Unilinear Evolutionism

In “Ethnical Periods”, Lewis H. Morgan explains that mankind has evolved through different stages: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. He therefore, argues that social evolution helped state level societies form. He explains in detail that different groups of people underwent different conditions, yet they all contributed towards the progress of mankind evolution. Throughout the different stages that mankind went through, each stage passed on an ideal that helped the next stage succeed. Morgan explains, “with the knowledge gained therefrom, we may hope to indicate the principal stages of human development” (Morgan 4). Morgan describes human development through the inventions and discoveries of: subsistence, government, language, the family, religion, house life,

Evolution is the process in which organisms descend from ancestors. Evolution is responsible for some of the various similarities seen through biological life, and it also explains all of the diversity in organisms and species. There are various components of evolution: descent, mutation, natural selection, genetic variation, genetic drift and coevolution. All of these components are extremely fundamental to evolution because Darwin's theory of evolution states that all species and organisms have arisen and developed due to material stemming from natural selection of petite inherited variations that can increase the ability for said organism to survive, reproduce, etc. This theory states that the changes that have occurred through mutation is beneficial, harmful, or neutral. If changes in an organisms DNA is harmful then the odds of that organism surviving/reproducing/ etc is unlikely. Some may think of this concept as survival of the fittest. Mutations tend to make the evolution process speed up which means that new genes are added to a species' gene pool. This is beneficial to an extent when it comes to organisms that have many dangerous genes and factors that can cause their offspring to mutate and continue to reproduce organisms with less than mutations. Those who are deemed

The definition of creationism is the belief that the universe and living organisms originated from specific acts of a divine creation, as a biblical account, rather than natural processes such as evolution. Creationism is perhaps one of the biggest roadblocks that divides the educational system; it prevents the teaching of biological evolution because evolution is inconsistent with creationist ideals. Thus many court cases and debates have been devoted to the topic of creationism versus evolution. The problem lies within the creationists’ line of thinking, evolution doesn’t’t undermine creationists ideals. Creationists also lack the understanding of certain evolutionary concepts, which creates a false understanding of how evolution works. Creationists’ misconception does not give them justification to remove the teaching of biological evolution. There’s a substantial amount of evidence to debunk creationists claims as well as evidence to show logical deductions showing the evolution theory to be most likely true. Evolution should not be removed from the academic curriculum due to creationists’ faulty understanding of evolution, derived from their misguided claims about creation itself.

What is history? We look at these past civilizations, making assumptions and criticisms about their ways of life as if we know exactly what they were thinking. In reality, we have no idea how they justified the actions that we judge. Soon we will be the past and we will be looked upon from future civilizations that attempt to understand our cultures. This thought can be quite overwhelming when one thinks how we will be viewed. In Chuck Klosterman’s novel “But what if we’re Wrong,” he delves into the idea of what past cultures would think of our views towards them as well as future generations analyses of us. We tend to make vague assumptions of their actions rarely considering their thoughts during the time. Many of their actions were based on the time they lived in and the resources available to them, not always having a choice towards joining different culture norms. Before we judge these past civilizations we must first consider what people in the future will think of our current society.

Self-proclaimed Darwinist Lewis Morgan contended during the period of colonisation that there were three periods of civilisation; the Savage, Barbaric and the Civilised, the savage was characterised by simply existence and living off the land whereas the civilised used phonic alphabet systems, ownership of property and some sort of established state system (Morgan, 1877).

The debate over Evolutionary theories and Creationism beliefs has been a major debate throughout our churches, education system, and even our homes. There have been countless scientists, theologians, journalists and Christians that have studied both sides of the spectrum, that argue how the world we live in was created. Many empty statements, with little to no facts, just assertions about this particular question have been stated in many debates all over the world. So on one side we have Creationism belief that essentially argues that God is the “intelligent designer” and on the other side Evolutionary theories that state the world has evolved over the centuries. In the Merriam- Webster dictionary, Creationism is defined as, “a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis “. Merriam- Webster dictionary also defines Evolution as, “a theory that the differences between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time; the process by which changes in plants and animals happen over time; a process of slow change and development”. So is it possible to believe both of those definitions?

