The Descent of Man, Essay Example

The Descent of Man

The major theme of this article is that the theories of sexual and natural selections apply to human beings the same way they apply to other creatures.  According to Darwin, all humans are single species that descended from the same ape-like ancestor in the world. Darwin mainly drew his evidence from three major categories; similarities between other primates and humans, similarities existing in the vestigial organs and the embryological development. From these three perspectives, Charles Darwin successfully provided sufficient evidence for the common ancestry of man with the living apes. A typical example of this is the comparison that Darwin provides between human and other creatures such as the birds, amphibians and other apes (Darwin, 1981). He describes the features of the creatures one at a time taking into consideration their relationship with those of the people. In addition, the other example is the manner in which animal traits resemble human traits. For instance, he states that male butterflies differ slightly from the female butterflies.  The other example is based on the appearance of other apes. The apes have almost similar looks compared to those of the humans. The other example is that Darwin lacked faith in fossil records. With this, he observed the similarities between human beings and other apes, and came up with a conclusion that human beings went through similar processes like other apes to become the fully developed individuals. According to the class interpretation, Charles Darwin affirmed in the article the fact that human beings evolved just like the apes.

Provocations of European Ethnology

The main point presented in the article contradicts the popular belief that Europe was seen as the source of colonialism in other parts of the world rather than the destination. The author asserts that Europe, as a continent has numerous sites or regions that were colonized and cannot be viewed as the sole agent of colonial activities in other areas. The authors base their point of view on the anthropology of Europe (Talal et al, 2009). From the article, the anthropology of Europe is termed as the prime vantage point used for combining the traditional task of the discipline aiming to combat the dangerous ethnocentrism, particularly the Eurocentrism. European anthropology shows that Eastern Europe developed due to the penetration of capitalists into the non-capitalist regions where they successfully managed to change the economy of the region. In other words, the main reason towards the development of Western Europe was the introduction of capitalism by some rich people of the royal families. It was not the case of using rich resources from the colonized nations to foster development. In addition to this, the Western Europe was the area where anthropology began as an academic discipline, and it is the same place where it has continued to have the major locus. In addition to this, most anthropologists study the developing societies or rather the societies that are under progress (Talal et al, 2009). With this, the European continent was the ultimate subject for anthropologists. Europe was a continent under constant development facilitated by scientific and artistic discoveries. Following the progress of Europe, civilization was a term that each society yearned for. It was the light of many societies. In order to spread it, Europeans had no option but to explore other nations and spread it there. In class, the interpretation of the article was based on the anthropological point of view, which observed keenly the role of Europeans in other countries. This is right based on the analysis of the entire text.

References

Darwin, C. (1981). The decent of man and selection in relation to sex. New York: Princeton.

Talal, A., James, F., and Andrew, L. (2009). Provocations of European Ethnology. American Anthropologists. 713-730. New York: SAGE.