Evolutionary Anthropology

Revolutionary Perspectives on Anthropology

Anthropology was already established as an official science when three major events revolutionized perspectives on the place of humans in nature. In 1856, fossil remains of an extinct form of humans were discovered in the site of Feldhofer (Neandertal,Germany). Discoveries of fossil humans had already occurred in 1830in Belgium (Engis) and in 1848 in Gibraltar (Forbe's Quarry). However, although these specimens were later identified as genuine fossil hominids, the finding of Neandertal was the first recognized as such. It is not before the latter part of the 19th century that the concept of Neandertals as a distinct and extinct form of humans was universally accepted. Second, in 1859, Charles Darwin(1809–1882) published his master work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The notion of evolutionary change in living species predated Darwin, and the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) can be considered the father of the evolution concept in its biological meaning. However, Lamarck failed to propose a valid mechanism to explain the mechanism of evolutionary processes. The primary contribution of Darwin was the identification of natural selection as a major force driving evolutionary changes. The third event of major importance also occurred in 1859. English archaeologists and geologists including Hugh Falconer (1808–1865), Joseph Prestwich (1812–1896), and Sir John Evans (1823–1908)accepted the association of [Page 914]human-made Paleolithic flint implements with extinct fauna in geological ancient deposits that had been described by Jacques Boucher de Perthes(1788–1868) in northern France. Although a large portion of anthropological studies still remained out of the evolutionary perspective, beginning with this period, prehistoric archaeology and human paleontology became important topics of research for cultural and physical anthropologists. Because of the complexity of the roots of anthropology, this science is the crossing point of several distinct fields of knowledge and is multidisciplinary in nature. Evolutionary anthropology can be defined more as a perspective than as a science. It is the synthesis of the various fields of anthropological studies addressing the behavioral and biological nature of humans and their mechanisms of emergence through time.

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