A Question of Origin and Place

The Scientific Way of Knowing the World

The Theory of Natural Selection and Human Evolution -- Nature and Nurture

The following materials are key presentation points developed by the instructor during class lectures. They are not a substitute for student participation in the class lectures, but a highlighting of the pertinent items considered.  

Overall Story Themes: Why did our ancestral species do something never done by any other animal species on this planet, evolve from a fundamentally biological adaptation to its environment to a fundamentally cultural adaptation to our environment and become the "culture-bearing primate," what noted anthropologist Loren Eiseley calls, "the Dream Animal?" What happened some 5 million years, relatively recent in geological time, that set the stage for this transformation? How are biological changes continuing to interface with culture changes, or rephrased, what is the relation between nature and nurture? And finally, what are the long-term implications of these adaptations on our own species, as well as for all the other species of this planet?

To understand how these questions are formulated and the approach taken to answering them, one must first have an understanding of the "scientific method" and the epistemological framework and premises upon which that method is understood and ligitimized.  And then we can ask the question: upon what ontological principles are the theories of natural selection and human evolution (now understood as story texts) based?  What is the dominate storyline of these stories?  For an expanded introduction to the Euro-American story, see Emerging Euro- American Values (PDF).

Scientific Method: A Text in Ontological and Epistemological Context

Working Definition of the Scientific Method:  the Godfathers of Science

• Systematic approach agreed upon by the scientific community
• Utilizing the methods of deductive logical reasoning and inductive empiricism
• Focusing on quantifiable variables and their relationships
• In order to establish generalizations and "laws" to describe, explain and predict
• All within a context of "organized skepticism"

Ontological Principles:

1. Objectification - Cartesian Dualism - an autonomous world has a material existence "out there," as "objects," separate from my thoughts of it.  Humanity exists apart from the universe, as if separated by a "great glass pane."  Material Reductionism.  "History" and the "individual" come into existence.
2. Gradation - Hierarchical dominant-subordinate relationships.  Take dominion over the earth and subdue it.
3. Quantitation - "The language of nature is mathematics."
4. Secularization - A world devoid of spirit.
5. Progression - Lineal time, with a past necessarily inferior to a future what will be superior.
6. Reduction - There is one "true" reality and that reality has its existence ultimately only in its material, quantitative forms.  What is "real" is what you can touch.  Commodification comes into existence, i.e., the significance of an object or act is reducible to its market value, i.e., capitalism.

Epistemological Legitimizations:

• Empiricism
• Rationalism
• Literal
• Metaphoric

The Dream Animal: A Text

• Biological Change: the Mechanism.  Building on the story of the "scientific method," it continues with Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and their students.

• From Mendel.  Any given species is defined by its population parameters, inclusive of a given gene pool of inherited traits
  1. That population is able to reproduce and sustain itself because it transfers its inherited traits to its next generation via the genes or, more specifically, the DNA coding (deoxyribonucleic acid) located in the chromosomes in each cell nucleus. This is the basis for inherited traits, as well as continuity and stability in a population.
  2. Yet within any given population, a number of processes are occurring that continue to diversify the gene pool of that population. Some of these processes include:
     • "point mutation," i.e., when a mutation occurs in DNA nucleotides;
     • recombination, i.e., during reproduction, the chromosomes of the sperm and egg undergo a process known as meiosis (recombines the chromosomes of the sperm and egg into a full complement), at which time the reshuffling can result in new variations;
     • genetic drift, i.e., when the entire population's gene pool is very small, subject to more variation, than a large population, which is more stable;
     • migration or gene flow, i.e., the inter-breeding or inter-marriage between two populations, thus bringing new genetic materials into a given population.
  • These factors are among those contributing to the variation of any given gene pool.

• From Darwin.  Every population of species exists in a close interactive and symbiotic relationship with its environment , i.e., each depends on the other. No species exists in isolation separate from its environment. In fact, any species that attempts such, i.e., "wins against its environment," will only succeed in destroying itself.
  • So as the environment changes, it places new constraints and pressures on the population, i.e., a process known as "natural selection." Those segments of the gene pool (via the range of variation within its gene pool) that have a selected advantage, i.e., are able to not only to survive, but effectively pass on their particular genetic inheritance, will alter the composition of the entire population's gene pool. This occurs as that segment which has a selected advantage will successfully pass on their traits to the next generation while those segments that are unable to pass on their traits will die out, and thus the species as a whole will have evolved and changed its characteristics, adapting itself to its changed environment, i.e., a process known as "adaptation."

• Examples of the Lactase Enzyme and Milk consumption, and of Tapeworms.

 

• The Evolutionary Record: the bones speak out and tell us the story of the Dream Animal.
  • Dating Methods Among the methods used to help determine the age of the fossil record and associated cultural artifacts are: (relative chronology) stratigraphy; (chronometrical or absolute chronology) dendrochronlogy, radiocarbon dating, obsidian hydration, and potassium-argon analysis
  • Morphological features of skeletal remains help identify the physiological adaptations of the species to its changing natural and cultural environments. Such features include: cranium size, sagittal crest, prognathous, mental eminence, foramen magnum, diastema gap and canine projection, pelvis and femur, and the gluteal muscles.
  • The Record:
    1. Proconsul (Prosimian): 25 - 15 mill BP, "Hominoid" Superfamily
    2. Sivapithecines (Ramapithecus): 13 - 14 million BP, 30 lbs, "Hominid" Family (debated)
    3. Australopithecine (afarensis and africanus, and robustus and boisei) : as early as 5.5 million BP, 300 - 700 cc (Chimp 300 cc and modern 1500 cc), 60 - 120 lbs, 4 to 5 ft, bipedal - "Lucy," Olduvai Gorge, Laitoli
    4. Homo habilis: 2.4 - 1.8 million BP, 680 - 775 cc, Oldowan chopper and osteodontokeratic tools, dating to 2.5 and 1.8 million BP, Genus "Homo"
    5. Homo erectus: 1.5 million BP emerged in Java, Europe, China and throughout Africa until 100,000 BP, 750 - 1225 cc, 5 ft, supraorbital torus, Acheulian "hand ax" - "bi-face core tool," Choukoutien and Terra Amata, and the case of "persistent hunting" (inteplay of bipedalism, increased cranial capacity, and the "cooling system")
    6. Homo sapien neanderthalensis (Neandertals): likely by 300,000 and certainly by 100,000 until 33,000 BP, 1,150 - 1,640 cc, burials, Levalloisian and Mousterian - prepared core and strike off "flake tools," Swanscombe
    7. Homo sapien sapien: likely as early as 125,000, with one of the first being Cro-Magnons at 45,000 - 10,000 of the Upper Paleolithic, 1,500 cc, entirely modern, "blade tools" and "microliths," example of the fine craftsmanship of the Clovis Point from North American, and the mystery of Upper Paleolithic Cave Art (Altamira, Lascaux and Les Trois Freres): what might our ancestors have been thinking about?

Interface with and development of culture - "the Dream Animal"

Creation and Evolution - Complementary Epistemologies (ways of knowing): "literal-denotative," e.g., empiricism and science, and "anagogic-implicative," e.g., intuitive, artistic and spiritual. What happens when you mix your epistemologies? Case of "scientism" and "creationism," and a lot of misunderstanding and anger!

"Race" - the American Anthropological Association's Statement on "Race" and Statement on "Race" and Intelligence

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