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In this article from Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould describes how the Museum of Natural History's Gobi Desert expeditions of the 1920s failed to achieve their stated purpose: to find the ancestors of man in Central Asia. In a perceptive analysis of the political role of science and of the social biases that affect thought, Gould describes how anthropologists—despite a complete lack of direct evidence—believed that human evolution was propelled by an enlarging brain, and not, as is the case, upright posture.

It is suggested that human classifications are imposed subjectively & dangerously, resulting in serious errors. An example of this danger is found in the current drug crisis facing the US. The division of nonfood, pleasure-inducing substances (eg, alcohol & tobacco) vs illicit drugs is an absurd policy, which relegates one classification of substances to illegality, & those who use them to criminality, while labeling alcohol & tobacco as legal, despite their life-threatening properties, & their users as law-biding citizens. Other examples are presented, eg, the "nature vs nurture" debate. It is recommended that, if classification is necessary, the basis for divisions established be more closely examined. S. G. Yates