Life — January 22, 1914 — page 1: what you’re looking at

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# "The Descent of Man" This January 1914 *Life* cartoon satirizes Darwin's theory of evolution. The image shows a man hunched at a desk, working intently on papers and surrounded by books, while ghostly ape-like figures loom menacingly above him in the shadows. The caption "The Descent of Man" references Darwin's 1871 work arguing humans evolved from earlier primates. The satire suggests that intellectual labor—the man's concentrated desk work—represents humanity's supposed "descent" into animal-like behavior, or conversely, that civilization's pressures reduce humans to brutish forms. The cartoon likely mocks either Darwin's theory itself (common among religious critics) or critiques how modern work and intellectual demands degrade human dignity, reducing educated men to primitive states.