Alex Walschots

Blog Post #2: Alters and Alters

Evolution can be an extremely vital theme that plays into most studies, and in specifically all strains of Anthropology. In a quite summarized definition, anthropology is the study of why humans act, think, and look the way that they do. For thousands of years and hundreds of generations, the human race has undergone intense evolutionary changes. Humans have migrated to live in all types of climates, hot or cold, dry or wet. It is the process of natural selection and evolution that humans have miraculously been able to adapt to whatever surrounding they are brought into. Most people when understanding the topic of evolution look straight to the physical adaptations we must make. However, my specific field of anthropology that I hope to make a career in has more to do with behavioral evolution within a collective society. So, instead of differences throughout the world, I find differences within an area such as the United States. It is the question of why people think, understand, and say the things that they do that my interests reside. It is the evolution of individual mindsets within a larger society that peaks my curiosity. 

Ever since I was little, I was fascinated by the concept of cultural anthropology. Each culture behaves very different, and believes some things that others do not. No matter how close of quarters certain families are to another, their view of the world and stubbornness of opinion remains the same. Within the article written by Alters and Alters, the topic of teaching physical evolution to students in the United States has been widely debated. Even though evolution has been proved by all scientists to be the indefinite answer to most biological questions, there are those who protest its teaching and want to continue the idea that evolution does not in fact exist. This in part has to do with the culture they involve themselves in, which leads me into explaining my specific field of study. For those who practice the words of the bible, in the religion of Christianity, it states that God himself created man in the form we are familiar with today. Adam and Eve were the first to start the entire human population. Even though this completely goes against logical reasoning to science, certain individuals within the United States and the world refuse to accept any other answer besides those in the bible. This is because they were taught this by their parents, and their grandparents, and all previous generations. Generally speaking, they have not gone through an evolutionary change of their own. Their mindset has not evolved as others have, and therefore are stuck in a historical way of thinking. It is this type of cultural evolution that I like to evaluate. Why do these people choose not to evolve in their thinking while the rest of society has moved on. Why are certain people more prejudice in certain parts of American than others? This is what I hope to answer some day.