Anthropology profs. debate origin of humans

Perhaps the most contentious issue of biological anthropology dominated a lecture given by two University anthropoligists last night.

For many years, anthropologists agreed that modern human populations resulted from a gigantic march of people out of Africa, which culminated in the establishment of different races of Homo sapiens.

Anthropology Profs. Milford Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari, who spoke at Rackham West Conference Hall, are leading the increasingly popular charge against the Out of Africa hypothesis, in an intellectual clash that has become anthropology's equivalent of the Battle of Waterloo.

The book "Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction," which Wolpoff and Caspari co-authored, discusses an alternative to Out of Africa known as the Multiregional Evolution (MRE) hypothesis. The theory states that the races of modern humans evolv

BRYAN MCLELLAN/Daily Anthropology Prof. Milford Wolpoff lectured on human evolution at Rackham West Conference Hall last night.

ed within their respective continents at the same time.

Despite a growing body of evidence supporting MRE, conventional wisdom has been slow to change.

"If you ask the average person off the street, they'll tell you about Out of Africa because it's easier to understand," Wolpoff said. "It's about 90 percent politics, and popular opinion is always behind the research."

However, the dueling hypotheses have some things in common.

"Everyone agrees that humans, for a vast majority of their evolution, were in Africa," Caspari said. "Everyone agrees that about 1.5 million years ago, people left Africa."

The fundamental difference between the hypotheses is what happened next.

According to Out of Africa, modern humans replaced anatomically archaic versions in the areas where they settled, such as Asia and Europe. The invaders drove their evolutionary precursors to extinction, replacing them.

MRE, however, is completely opposed to the idea of this replacement. It stresses continuity and the idea that new forms of Homo sapiens simply mated with older Homo sapiens wherever they settled.

"It's very controversial and very misunderstood material," said Rackham student Nicole Berry. "I appreciated the simplicity with which they developed their arguments."

An important by-product of the popular fascination with human evolution is the concept of race. Unlike the controversial two-year-old book "The Bell Curve," the recent "Race and Human Evolution" strives to discount the conception that the races are significantly different genetically.

"The degree of variation within the human species is remarkably low," Caspari said. "Our book helps to explain how you can have difference in the face of incredible similarity."

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