Blog Post #7: Still Evolving
Through this course, I had the opportunity to dive into the deep history of human evolution. We explained the traits that make us truly human, and how far we have come in 400,000 years not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. Discovering our past is the key to predicting our future, and it is the future that we must now look to. In my prospects for my career, I am focusing in on our current status as humans, and what will push us and our cultures further. This could not be possible without our knowledge of past physical anthropology, because we are evolving just as much now as we had back 300,000 years ago. The two examples of how we continue to evolve that interests me the most are both physically and especially culturally.
It is hard to pinpoint specific examples of how humans continue to physically evolve, for homo sapiens the past 300,000 years have seemed quite static. However, we notice small differences in our diets that had not previously been possible. An example of this is in our consumption of milk. Dating back to just 11,000 years ago, humans could not physically digest milk or any type of lactose (sugar in milk) after infancy. However, in the year 2019, milk is a vital part of our diets and health. We receive vitamins (vitamin D) into adulthood from lactose and milk, and use it both in cooking and drinking with a standard meal. But why is this the case, and for what reasons did we change this way? As humans began to domesticate farm animals and stay in static locations, we began to rely on these sources for our nourishment. Charles Darwin explained evolution as a type of survival of the fittest, meaning we must adapt to our environments in order to survive. We did this both 300,000 years ago and continue to do this now, even if these changes are as subtle as a tolerability to lactose.
Another example of how humans still continue to evolve is in our culture. This is not a physical evolution that we can observe through microscopes or studies. This is much greater than that. Throughout the last 100 years, we have experienced a cultural evolution that is monumental. Our acceptance of one human to the other has become much more broad, and humans have begun to express themselves with less fear and less prejudice than ever before. 100 years ago we saw great divides in areas around the world, hating each other for what we looked like, our religious practices, and our sexual orientation. Even though we still see prejudice many places and still have a long way to go, we have crossed many bridges in understanding what it means to be human and why we must accept people’s differences. 100 years ago black and white children were not allowed to study in the same school, and now we have programs all over the world to promote diversity in all regions. I am so happy to live in the era of this evolution, and hope that we continue this pattern for the next 100 years, and so on.
This course has been an eye opener into the past, and I am so grateful that we have the technology and the fossils/artifacts to aid in the explanation of why we became who we are, and how it was push us into the future.
I agree with you, the world is still evolving after centuries of generations and until now. Its cool how you explained the history of human evolution. And how even though after 400,000 years not only physically, we night not look the same same but but mentally and emotionally we all have felts and thought pretty much all of the same thing. This course has been an eye opener into the past, and with new technology and with findings of fossils/artifacts. They can help us explain why we became who we are, and how we will evolve more into the future. Great Blog.
Hi Alex!
I enjoyed reading your detailed and thoughtful post. You seemed to really enjoy learning about the topics we did and that’s awesome. I also found it extremely interesting that early humans couldn’t physically digest milk, but modern-day humans include milk in their everyday diets. With so many alternatives to cow milk, the increasing awareness of how animals are treated on dairy farms, and greater health benefits from plant-based milks, I wonder if over time humans will stop drinking cow milk. If this happened, it would be interesting to see if natural selection would once again take over and cause humans to evolve back to not being able to physically digest milk. I also totally agree with you that we have made huge steps in being more accepting of other humans, but there is still a long way to go.
I liked your example of lactose intolerance. Even though many people are able to digest lactose compared to the past there are still communities that have higher percentages of lactose intolerance than others. I wonder what other examples are similar to this and how they will each evolve. This is probably a stretch but when we talked about evolution we learned that you have to evolve or you essentially die out so could lactose intolerance be one of those characteristics? With the technology we have today and other food options I do not think there will be problems with that but there are probably other characteristics that dont have the technology advancements and will no longer exist in the next hundreds or thousands of years.
