Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction
Where do humans come from? How did they evolve? How did different races come into existence? The quest for modern human origins has both fascinated and divided people for centuries. Theories of race and questions of whether humans can be categorized in different species have caused polarization and discord in the sciences throughout history, and theories currently in vogue may have as much to do with contemporary cultural politics as with science.Race and Human Evolution is a far-ranging...
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Race and Human Evolution is a far-ranging account by leading researchers in the field that describes the latest scientific evidence and the conflicting theories about human evolution. Milford Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari describe the “Eve” or “Out-of-Africa” theory, which holds that all living people are the descendants of a single common ancestor (“Eve”) who began a new species of humanity in Africa some 200,000 years ago and whose progeny spread throughout the world, giving rise to the different human races.The authors argue that the debate over the “Eve” theory reflects a long history of theories about human origins and race that has been fraught with social and political implications. The authors show that the evidence of the fossil record and genetic data support “Multiregionalism,” which posits that for some two million years human populations have been entwined in a network of widespread peoples who evolved together because they met and interbred, giving the races today many ancestors, not a single common one.
