Life — December 5, 1918 — page 32: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts monkeys and apes gathered in what appears to be a formal assembly or courtroom setting, labeled "The Simian Society Votes to Reject the Darwinian Theory." The joke targets Darwin's theory of evolution, which proposed that humans descended from primates. By showing apes "voting" to reject this theory, the cartoonist satirizes those who denied evolution—suggesting they're behaving irrationally, almost as if apes themselves were denying their relationship to humanity. The cartoon likely references early 20th-century American resistance to evolutionary theory, particularly strong among religious groups. The formal parliamentary setting mocks both the serious scientific debates of the era and the stubbornness of evolution's opponents, implying their rejection of science is as absurd as primates voting against their own biological history.