Alex,
I, too, touched on lactose intolerance in my blog post. However, since industrialization has been ever increasing over the past 200-300 years, the amount of agriculturally-based communities is decreasing, leading to increased cases of lactose intolerance. That is part of the reason why the rise in manufacturing and production of milk alternatives, made from almonds, cashews, soy, et cetera, has been so prominent and the amount of individuals choosing dairy-free diets is quickly accelerating.
I do agree with your point you made in correspondence to worldly acceptance, in some regards. Although acceptance in regards to the LGBTQ+ community has been overall greater in the United States in recent years, violence, such as mass shootings and bombings, have been very prominent in just the past ten years–commonly related to religious and racial differences between individuals.
I totally agree with you. Our past is a huge part in predicting how we will evolve, comparing the then and the now shows us that we evolve drastically, so much so we would never see it coming. You touched on our cultural evolution and how our acceptance of others and tolerance has grown. I’m sure in America just 200 years ago no one would have believed a black man would be president , it’s amazing. The physical evolution is amazing as well, if we think about how long our first ancestor was found and looked and compare to the modern human today , in the grand scheme of things those physically changes took place in a very short amount of time. Touching on emotional evolution is interesting to, if we look at some non human primates emotional they have little control and are violent and unreasonable. I admit we are not the best but much better due to evolution.
Hey there,
I think you did a nice job in your post describing what this course and path of study allows us to learn and understand. I like that you mentioned that we grew as humans in mental, physical, and emotional ways. This is something that I haven’t seen many people talk about on here in terms of growth. The focus people seem to be quite fond of possessing is the physical aspect of our development. They talk about our growth in arms, or even in physical brain capacity, but never on some of the, for lack of a better word at the moment, “abstract” forms of development. I think the mental growth and the expansion of culture is a prominent feature that is overlooked a little bit when it comes to these kinds of studies.
Hi Alex! I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I also wrote about the intolerance of dairy. I loved how you incorporated Charles Darwin into your post: “We did this both 300,000 years ago and continue to do this now, even if these changes are as subtle as a tolerability to lactose.” It was interesting to read another post talking about the same topic! I enjoyed reading my supporting article that talked about how geographical locations contributed to the dairy intolerances. One extremely interesting quote I found from the article was ““As humans in some regions began to rely on dairy farming as a source of nourishment, our bodies adjusted over time to be more able to digest this food, which, previously, was only tolerated by infants and toddlers.”
Additionally, I enjoyed learning about your comments on diversity in our world today. I thought the same thing! Throughout this course, I found my perspectives constantly being challenged as well. Thanks for your insights.
In the future, what is crazy for me to think is how from a dietary perspective how humans will continue to evolve. I really enjoyed your post!
Hello! Throughout this course we have learned many variables that lead us to be who we are today. I spoke about larger concepts but I also touched base on our need for food. I spoke on behalf of natural selection not applying to the United States do to our resources of making genetically engineered crops that can survive many aspects they would not normally. But your point of seeing the differences in the diet such as the development of our bodies consuming lactose was an excellent point. We have adapted to the resources that are present in our environment, I agree that this adaption probably began when we began to domesticate farm animals and when we began using them for meat and milk in large produce.
I really loved your post, it was very interesting to read and I found myself agreeing with a lot of what you said as well. One thing I found particularly fascinating was the section when you talked about milk. I had no idea human beings used to no be able to digest milk or dairy after infancy. You’re right, consuming milk is such a normal part of our lives these days, I never would have guessed! I really loved the points you made about culture as well. I think it’s easy to look at our world today and forget that we have really come a long way in making strides for acceptance and understanding. I know our global culture isn’t perfect by any definition of the term but we’ve come a really long way and I like to think that means we’re going to keep evolving in that direction. Thanks for sharing, I had fun reading it!
