Why Do We Study Hyman Origins?

Why do we Study Human Origins?
By Susman Randall
Calliope: Exploring World History

Many people around the world wonder how did humanity evolve, and from which origins?
Before the advanced science such as archeology and anthropology. People depended only on religious teachings as the only source of explanation of human origins. In every culture there were different myths and legends about human origins. The major breakthrough, which changed the traditional interpretations, happened when British scientist Charles Darwin, who worked in the mid-1800s, has suggested that humans had evolved from same ancestors as the apes had. This caused an outrage and scandal, the church was protesting, people were shocked, but Charles Darwin backed up his theory with his scientific research. He collected the numerous valuable data during his voyages around the world where he found out that animals adapted to their environment, so he did not give up and he called his theory the theory of evolution, although the creationists (those who claimed that God created earth and every living creature in six days) were strongly against his theory.
Today we know that Charles Darwin was right because a geologist Raymond Dart excavated the first hominid fossils in 1925. These fossils were a clear proof that we evolved from hominids. Later on many fossils have been found throughout the planet, which only adds more and more evidence to theory of evolution. There are still many different speculations about how our ancestors evolved, but scientist mainly think that hominids becoming bipedal was the key event in our evolution, and has probably happened because of the climate change in Africa around five million years ago. Before that our ancestors were probably tree dwellers similar to today’s apes. One of the proofs of evolution is that even today we share more than 95 percents of genes with pygmy chimpanzee.
Although many valuable fossils of hominids and early humans were found, scientist still hope to find many more, which will shed even more light on our past.
Susman, Randall. "Why We Study Human Origins." Calliope: Exploring World History Sept. 1999: 4-5. Print.