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Evolution And Its Impact On Human Evolution

Decent Essays

Humans have gone through many stages of adaptation, allowing for great expansion and our unrivaled dominance of the earth. So it could seem as though humans have reached the peak of evolutionary development. Evolution is often thought of as a natural process, and were it not for humans, this might be true. However, evolution, in the strictest sense, is a change in the genetic structure of a population (Jurmain, et al., 5). While natural selection is a major contributor to the process of evolution, humans are no longer as heavily influenced by these forces, as they once were.
In fact, since the dawn of medicine, humans have actively impeded the process of evolution. By ensuring the survival and reproductive success of those who would otherwise be considered “unfit,” in that they would not otherwise survive. Francis Galton, and others, suggested regulation to control reproduction, and reduce/eliminate “unfit” characteristics. The eugenics movement led to a number of concerns over what the concept of “fitness” entails, often prioritizing physical characteristics over beneficial traits (Jurmain, et al., 391).
Even today, and with great understanding of human genetics, concerns exist regarding the ability to control reproduction, and by extension, evolution. Some early works used genetics as a way to describe how humans differentiated. In one study, researchers sought to reconstruct a history of human evolution. By combining genetic findings with pre-existing archaeological and

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