Introduction

The evolution of human beings, and the meaning of “human nature” within a comparative, biologically grounded framework of inquiry, is a huge topic, extending well beyond the contours of this book. Nonetheless, much of the interest that human beings have in other living beings reflects our unquenchable interest in ourselves. In this chapter, accordingly, we will say a few things about several aspects of human evolution, if only by way of commending further inquiry to the reader. We will touch, first, on human origins – “the descent of man,” in Darwin's phrase – with particular attention to the unity of the human species; second, on the vexed topic of nature and nurture; third, on the evolutionary mechanisms required to account for characteristics that human beings alone possess: large brains, language, and mind; and finally, we will touch on what implications, if any, can be drawn about the “future of man” from the Human Genome Project, and, more generally, from the fact that within the last several decades, we have begun to acquire the technical ability directly to manipulate genetic material. Much of what we will have to say involves revisiting some of the figures and theories we have encountered earlier in this book, with special attention this time to our own species.

The Descent of Man

Buffon is generally accorded the title of “father of anthropology.” In his Histoire naturelle de l'homme (1749), Buffon resolved to study human beings in the same way he had been studying other animals.