Evolutionary Theory 2 Flashcards
Charles Darwin
- he returned to england on the HMS beagle in 1836
- he had many species with him
Charles Darwin 1937
writes down ideas on the transmutation of species in a notebook
Charles Darwin 1839
marries his first cousin, 10 children, only 7 survived childhood
Charles Darwin 1841
writes to a friend that they will work on a book titles “varieties and species”
Charles Darwin 1842
makes a pencil outline of his theory of “descent with modification”
Charles Darwin 1844
expands his sketch into an essay on the origin of species and natural selection
- Rejected scala naturae hierachy/ fixity of species
- relationship between the origin of new species and environmental adaptation
Charles Darwin 1859
published ideas about natural selection in a book titled the origin of species
- had been thinking about for a long time
Charles Darwin 1858
alfred russel wallace sends “on the tendancy of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type” to darwin
- darwin thinks his lifes work is getting stolen
- papers by him and wallace were presented at the linnean society
alfred russel wallace
- little formal education
- was a surveyor, school master, civil engineer, insect collection
natural selection
- an explanation for how evolution occurs
- an evolutionary process that occurs when certain phenotypes confer an advantage or disadvantage in survival and/or reproductive success
- beneficial traits increase in frequency over time due to different survival/reproduction of individuals with those traits
fundamentals of natural selection
- must be variation in inherited traits
- a trait must be heritable for selection to act on it
- differential survival due to competition
- fitness is a relative measure that changes with the envirnment
- can only act on traits that affect reproduction
speciation
evolutionary process that results in the formation of new species
- ex. natural selection where variants accumulate in a population and groups become extinct from ancestors
geographical isolation
as groups become isolated, they adapt to different environmental contexts, responses to diverse selective pressures may result in distince species
favourable traits
traits that help a species be more likely to survive and create offspring for next generation
environmental context
determines if trait is beneficial in that environment
what happens if more offspring are produced than resources
competition
examples of natural selection
- selection pressures acted to drive beak evolution
- birds with deeper beaks are more successful when there are droughts
- birds with shallower beaks are more successful when climate is wet
- fluctuations in beak length correlate to fluctuations in weather
types of selection
directional, stabilizing, disruptive
directional selection
the change in a phenotype or genotype of a population in one direction away from the mean (average) in a particular environment over time
stabilizing selection
a type of natural selection that favors individuals with average or moderate phenotypes, while selecting against extremes
disruptive selection
when more extreme phenotypes (or genotypes) within a population have a fitness advantage over intermediate individuals
sexual selection
selection in relation to sexual reproduction
- traits that don’t enhance survival but enhance reproduction
misconceptions of natural selection
- ‘survival of the fittest’
- social darwinism; differential reproductive success and descent with modification to social traits in humans
- social improvement and removal of lesser class
consequences of misconceptions of natural selection
- the assertion that some individuals are superior to others based on biology
- leads to eugenics, scientific racism, and early evolutionary anthropology
presentism
interpreting past events with modern values
- politics of the past/present
carolus linnaeus
- taxonomy; description and classification of life forms
- binomial nomenclature and the systema naturae; standardized genus and species
- he is the type of speciment for our species
what were the 4 types/varieties carolus linnaeus divided humans into
- europaeus albus
- americanus rubescens
- asiaticus fuscus
- africanus niger
what were the two additional varieties added for physical and moral attributes
- homo ferus
- homo monstrosus
what did the 6 classifications do
became the basis for scientific racism
Georges-Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon
- greater age of the earth
- regional variation in plants and animals
- environmental alterations as agents of change
what was Georges-Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon the first to do
apply the term race to human varieties
- Laplander, tartar, south Asiatic, European, Ethiopian, American
racial categories
- race is a social construct; there are different groupings for different scientists
- determined by cultural factors opposed to biological factors in many cases; place of origin, ‘cultural’ affiliation, religion, language, dress
georges cuvier
- extinction; fossils from extinct life forms
- Catastrophism; fixity of species
- had three racial categories; caucasoid, mongoloid, negroid
sarah (saartjie) baartman
- taken to england and displayed around europe
- cuvier claimed her body for Musée de l’homme in paris
- her body was cast, dissected and preserved
- display of skeleton and body cast in france until 1974 and then finally repatriated to south africa in 2002
ethnological expositions
- human zoos; humans from other parts of the world were displayes at the world’s fairs in st. louis, paris
darwin, wallace, and colleagues viewpoints
- wallace; maybe natural selection not wholly accurate, due to perspectives on ‘savages’
- haeckel; ‘explanation’ of human evolution, no fossils needed, 12 different species of living people
- darwin; strong disagreement, but allies to discuss evolution
edward tylor
- british cultural anthropologist
- separation of evolution and study of culture
- all brains and cognition equal, accessing different learned information
- culture as the product of historical process
anthropometry and craniometry
- difficult to categorize variation among humans
- attempts to establish the ideal form
- craniometry; believed that head size was associated with intelligence and criminality
cephalic index
- dolichocephalic
- mesocephalic
- brachycelphalic
samuel morton
- father of scientific racism
- attempted to associate skull size with intellect and race
- craniometry as a means of assessing these relationships
stephen jay gould
the musmeasure of man
debate on mortons measurements
paul mitchell
- PLoS biology
- inherent bias in research aims and conclusions
franz boas
- plasticity in cranial features
- comparisons between immigrants and their children in new york
- cultural or environmental influences on behaviour and morphology
- differences in human behaviour not innately biological result of culture and social learning
- opponent of scientific racism, biometric/craniometric methods
- humans NOT well understood through typology
eugenics
- belief in innate differences between social classes, cultures, and races; human intelligence and behaviour hereditary, controlled reproduction to maximize ‘good’ traits
francis galton
- founded the eugenics society
- ‘improvement’ by heredity
- removal of ‘undesireables’
- ‘nature vs nurture’
eugenics; canada
- nellie mcclung
- suffragette and temperance adherent
- famous five
- campaigned for sterilization
eugenics; US congress and supreme court
- congress; restricted immigration of ‘feeble-minded races’ (including jewish and italian immigrants)
- supreme court; involuntary sterilization of their ‘feeble-minded citizens’ acceptable
joseph arthur de gobineau
- developed the theory of the aryan master race
- attempted to prove the superiority of nordic peoples
- popular work in the nazi party
what were eugenic ideas incorporated into
- nazism
- colonialism
- apartheid in south africa
- compulsory sterilization
intelligence and IQ tests
- connection between race and intelligence
- binet-simon test
- identification of students in need of alternative education
- limitations; diversity of intelligence, issues with quantitative measure
- used to test immigrants to identify ‘mentally deficient’
- differences in ‘intelligence’ among minorities was interpreted as genetic variation in IQ
legacy of anthropology
- contributed to marginalization and inequities persisting through to today
- racial categories; socially constructed, with real consequences
- Marginalization and justification of practices towards certain groups
- mistreatment and exclusion of people due to legacues of this history