Hi Alex! I liked how you used specific examples to explain evolution in modern humans. I found your example on dietary changes in humans very interesting. We included milk in our diet to adapt to the environment and survive. The evidence of Homo Sapiens not being able to digest milk or milk products could be the presence of lactose intolerance in modern humans. Some people are unable to eat gluten products. This would mean that some people were able to adapt to this food well, and the other weren’t. A huge number of people are lactose intolerant today. Where did this defect come from? It is possible that it came from early species. I also agree with your statement that we are trying to set aside our differences to create an environment of equality.
Hi Alex!
I enjoyed reading your blog post and the examples that you gave were very unique. I like how you talked about how humans have introduced milk into our diets, which also relates to a lot of other different foods that have been added into daily diets that our ancestors would have never eaten. Stuff that is processed is a big one, and that evolution has happened over time. I also think your culture example is very interesting, as we have seen a big evolution in culture and diversity over time. That hopefully is something that is going to continue on as well.
Hi Alex, I really enjoyed reading your post for the final week of our class. First off I’d like to say that your blog was very well written and I liked all of the different concepts you touched on. I totally agree with you on the fact that this class really was an eye-opener. I also agree that knowing our past is essential to looking at the future. We can base so many predictions on what happened with our ancestors. It’s definitely hard to figure out how exactly we are evolving now, but the lectures for this week gave so many good ideas. One of the ideas I talked a lot about was that how we are now able to genetically mutate ourselves. Thanks for sharing!
hey! I found your comment about emotional development intriguing. I especially wanted to respond to something Marnise Henry said! I had not yet really thought about emotional evolution at all! You described primates as having “little control” and as being “unreasonable.” I really wonder how self control works. It seems that there a processes which cause emotional events to cause action in us in an unmediated fashion, ad that control mediates action and emotion and determines if that emotion will continue to result in such an action. What is it that mediated these two things? Cassirer has called it our symbolic capabilities, Scheler may have called it a sort of spirit which we have, but both seem to agree that it involves a quality which we, at the very least, have which allows us to entertain the idea of things – for us to be at a distance from what is happening, and contemplate what we will do. This seems to agree with the Marnise Henry’s implied idea that control and reasonability both are involved in mediating emotion and action. this ability to reason about things seems to mirror the contemplation I reffered to above.
Hi Alex, I agree with you that we have experienced a large amount of cultural evolution over the past 100 years. This has affected the way every individual looks at not only the people around them but also themself. People today have become much more open to ideas that previously were seen as taboo and not really discussed. This has allowed for the inclusion of more individuals and it has lead to much progress for the rights of individuals who were previously oppressed. We can only hope that in the next 100 years this trend continues to occur and that people continue to be open. It is important to remember where we came from, and think about how that has affected our journey to where we are today, as we move forward.
This post touches on varied subject matter in regards from the lactose intolerance at the biological level to the intolerance faced by the LBTQ+ in the present. Technology is rapidly improving. The question is are we as a species? The answer to question unfortunately I would say is no. From Mud Huts to Sky Scrapers the human race has the innovative nature to achieve some amazing accomplishments.
The work that we have done to curtail climate change is pathetic. We no about this planet dying in plain view, and we still continue on using non-renewable energy sources. In fact another critique on human nature is that in the process of cultivating those desirable fossil fuels, we degrade a planets wild life and water supplies just to sip every last bit of oil from this dying planet.
We are not going to jettison this planet and jaunt to the stars and restart on a new home world. So as trite as this may sound there is no second earth for us to go to nor do we have the technology to reach it. It is something this issue of climate change that we are all culpable in. Yet it is due to the fact of how most of the infrastructure in the world is built for and caters to the use of petrol. There may be some reason to be hopeful.
I am not promising a utopian future. Yet I am convinced that we as a species can mitigate and ameliorate the negative effects of climate change if we work together. The process of evolving is surviving in some isolated simplistic sense of the term. Most beings even humans do not want to perish nor go extinct. It is a distinct possibility that we might bottleneck as a population or worse if we keep this up yet I think we can evolve adapt and endure, it will be a collective effort on multiple fronts but with toil and wherewithal I believe in us to get this right.
Patrick Ruch