  1. Comparison of fossils from paleontology.
  2. Morphology: New species are the result of changes and have shaped anatomical remains devoid of function.
  3. Embryology: The similarity of the early stages of development of many different agencies testifies to a very remote kinship.
  4. Biochemistry: Genetic identity and molecular mechanisms.

Geochronology of the Human Species

This is evident in the evolution of primates. Using biochemical techniques that calculate the degree of relatedness between species through molecular similarities, we can trace the lineage from Australopithecus (6 million years ago), to four species of the genus Homo (2 million years ago), and the Neanderthal man, until the appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens.

Hominization: Defining the Genus Homo

Hominization is the set of characteristics defining the genus Homo and the processes involved in the human species.

Traits of the Hominization Process

  • Cranial capacity of 600cm3 to 1300cm3.
  • Walking upright.
  • Free upper limbs.
  • Opposable thumb.
  • Evolution of the larynx allowed speech.

Cultural Factors (Humanization)

Culture has to do with things we learn and do not inherit genetically. Human beings broadcast everything we know through symbolic and creative learning connected with a type of creative language. Cultural development is based on physiological transformation and vice versa. It is a reciprocal process.

Language: A Key Differentiator

Animals: Univocal, not creative, not ambiguous.

Humans: Symbolic, representative (with a signifier, meaning, and referent).