A tribe defines a group of people as being structurally organised into a systematic way of thinking by some commonality shared within the group; and within every tribe, there are leaders who challenge the status quo. These leaders first need to be accepted by the society in order to be appointed for the purpose of making productive change by first gathering people who will agree to a stance in order to build on the proposed momentum.
In Darwin’s society, he was seen as one of those individuals who challenged the status quo of a society which strongly affirmed the teachings of the Christian faith; and resistance to his Theory of Evolution stemmed from him being considered a threat to the ‘tribe’. His society was structured on the moral teachings of the Bible; and by Darwin diverging from the accepted norms of society, he faced rejection. Now here lays the meaning of the phrase, “No man can be a prophet in His own country”.
There is no doubt that some of the elders in Darwin’s community saw him as only a youth and remembered him for his past and which prevented them from seeing him as adult. Therefore, this gives rise to the fact that familiarity could have been a causal hindrance of the community’s acceptance towards his theoryand because of this; he was seen as a threat to the beliefs of his society. However, while this possibility could have been true, in my opinion, it would not be enough to allow society to break out in such an uproar.
It seems as if though Darwin’s society acted on fear since during that time, only a few scientists questioned the belief that species are fixed and unchanging . Moreover, the people who would share this common train of thought would be the people who watched him grow up and those who had personal interactions with him- therefore only his ‘tribe’ could have fought to contain his theories. However, Darwin’s theory spread abroad his ‘tribe’. So how then did it survive?
In that century (1800’s), there were two very distinct views battling for the concrete and true story of how life and species merged. There were the old philosophers who shared a theocentric view that all species were created perfect and fixed; and then there was Darwin, who introduced his new theory of evolution. These two ideas battled for ‘survival of the fittest’ so to speak. While neither became ‘extinct’, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution led to a new and evolved way of thinking and understanding in the field of genetics and the emergence of new species.
The uproar created in the religious community spread like a pandemic across Europe. It was not until centuries after continuous critique, did the scientific community become more accepting of his findings which led to the survival of his theory and yet, his theory has not yet become unanimously accepted by all. In conclusion, Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution stemmed from him being seen as a threat to his ‘tribe’ which led people to think in an irrational manner and as a result to act on their perceived fear of change of the established view of the origin of species and life in general.
It was as if Darwin was taking away what they were comfortable in their choice of belief and for his society to simply just let go of what they had structured their lives upon- the Christian teachings of the Bible, a move virtually impossible for any society placed in this shoe. So to cope with the proposed change and adapt to their present situation, it was easier for the majority to come together and try to put an end to his theory without giving it air to breath- as it would have spread like a cancerous tumour. But despite all the alarums and excursions raised, the community still did not succeed in completely out ruling his explanation of the evidence of his findings.
