PUBLIC TALK: Tales of the ex-Apes

A public lecture by Jonathan Marks, Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina.

Human evolution is the scientific narrative of who we are and where we came from, which for any other society would be considered to lie in the domain of kinship and origin myth. All such narratives are bio-political, and because of this value-ladenness, the study of human evolution is broader than the data of palaeontology, archaeology, and genetics. For example, it has traditionally been considered more scientific to emphasize our continuity with the apes over our discontinuity. In fact, evolution produces both patterns simultaneously - descent and modification.

Understanding the choice to over-emphasize our continuity with the apes (descent) involves engaging with the hermeneutic aspect of science, not the empiric aspect. And although we may sometimes be uncomfortable with it, narratives of human macroevolution are invariably bound up with narratives of human microevolution.

Cost: Free, but RSVP required via the website.