Evolution before Darwin

Most people today are taught only the basics about the history of evolution, which ends up with us all thinking evolution=Darwin. But these ideas were floating around long before Darwin. I will give just a few examples.

In terms of how the design of living things are due to their function, look no further than Luther--not saying he's correct in his statement, but the idea is there:

“Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips, and accordingly they possess intelligence. Women have narrow shoulders and broad hips. Women ought to stay at home; the way they were created indicates this, for they have broad hips and a wide fundament to sit upon.” [No. 54]"

Lucas Cranach, Martin Luther and Katarina von Bora

(note her tiny waist--a visual trope throughout Cranach's portraits of women that seems to echo Luther's statement)

But also when it comes to climate, it was known in ancient times that environment could affect general physiological or anatomical differences, an explanation for the Eastern folks with deformed heads or the bandy-legged Ethiopians described by Hippocrates.

Closer to his own time, folks like Lamarck were putting forth evolutionary theories. And his most closely resemble what we know think of as "social Darwinism"--a phenomenon that is an extrapolation from Darwinism used to justify social inequality by creating arguments that it is part of a natural hierarchy.