Theo Clevenger | They/Them/Theirs
This week, we focused on human variation and evolution. As a history major, I never really thought of this topic as overly relevant to me, but this week’s readings and lectures have made me realize that human variation and evolution are much more of an important thing to note in the social sciences than I originally thought.
These topics, while being complex scientifically, are also hugely important in society, as things such as human variation have impacted how different groups are treated on massive level.
My focus as a history major is Russian and Asian Studies. My sophomore year, I took a class on migration within Russia and the Soviet Union, and human variation had a huge impact on various groups who were forced to migrate during the Soviet era, namely Germans and Jewish people, as well as others who didn’t fit in with the Slavic majority. During the first session of this summer, I took a class on literature in South Asia, and I also learned about the massive amount of ethnic and linguistic differences within that region, and how those have also had a huge impact on where people live as well as how they view each other.
Human variation is an incredibly complex topic and it isn’t all about evolution and primates; learning about and understanding human variation from a scientific standpoint in turn helps in understanding it from a social standpoint.
Hello Theo! I enjoyed reading your blog post! As a science major, I have taken some history classes earlier in college. I originally thought that evolution and human variation is not really relevant to history. However, I was wrong. I had taken a history class that studies different artifacts from different eras. It explained how by observing these artifacts could help tell us how evolution has played a part on how we are today. You did a great job connecting your major of history to this week’s blog post topic. Especially, how you incorporated the classes you took. It is crazy to me that some were forced to migrate, because of the impact of human variation during that time period. Your post help me understand evolution and human variation in a more social point of view.