Troy Berry

Teresa Potter
Anthropology 1020
12/6/15
Research Paper
One of the biggest topics in Paleoanthropology today is the theories of
Modern Human Origins. There is currently two widely believed theories. The
first is the Regional Continuity theory or multi-regional model. The theory is
based on the belief that pre-modern populations in local regions evolved
independently into modern humans. The Second is the Out-of-Africa or
replacement model. This theory believes that a speciation event formed
humans from pre-moderns in Africa.
One of the reasons people say the regional continuity theory is correct
is because they believe we havent found the fossils yet. They believe that
the fossils to prove that modern humans evolved in local areas like Europe
and Asia are still buried underground. While this is plausible, there is no clear
way to prove that without finding the said fossils.
Another way they defend the theory is to point at the gene flow. The
gene flow is supposed to show how each area of the world evolved at from
each other but by interbreeding insured a steady exchange of genes across
regions (Flanagan para. 6). To display the gene flow, Milford Wolpoff and

Alan Thorne contend that fossils from China, Indonesia, New Guinea and
Australia, when lined up by age, show a smooth, unbroken transformation
from Homo erectus into modernity (Flanagan para. 22).
To dispute the multi-regional model most people will point to the lack
of fossils. So far they have not been able to find fossils in Africa, Asia, and
Europe that start out at the same time. Because of this they believe that
modern humans didnt exist there at the same time and all came from Africa.
The Out-of-Africa theory is more violent. The speciation event
mentioned before is believed to mean that we wiped out all the others in the
homo Genus. Most think this was by extermination, competition, and limited
interbreeding. There are many ways people believe that the Out-of-Africa
theory could be proven. For one, modern-human fossils and Neanderthal
fossils have been dated back to the same time as each other. Also, There is
a whole suite of Neanderthal characters in modern humans (Lewin para. 15)
meaning they must have been around at the same time to interbreed. While
there is no proof that we directly drove them to extinction, it is not difficult to
imagine humans killing another group to take resources and land.
People argue with the replacement model mostly by using
characteristics that are passed in fossils. The hard part about this is it is
mostly about the opinion of the individual. Some would say they see change
by seeing that a characteristic appears to move smoothly to the next

species. Then another person could look at the same example and say there
are large gaps in the changes. Making it a new species.
Personally I believe in the replacement model. I think it is very likely
that we killed off or assimilated the other homos. This is what I believe
because that is what I think modern humans would do. Also, the evidence
points more in that direction. First, we are around at the same time in the
same areas which gives us a reason to compete with others for resources.
Some genes from homos like Neanderthals are in our genes but limited,
about 1 4%. Not enough to say we mated with them to slowly turn them
into modern humans.

Works Cited
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Canada). Spring 2006: 10-16. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Dec.
2015.
Flanagan, Ruth. "Human Origins: Out of Africa." Earth. Feb. 1996: 26-35. SIRS
Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
Lewin, Roger. "Africa: cradle of modern humans." Science 237 (1987):
1292+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Mann, Alan. "Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western Asia." American
Scientist 87.4 (1999): 373.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6
Dec. 2015.
Tuttle, Russell H. "The origins of modern humans." Science 228 (1985):
868+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.