Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
Published on: January 19, 2018
Did Darwin change his mind about the Fuegians?
1Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. G.M.Radick@leeds.ac.uk
Abstract:
Shocked by what he considered to be the savagery he encountered in Tierra del Fuego, Charles Darwin ranked the Fuegians lowest among the human races. An enduring story has it, however, that Darwin was later so impressed by the successes of missionaries there, and by the grandeur they discovered in the native tongue, that he changed his mind. This story has served diverse interests, religious and scientific. But Darwin in fact continued to view the Fuegians as he had from the start, as lowly but improvable. And while his case for their unity with the other human races drew on missionary evidence, that evidence concerned emotional expression, not language.
Related Concept Videos
The Fossil Record
The Evidence for Evolution
What is Evolutionary History?
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
Evolutionary Psychology
Facial Feedback Hypothesis

