ABSTRACT
Theories of human evolution and notions of ‘human nature’ are always interwoven, and the latter can often set limits on the kind of account the world is prepared to accept. There is clearly much interesting work to be done in the history of science field concerning the nature of theory-generation and evaluation in human evolution research. Though the evolutionary perspective was well established, acceptance of natural selection as its fundamental mechanism was if anything waning. Throughout the early nineteenth century a number of works appeared discussing the nature of inheritance and countenancing the possibility of evolution, often with Man included. Erasmus Darwin's discussion of human evolution is, even so, extraordinarily broad and he clearly identified the key problem-areas of behavioural evolution: language, tool-making, social structure, the role of brain-organisation and altruism, for example. The confusion was perhaps necessary in order that a basic groundwork eventually be laid in those disciplines like genetics upon which deeper understanding of evolution depended.
