If ever there were a dead horse to kick, the debate over evolution versus creationism is it.

Nobody was around to document the dawn of mankind, and no amount of scientific reasoning or spiritual philosophizing today seems to sway the positions of either side. Minds are made up, then, but the arguing continues incessantly.

The issue is one that most all of us have come to terms with at some level, whether through basic tenets of our upbringings, religious organizations, education, scientific literature or the constant presence of the debate in news headlines.

It is interesting to note, however, that the debate we are familiar with is largely a domestic one. What is acceptable biology curriculum for U.S. public schools? Should evolution be presented to students as fact or theory? Can teachers mention divine creation as a theory or at all?

While fatigued by the hashing and rehashing of such matters in all domains of media, most of us have heard little or nothing of the debate in other parts of the world. Or do other parts of the world even talk about it?

It turns out that this answer is yes to the dismay of many proponents of evolution.

An upcoming display in Kenya's national museum is meeting staunch opposition from the country's growing evangelical Christian population. The center of the display is a remarkably well-preserved early human skeleton known as Turkana Boy.

As the Associated Press reports, the head of Kenya's evangelical denominations, Bishop Boniface Adoyo, has encouraged "his flock to boycott the exhibition and demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room, along with a notice saying evolution is not a fact, merely one of a number of theories."

Adoyo further asserts that "[he] did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it" and that the world is 12,000 years old, with humans on the planet for only half of that time.

Expectedly, paleontologists and other involved researchers are exasperated. What they view as little more than a deterrent to progress has caught up with them in a place they never thought it would — the very region humans are thought to have originated from.

I am almost always inclined to sympathize with the scientists, but I find this a more complicated instance of evolutionary debate than most others.

There is a certain level of cultural sensitivity and avoidance of ethnocentricity that many Westerners, including many scientists, try to sustain. Although we may determine that the beliefs and practices of certain other cultures are scientifically baseless, we would probably never take it upon ourselves to visit these peoples and tell them so.

Kenya is a unique case in this regard. It is a very different culture, to be sure, but the current debate is swirling around a very familiar religion — evangelical Christianity.

Science and Christianity have clashed for centuries, but most of the clash has taken place in Western societies. Is there any significance to the fact that this newest clash is taking place elsewhere?

Maybe.

It's true that Westerners like the leading scientist in the Turkana Boy fiasco, Richard Leakey, are well-versed in the debate on evolution –— perhaps more so than people like Adoyo –— but this does necessarily give Leakey or others the right to dismiss the wishes of the native people simply because the religion they are embracing is a Western one.

Although the Turkana Boy exhibit itself may not prove to be particularly salient in the future of Kenya's sociopolitical scene, it may be symbolically important now.

If Leakey and Adoyo can accept that a compromise is likely the only way either will come away without repercussions, they might set a precedent for a degree of harmony between the region's new Christian population and its many scientists.

If not, they should prepare to settle in for a debate as exhaustive and unproductive as the one we have seen and will continue to see in the United States for years to come.

Reach reporter Andrew D. Brown at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.