section_path: Theories/Evolutionary theories/19th century
section_name: 19th century
paragraph_text: 19th century
  
  Perspectives on emotions from evolutionary theory were initiated during the mid-late 19th century with Charles Darwin 's 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin argued that emotions served no evolved purpose for humans, neither in communication, nor in aiding survival. Darwin largely argued that emotions evolved via the inheritance of acquired characters. He pioneered various methods for studying non-verbal expressions, from which he concluded that some expressions had cross-cultural universality. Darwin also detailed homologous expressions of emotions that occur in animals. This led the way for animal research on emotions and the eventual determination of the neural underpinnings of emotion.