ANT100Y1 Lecture Notes - Carl Linnaeus, Genetic Code, Copernicus Programme

• School: UTSG
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANT100Y1
• Professor: Sherry Fukuzawa

Document Summary

A brief history of the development of thought on human evolution: origin myths. All human cultures seem to have a theory of belief surrounding the origins of humans. How humans are the ultimate products of creation: fixity of species. Accepted that all living things created by god: great chain of being. 1st proposed by aristotle in 4th century bc. All animals arranged in a hierarchy that progressed from simplest to most complex. Humans at top of hierarchy: genus & species. Saw that certain plants & animals could be distinguished from other groups by their ability reproduce with one another and produce viable offspring. Placed reproductively isolated groups of individuals in a category called species . Recognized that some species shared similarities called genus . So by 1600s, the biological criterion of reproduction was used to define species, just like today: systema natura; linnaeus, 1735. Classified living things into a hierarchy of taxonomic categories.