Lecture:

DU Department of Anthropology presents the lecture series, "Headline Anthropology," a lecture series designed to illustrate the interface between anthropological research and the issues that inform our lives.

Next: November 13, 6 pm, Sturm Hall 451 Reception with speaker to follow talk Sturm Hall 286 Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina, Charlotte Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS) Visiting Scholar Is that an Ape in your Genes (or are you just glad to see me)? While it has become quite well known that we are genetically very similar to the apes, the precise meaning of that genetic similarity is not obvious.  For example, by the same measurement of our >98% base-for-base DNA identity to chimpanzees, we are also >25% genetically identical to daffodils.  By the same phylogenetic argument that we "are" apes (because our ancestry places us within a cluster of such animals), we "are" also fish.  While this does not cast doubt on the reality of evolution, it does show that the meanings we attribute to genetic data, to try and understand how we fit in to the natural order, are often very culturally inflected.