ABSTRACT
In the Origin of Species (1859) Darwin was decidedly coy about the application of his ideas to humans. This was probably a wise strategy and ensured that he avoided at least some of the vitriolic commentary that had befallen earlier attempts to discuss the evolution of mankind. The implications in Darwin’s book were clear enough, but the fatal body blows to those that still clung to the view of humans as occupying a special place in creation were delivered by Huxley in 1863 in his Man’s Place in Nature and then later by Darwin himself in The Descent of Man (1871). Darwin’s belief that humans were descended from a common ancestor with the African apes has since been confirmed as substantially correct. The modern classification of animals in the taxa appropriate to humans is shown in Figure 7.1.
