Throughout the past seven weeks of this course, we have explored all the twists and turns of human evolution. Prior to taking this course, I had never given human evolution much thought, other than the occasion joke with friends about how we all used to be monkeys swinging from the trees. My eyes have been opened to the reality of human ancestry, and how we came to be the way we are today.
Humans have been changing and continue to change over time. There are a variety of forces that contribute to human changes. The bio-cultural approach, as talked about in lecture, is an approach that anthropologists use to help them understand how different patterns of variability come about in response to cultural behavior. This approach explores different things that affect our biology and human population at large, such as religion, food production, economic structures, political structures etc. A statement in the lecture that stuck out to me was, “biology affects culture, culture affects biology.” This all goes back to gene flow, and the ways genes are distributed and redistributed from population to population. We can see this take place through natural selection, mutations, and genetic drift.
When I look at today’s society, and the different ways in which humans are evolving, I immediately think of technology. One way that we can see the biocultural approach at work is when we look at technology. When I was growing up, I did not spend my free time on a cell phone; texting, playing games, browsing social media, etc. In today’s society, children are receiving cell phones, and with that, creating social media accounts at increasingly younger ages. In my opinion, this has contributed to a toxic and self-deprecating environment among younger individuals. As a social work major, I have studied the different ways in which the increase of technology and social media usage negatively affects humans, and young humans in particular. Due to the increase of technology and social media, people (girls especially) are developing insecurities, anxieties, eating disorders, and unrealistically unhealthy ideas of what the “beauty” truly is. Social media usage is affecting human behavioral evolution, and in my opinion, in a very negative and unsafe way. Social media and social media influencers have created a culture that is built on a false reality.
An example of natural selection in evolution that is beneficial to us today is the drinking of milk by humans. Humans are the only mammals on earth that drink milk past infancy. After infancy, humans and all mammals stop producing the enzyme needed to digest milk. Our ability to digest and enjoy milk is due to a mutation on the Hungarian plains 7,500 years ago. The ability for humans to digest calorie rich milk helped them to survive cold winters in Europe.
Another very relevant example of natural selection has to do with the use of antibiotics. By taking antibiotics, a person can be cured of a disease that in the past may have been fatal. The fact that we can now take medicines to help cure illnesses that in the past would have been deadly certainly has an affect how humans evolve.
When I look back on human evolution, I think about the beginning of the lives of our closest relatives, the primates, and how far we have come. Humans and human life has drastically evolved.
Hi Bella! I found your post really interesting and made me think about some of the topics I wrote (and learned) about in a different way. Someone else’s post I had read talked about social media in a more neutral (and somewhat more positive way), and I had not thought about the negative effects of culture evolving via social media. I have read a lot about it affecting many people’s, especially young girls, self-image and self-confidence because it creates unrealistic ideals for them to desire. It is amazing how technology and social media in particular has evolved, but like many other evolved traits we have learned about, they are not without consequence. Like we had learned in lecture in the early part of the class, being tolerant to lactose is a rarity among mammals in general, but not incredibly frequent in humans either. With people switching to other types of milk (almond, soy, oat, etc.), it will be interesting to see whether some people never consuming lactose will in any way affect our ability to do so in the future.
I think it is very interesting that you look at the technological evolution as such a negative experience. I agree that social media usage is affecting behavioral evolution but I think it is also affecting our biological evolution too. We have things like genetically modified crops and other technological advances that allow people to live longer and pass on genes that may not have survived without such advanced technologies. I guess I never thought about the ways technology advancing affects culture and maybe even the way our brains are wired. This goes back to the bio-cultural approach that you discussed earlier. I think technology is a perfect example of your statement “biology affects culture, culture affects biology”.
I really liked the way your post is structured and is very organized. It makes it easier to read and find your examples. I find the reduction of lactase in mammals except for humans interesting as well. The fact that we drink another animal’s milk is also bizarre. I personally drink milk sometimes but I try not to but the more I think about it, the stranger this concept becomes. No other animal drinks another animal’s milk so they no longer have the enzyme to digest it after infancy, but many adult humans continue to produce lactase. I find it interesting as well that it is very obvious in the areas in the world that you can see which countries started ingesting milk early in their history, as opposed to places like Asia and Africa that have high rates of lactose intolerance.