Who is Carl Linnaeus?

How did Carl Linnaeus contribute to the study of Anthropology?

• Was the creation of the Linnaen classification system a good thing?

• Answer:

  He contributed in three major ways. Firstly his system of classification included man as a species of animal. In doing so he was of course confirming what is common knowledge. But at the same time he was making a radical change from all the creation myths of all people since the beginning of time, which is to give man a special status apart from all other animals. Secondly, I think it was Linnaeus who gave man the taxonomic name Homo sapiens? So that's a pretty major contribution. Thirdly, Linnaeus's system of classifying species, by degrees of similarity and difference, in groups under groups, showed that there is definitely a principle of order underlying the relations between species. But it was a *static* explanation. It fell to Charles Darwin to provide the *dynamic* explanation of *why* species are thus related. And in doing so, Darwin finally broke through the ubiquitous myths of man's supernatural origins, providing a natural explanation that accords with evidence and reason. The theory of evolution would not have been possible without Linnaeus's systematic taxonomy, which provides the framework raw information that evolutionary theory explains.