Topic > Origins of Modern Man: The Multiregional Theory

Multiregional Evolution: A theory that suggests that modern humans evolved from single populations of Homo erectus across Europe, Asia, and Africa during the mid-Pleistocene. Its proponents claim that premodern humans, Homo erectus, migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia and that gene flow between these populations is responsible for the evolution of modern Homo sapiens (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan, and Ciochon, 2013). This theory was developed by Wolpoff and his colleagues in the 1980s and is a topic they continue to explore today (2000). There are many, however, who discredit this theory. They believe the multiregional model does not demonstrate how all these separate populations remained genetically similar to each other if they evolved separately. The works of Pearson (2004) and Stringer and Andrews (1988) explore this opposite vision to the multiregional model. Wolpoff, the founder of multiregional theory, devotes much of his essay to discrediting those who oppose this theory. In his article “Multiregional, not multiple origins” he expresses the idea that those who discredit the multiregional theory do not really understand it. This is explained when he writes: “For whatever reason, there has been a continuing pattern of misinterpretation or misdescription of multiregional evolution.” (Wolpoff et al. 2000) Discusses the work of Chu et al. and how they determined that the multiregional theory was false after studying ancient Chinese populations. Faced with the lack of genetic evidence to support the multiregional theory, Wolpoff responded that there is a lack of genetic evidence to oppose the theory. He writes, “No time has been found at which every genetic locus resides in a single African population.” (Wolpoff et al. 2000) By saying this, Wolpoff means that it is not possible to demonstrate that all uniquely human genes