28 CHAPTER 2 | Genetics and Evolution
The mythology of most peoples includes a story explaining
the appearance of humans on earth. The account of creation
recorded in Genesis in the Bible, for example, explains hu-
man origins. A vastly different example, serving the same
function, is the traditional belief of the Nez Perce, Ameri-
can Indians native to eastern Oregon and Idaho. For the
Nez Perce, humanity is the creation of Coyote, a trickster-
transformer inhabiting the earth before humans. Coyote
chased the giant beaver monster Wishpoosh over the earth,
leaving a trail to form the Columbia River. When Coyote
caught Wishpoosh, he killed him, dragged his body to the
riverbank, and cut it into pieces, each body part transform-
ing into one of the various peoples of this region. The Nez
Perce were made from Wishpoosh’s head, thus conferring
on them great intelligence and horsemanship.^1
Creation stories depict the relationship between hu-
mans and the rest of the natural world, sometimes re-
flecting a deep connection among people, other animals,
and the earth. In the traditional Nez Perce creation story,
groups of people derive from specific body parts—each
possessing a special talent and relationship with a particu-
lar animal. By contrast, the story of creation in the Book of
Genesis emphasizes human uniqueness and the concept of
time. Creation is depicted as a series of actions occurring
over the course of six days. God’s final act of creation is to
fashion the first human from the earth in his own image
before the seventh day of rest.
This linear creation story from Genesis—shared by
Jews, Christians, and Muslims—differs from the cyclical
creation stories characteristic of Hinduism, which empha-
size reincarnation and the cycle of life, including creation
and destruction. For Hindus, the diversity of life on earth
comes from three gods—Lord Brahma, the creator; Lord
Vishnu, the preserver; and Lord Shiva, the destroyer and
re-creator—all of whom are part of the Supreme One.
When Lord Brahma sleeps the world is destroyed, then
re-created again when he awakes. Similarly, according to
the Intelligent Design movement—proposed by a con-
servative think tank called the Discovery Institute in Se-
attle, Washington—creation is the result of some sort of
supreme intelligent being.
Like creation stories, evolution, the major organiz-
ing principle of the biological sciences, accounts for the
diversity of life on earth. Theories of evolution provide
explanations for how it works and for how the variety of
organisms, both in the past and today, came into being.
However, evolution differs from creation stories in that
it explains the diversity of life in consistent scientific lan-
guage, using testable ideas (hypotheses). Contemporary
scientists make comparisons among living organisms to
test hypotheses drawn from evolutionary theory. Through
their research, scientists have deciphered the molecular
basis of evolution and the mechanisms through which
evolutionary forces work on populations of organisms.
Though scientific theories of evolution treat humans as
biological organisms, at the same time historical and cul-
tural processes also shape evolutionary theory and our
understanding of it.The Classification
of Living Things
Examining the development of biology and its central con-
cept, evolution, provides an excellent example of the ways
that historical and cultural processes can shape scientific
thought. As the exploration of foreign lands by European
seafarers, including Columbus, changed the prevailing
European approach to the natural world, the discovery of
new life forms challenged the previously held notion of
fixed, unchanging life on earth. As well, the invention
of instruments, such as the microscope to study the previ-
ously invisible interior of cells, led to new appreciation of
life’s diversity.
Before this time, Europeans organized living things and
inanimate objects alike into a ladder or hierarchy known
as the Great Chain of Being—an approach to nature first
developed by the great philosopher Aristotle in ancient
Greece over 2,000 years ago. The categories were based
upon visible similarities, and one member of each cate-
gory was considered its “primate” (from the Latin primus),
meaning the first or best of the group. For example, the
primate of rocks was the diamond, and the primate of
birds was the eagle, and so forth. Humans were at the very
top of the ladder, just below the angels.
This classificatory system was in place until Carl von
Linné (using the Latin-form name Carolus Linnaeus) de-
veloped the Systema Naturae, or system of nature, in the
18th century to classify the living things that were being
brought back to Europe on seafaring vessels from all parts
of the globe. Linnaeus’s compendium reflected a new un-
derstanding of life on earth and of the place of humanity
among the animals.
Linnaeus noted the similarity among humans,
monkeys, and apes, classifying them together as primates.
Not the first or the best of the animals on earth, primates
are just one of several kinds of mammal, animals having
body hair or fur who suckle or nurse their young. In otherprimate The group of mammals that includes lemurs, lorises,
tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans.
mammal The class of vertebrate animals distinguished by
bodies covered with fur, self-regulating temperature, and, in
females, milk-producing mammary glands.(^1) Clark, E. E. (1966). Indian legends of the Pacific Northwest (p. 174).
Berkeley: University of California Press.