Even though the word “Darwinism” can strike up much debate, the concept was celebrated at the U as part of the 199th Darwin Day on Feb. 12. The event was the first time Darwin Day has been celebrated in Utah.
“All the way from geology to anthropology and back up again, Darwin is all over this campus,” said Kristen Hawkes, a professor in anthropology, who spoke of her own work in the fields of evolution and biological anthropology.
Alongside several of her colleagues, Hawkes has been conducting a cross-comparison between the aging processes of chimpanzees and the Hadza hunter-gatherers.
“Now we know so much more than Darwin ever did, more than he could ever imagine and that proves he was right,” Hawkes said. “Technology shows us we all belong to the same family tree of life.”
Henry Harpending, a professor in the anthropology department, also shared his own work in connecting the pieces of the modern human’s past. Harpending said that although evolution has slowed down over the past 50,000 years, it has also greatly accelerated in the past 10,000 years.
“The lessons I take home from all this is that the idea that modern humans have stopped evolving is not right,” Harpending said. “Along with that idea, we believe that everything that is normal is best. There is nothing magic about normal.”
Following the history lines of anthropology, Harpending said that numerous scientists have yet to agree on the location and time modern humans arrived. Dating back from 300,000 years ago in Africa to 45,000 years ago in East Africa, Harpending said any of these dates could possibly be the first modern human, yet the East African site was the most popular. From there he advanced further through history with the advent of art and farming until he joked that, perhaps, modern humans had yet to appear.
Harpending then spoke about how modern humans are always evolving because scientists have observed the addition of lactose tolerance into many cultures across the globe, as well as blue eyes and light hair dating back to 7,000 years ago.
“We are all frantically trying to put together these scattered pieces,” Harpending said. “I would be a lot happier giving this talk in about three years.”
Darwin Day also featured a lecture by Scott Sampson, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Focusing on the issues of Darwin in the classroom, Sampson explained that although many believe religion to be the biggest obstacle in teaching evolution, the real obstacle is the lack of educators who communicate the essence of Darwin.
“Most of the responsibility for this problem rests not with grade school teachers, but with universities like this one. We need to come up with more effective ways of teaching evolution, including training of teachers…and it needs to be made relevant to present day issues,” Sampson said. “Evolution is not just something that happened in the distant past.”