It may be argued that the Boasian example is not indicative of a paradigm shift, as anthropology itself was too new a field to have a consensus. Whether or not the data gathered resulted from anomalies in his working paradigm is a consideration. Boas does appear to have stepped outside the bounds of the paradigm from the start, never attempting to fit his data into the existing evolutionary

The Japanese attack on Darwin on the 19th February 1942, did not happen by chance but from the work of a major contributing factor leading to various consequences and eventually cementing the event as a significant one.

Darwinism is a theory of evolution developed by Charles Darwin also called Darwinian Theory. Darwin utilizes Thomas Malthus’ principle of exponential population growth to debate the possibility of infinite growth of population sizes which is tested by the limitations of geography and natural resources that makes it impossible for an infinite number of beings to survive. The limitation in resources results in species experience a “struggle for existence,” creating a survival competition. In this theory, Darwin stated that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual 's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 which argued that species evolved to get better all the time. Some people used his theory to argue that members of the elite or height of the social ladder were superior to the working class and impoverished due Darwin 's "survival of the fittest", which is considered Social Darwinism. In one of the earliest examples of science fiction, The Time Machine, H.G. Wells’ introduces Social Darwinism along with the theory of evolution.

Although many of us have used the words culture and civilization interchangeably, Huntington spends a great deal of time differentiating between the two. Cultures have a commonality; ancestry, religion, language, history, values, customs, and institutions. These commonalities will define cultural groups; and the largest cultural group possible, at the broadest level, is a civilization. “Culture is the common theme in almost every definition of civilization”.

The subject of origins, or how we got here, is one of the most fundamental questions that can be asked. The important question of why we are here can’t be answered by science alone. How we answer these questions provides the basis for how we think about things, it defines our world-view. The Evolution vs. Creation debate is often referred to as the Great Debate. 20th century science has made the compelling discovery that, at some point, the universe began. Both sides of the debate Evolutionists and Creationists agree on one thing only, that the universe has not always existed. This is where their agreement ends. The why and how the universe began is where the division and dispute begins.

Evolution through natural selection is not a controversial topic. It is not controversial because religion preaches that the maker made each individual species. Many times religion teaches that each individual has a purpose and is created for a reason. Evolution claims that living species can change over time and give rise to new kinds of species, with the result that all organisms ultimately share a common ancestry. That being so, people can believe in both. In a religious view people can be correct and people who believe in evolution can also be correct. Evolution can be true for religion that the maker has made each individual species, he/she started it all with one species and through time the world has changed

In the 19th century, scientific research progressed rapidly outside the world of industry and technology (McKay 744). British scientist, Charles Darwin, was the most influential nineteenth-century evolutionary thinker. Darwin spent his early career, amassing enormous amounts of biological and geological data from his voyage to South America (Fiero 3). In 1859, he published his classic work, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, where he summarizes his theory of evolution with the thought of struggle for survival, or natural selection. Furthermore, natural selection is the idea of groups of species surviving through generations by adapting to changes in the environment and using certain characteristics as an advantage. In addition, natural selection challenged traditional ideas about nature and world order, and it was also taken steps further by many thinkers. English philosopher, Herbert Spencer, saw the human race driven forward to ever-greater specialization and progress by a brutal economic struggle that determined the “survival of the fittest” (McKay 745). The notion of a body of thought drawn from the ideas of Charles Darwin that applied the theory of biological evolution to human affairs and saw the human race as driven by an un-ending economic struggle that would determine the survival of the fittest defines Social Darwinism (McKay 745). As European and American upper class sought to extend political and economic power, Social Darwinism proved to

Every country has societal values and principles that are derived from and are the basic for the evolution of respective civilizations. These principles may vary in response to changing conditions and perceptions as is evident, say for instance, from the works of Smith (2003). Such values and traditions were collectively termed as ‘Dominant Social Paradigm’ by Pirages and Ehrlich in 1974 (as cited in Kilbourne, Beckmann, & Thelen, 2002). The concept was initially proposed by Kuhn in 1962 (as cited in Kilbourne et al., 2002 ). To evaluate the

Adaptationism is the belief that the traits seen in organisms are the results of evolution by natural selection. There are different forms of adaptationism and many different definitions as to what an adaptation is, with some believing it is impossible to test a hypothesis about an adaptation at all. This essay will look at a) how to define adaptation b) different forms of adaptationism and c) consider the different methods of testing whether a phenotype is an adaptation.