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Below: Whye, J, V. (2009). DARWIN: The story of the man and his theories of evolution. National Geographic society. England
EVOLUTION AND EXPRESSION
Behavioural similarities in humans and animals
He explains “The first part is what makes the Descent of Man so famous because it demonstrates with overwhelming evidence what humans are and what we come from. He grouped the evidence into three kinds:
-The first of these included similarities between man and other animals, he showed that humans are more similar to apes than apes are to any other living animal.
-Second, he stressed the similarities in embryological development; they go through a long developmental process and closely resemble embryos of other animals.
-Finally, he discusses vestigial parts, which no longer have a function but are remnant from ancestral forms. e.g the tailbone.
A Darwinian theory:
Darwin argued that there were three general principles of expression.
‘the direct action of the nervous system… on the body, independently of the will and in part of habit’
‘Antithesis, the habit of voluntarily performing opposite movements under opposite impulses’.
‘Serviceable actions become habitual in association with certain states of the mind, and are performed whether or not of service in each particular case’
Darwin showed that human emotions and their expression were present to some degree in other animals. ‘It seemed probable that the habit of expressing our feelings by certain movements, though now rendered innate, had been in some manner gradually required’
He showed that the main expressions were universal in all human races, which was additional evidence that all are descended from ‘a single parent-stock’
Above: Whye, J, V. (2009). DARWIN: The story of the man and his theories of evolution. National Geographic society. England
abovet: Darwin, C. (1965) The expression of the emotions in man and animals. United Kingdom: Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Left: Engraving of a photograph of an insane woman.
“The fact of the hair becoming erect under the influence both of rage and fear agrees perfectly with what we have seen in the lower animals.”
Darwin had collected notes from the origins of humans since the 1830s with the determination not to publish, “Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history”.
Image above: Darwin, C. (2010) The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 21: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (Part One). United States: New York University Press
Darwin argued that the manes and coloured skins of monkeys were sexual ornaments to attract females.
Famously declared in his conclusion to The descendent of Man: “Man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World.
An apparently off feature of the work is that much of it is sexual selection in other species. Darwins second mechanism for explaining evolutionary change, though now regarded as a sub-type of natural selection.
Above: O’Higgins, P. and Cohn, M. (2000) Development, growth, and evolution: implications for the study of the hominid skeleton. 1st edn. United States: Academic for the Linnean Society of London.
Now, can it be doubted, from the struggle each individual has to obtain subsistence, that any minute variation in structure, habits, or instincts, adapting that individual better to the new conditions, would tell upon its vigour and health? In the struggle it would have a better chance of surviving; and those of its offspring which inherited the variation, be it ever so slight, would also have a better chance.
Yearly more are bread than can survive; the smallest grain is the balance.
Link to practise:
I have looked at numerous different books on theories of evolution and expression/ emotion similarities in humans and animals and not only have they lead me to one of my designs but supported my knowledge in a literature review. I haven’t necessarily used all of the books within the literature review but the information I have gathered has enabled me to critically analyse topics related to the subject matter. Darwins theory of Evolution could possibly be a book I will look to reading in detail for my dissertation because it explains in depth scientific analysis of the subjects.
The similarities in human and animal emotions which has been discussed above supports the idea of ‘repressed primal desires’ in people and therefore links to my designs. I will sculpt either a snarling wolf brow or an angry lion brow without fur for a human face, it will be painted in flesh tones to represent a repressed personality rather than a hybrid. I want to avoid the piece looking like a human-animal hybrid and more so a form of expression behind the human canvas.