Study warns depictions of human evolution are racist and sexist

Perceptions of human evolution are racist and sexist in a wide variety of media, education and science, a study published on Tuesday indicates.

The study, conducted by researchers from Howard University, USA, and published in the scientific journal Evolutionary Anthropology, was the result of an analysis of images presented in scientific articles, museums, cultural heritage sites, documentaries, television programs, books on medicine and other educational materials, reaching millions of children around the world.

Using the example of a depiction of human fossils that were on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, the researchers show how the traditional view suggests that human evolution has gone from darker to lighter skin pigmentation.

However, in an article published about the study, the researchers note that currently only 14% of people identify as “white”.

Rui Diogo, an associate professor at Howard University School of Medicine and the paper’s lead author, told Lusa that all of the racism and sexism that represents human evolution demonstrates the imposition of a Western perspective, even if it may be unconscious.

“For research, we contacted artists, museum curators… and curiously, racism and machismo are almost unconscious. Few people admit that they are racist or sexist. They don’t even think about it, they repeat the same narratives. without thinking,” the investigator said.

Rui Diogo says he understands why people unconsciously follow these narratives. He says that this is what they were given from childhood, but adds that this cannot be an excuse. “We all have a responsibility, curators, journalists, those who write books for young people in schools.”

“When I talk about the Caveman, I instantly erase the woman from the backstory,” he says, adding that what you see in books and on the Internet about human evolution gives an impression that is not true. “It’s almost like we’re all white and the rest are doomed to extinction. Charles Darwin already said that.

In response to Lusa’s question, Rui Diogo also pointed out that even in Asian publications, the narrative can be racist, placing Asians in the spotlight but essentially repeating the Western narrative.

In general terms, he says, especially in children’s books, evolution is represented not only by the white man, but also by the “Western white man in a tie.”

In an article entitled “Not Just in the Past: Racist and Sexist Prejudices Still Permeate Biology, Anthropology, Medicine, and Education,” the lead author laments that even today there is this tendency to view darker people as “supposedly more primitive” and more lungs as “more civilized”.

This misrepresentation distorts “genuine human biological variability,” the researchers emphasize, who acknowledge that persistent racism and sexism can serve the purpose of “maintaining white and male supremacy” and excluding “others,” and warn that imagery, the widespread “minimization of complexity” of the human evolution.