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E335: Literature of Victorian England Charles Darwin Study Questions “Tierra del Fuego,” Ch. 10 from Voyage of the Beagle 1. The HMS Beagle set sail in 1831 with a commission to explore the South American coast and compile longitudinal data. As a naturalist, Darwin had the task of cataloging the region’s flora and fauna. To see how he carries out this task when dealing with the Fuegian tribes, make a list of Fuegian (i.e. “savage”) qualities and list their “civilized” opposites in a second column. Why might a modern anthropologist trained in the study of comparative culture find such binary categorizations disturbing? 2. Compare and contrast Darwin’s attitude and his method of observation when he describes the natural environment of Tierra del Fuego and when he discusses the Beagle crew’s contacts with the region’s human inhabitants. 3. Do Darwin’s accounts of Fuegian cannibalism and other misbehavior sound convincing to you? If those accounts are not accurate, how might Darwin have come to believe in them and present them to his readers as the truth? Darwin, Charles. “Struggle for Existence,” Ch. 3 from Origin of Species 1. What is natural selection? How does it compare to the kind of selection that humans have long practiced on domestic animals? Incidentally, what to you think Darwin would say about today’s experiments with cloning--would he approve? 2. How does Darwin define his term “Struggle for Existence,” and why must this struggle take place--what “checks to increase” cause hardship for animals? 3. On the whole, what perspective on or attitude toward Nature emerges in this chapter? If you had to personify (give human characteristics to) Darwin’s Nature, what terms would you use to describe how it treats animal life on earth? “Secondary Sexual Characters of Man” from The Descent of Man will post... from Autobiography will post...
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