Brennan Murray
Anthropology 1020-015
Professor Teresa Potter
4/24/15
Anthropology Research Paper: Two Theories of Modern Human Origins
Proposing theories of where the modern human came from, or even the line of humans is
something that has been discussed by everyone at some point in time. With it being that old
many would think that there would be a major decision of what happened, while close we stay at
two different theories from where the Modern person came from. The first theory, named
Regional Continuity. The second has been named the Replacement Theory.
Regional Continuity summed up basically says that modern humans of today evolved
from an archaic human, and with that, that there were three major groups of the ancient humans,
or living groups more or less. Those who lived in the area of Africa, those that lived in Asia, and
the final group that occupied Europe. With all three groups living at the same time period, and all
groups kind of evolving together, in a sense of time, but obviously having their own separate
genetic mutations occurring to help them prosper in the geographic area that they are located in.
There is some evidence supporting this theory today stating that “there have been a continuity of
some anatomical traits from archaic humans to modern humans in Europe and Asia.” Using
examples to back up their statements such as how many Europeans have a more dominant brow
ridge and the angle of their noses seem “reminiscent to Neandertals.” To also show further
support of the theory they look at Asia and how, “similarly, it is claimed that some Chinese
facial characteristics can be seen in an Asian archaic human fossil from Jinniushan dating to
200,000 years ago. Like Homo erectus, East Asians today commonly have shovel-shaped
incisors, while Africans and Europeans rarely do.” This supports the thought that there is a direct
genetic link between Asian Homo Erectus and modern Asian people. Looking at the dental and
fossil records shows that there was no real replacement between humans 40,000-60,000 years
ago, however the evidence doesn’t necessarily rule out “gene flow” between the African, Asian
and European populations at that time period or beforehand.
Replacement Theory also has its points that make sense too however. To shorten the
theory of Replacement it says that Modern Humans evolved from an archaic human around
150,000-200,000 years ago ONLY in Africa, and then after being there they slowly migrated
elsewhere locally. After migrating into the rest of the “Old World” they started to replace all the
Neandertals and earlier archaic humans there. If this theory is correct it would mean that every
person now, if dated back far enough could trace their lineage relatively to Africa. Also this
theory claims that all other lines of human that was a descendant of Homo erectus is presumably
extinct. To back up their claim however they have a DNA and fossil evidence as support.
Starting with fossil evidence, some of the earliest fossils found to date have been found in Africa,
dating back to nearly 200,000 years ago, while elsewhere like in Southwest Asia only back to
100,000 and elsewhere in the Old World only from 40,000-60,000 years ago. So unless they can
find modern human remains elsewhere dating back to 200,000 years ago they say that this theory
better shows what occurred. Using DNA to support the theory of Replacement, Rebecca Cann, at
the University of California postulated that if Africa is truly the origin of the modern human, that
there should be a high level of genetic diversity in their culture since they have been alive the
longest. After her research she concluded that Africa does have the highest amount of genetic
diversity and must be the “homeland” of all modern human beings. Other research done by the
University of Chicago and Yale University also support her claim, finding that it has shown
some genetic variations of the Y chromosome and chromosome 12, lending support to the theory
of replacement. The down side to this theory is, what people have argued, there is a different
time clock on which different genetic variations happen. Some things take longer to occur than
others, stating that just because Africa has the highest amount of genetic diversity doesn’t
necessarily mean that it is the “homeland” of the modern human.
After going into depth on both theories, to me, the replacement model is the model that
explains how things came about changing. That’s not to say that there are no good points and
things that happened with the Regional Continuity model, but since we have to pick one out the
models I would have to go with the Replacement theory. The things that make the theory more
believable to me is mainly how they are the most prominent bones found pretty much
everywhere in the old sites, also that they are the oldest. Along the lines of that the research to
back it up is well thought out and well put with their findings. Postulating at first that if Africa is
indeed the motherland of the modern human, that they should be the most genetically diverse,
and after having done research on it they found that it was indeed the oldest and most genetically
diverse. Now even though I believe this to make the most sense out of the two there are some
things I have a hard time believing. To start I don’t agree with the statement that the modern
humans migrated out and just ended up replacing all of the neandertals. After knowing what we
learned in this class I find it to be more believable that they might have migrated out, met up
with the neandertal groups and other archaic humans, and after a while there would have been
mating between the groups, and after a long period of time natural selection would have chosen
the more favorable traits, not to say that every modern human had all the more favorable traits.
So that’s why I disagree mainly with the theory of replacement.
Human origins is something that is and will be continually debated from now until the
scientific community can agree on one theory, if it will happen obviously. Looking at the two
main theories today, not including the assimilation model, the theory I find to make the most
sense in happening is the replacement theory.
Work Cited
1. Edward B. Tylor, Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization
(1904) (enhanced by Dennis O'Neil)
2. 1999-2013 by Dennis O'Neil.
3. Marcellin Boule, Fossil Men: Elements of Human Paleontology, 2nd ed. (1923)
4. Marcellin Boule, L'Homme Fossile de la Chapelle-aux-Saints (1911)
5. Sir John Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, 6th ed. (1904)
6. Anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/credits.htm-website
7. The Book