CWU To Host Annual Darwin Day Event

February 10, 2004

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- "Evolutionary Thought in the Social Sciences" will be the theme of the third annual "Darwin Day" event at Central Washington University. The annual "Celebration of Biological Evolution" will be held Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. in Hebeler 121.

The free, public presentation is being held in conjunction with other ceremonies around the world commemorating Charles Darwin's birthday, Feb. 12, 1809.

The CWU forum will include a keynote address by Dr. Robert Dunnell, University of Washington professor emeritus, who will discuss the integration of Darwinian ideas into cultural anthropology and archaeology.

"Although many social sciences and social scientists often claim intellectual roots in Darwin's 'dangerous idea,' the actual impact of Darwin has been quite modest at best," Dunnell says. "Archaeology provides a convenient and appropriate platform from which to probe the causes of this failure -- if it is a failure indeed. As I hope to show, the intellectual difficulties are formidable but entirely worth the effort."

Dr. Megan Matheson, CWU psychology professor, will follow with a discussion on the awakening field of "evolutionary psychology," a term that first appeared in print in the late 1980s and has only been discussed as a discipline in introductory psychology textbooks during the last five years, according to Matheson.

"However, evolutionary thought in psychology is actually quite old," she points out. "Nevertheless, discomfort with the suggestion of genetic influences on human behavior led to evolutionary principles being largely ignored by 20th century human psychology. The recent return to evolutionary considerations within psychology, perhaps, indicates that the time has finally come to investigate the ideas of our intellectual forefathers."

And, Dr. Lixing Sun, CWU biology professor, will speak on how evolutionary thinking is breaking down the classical barriers among disciplines.

"Evolutionary thinking has seeped into many areas beyond biology," Sun notes. "The emerging evolutionary approaches -- especially in psychology and anthropology -- will eventually lead the way toward a true unification between natural and social sciences. The barriers between social and natural sciences are very thin now, waiting to be brought down completely. I will use one example to illustrate how scholars can profit from Darwin's matchmaking at this critical moment."

While the exact origin of "Darwin Day" is unknown, groups in Australia, Europe and North America have celebrated the event for more than a decade. According to officials with the national Darwin Day program, the long-term goal is to establish a global celebration in 2009, the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his "The Origin of Species."

The CWU Darwin Day event, sponsored by the CWU College of the Sciences, and anthropology and biological sciences departments, is funded through a CWU faculty development grant.

For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-2731, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.