Evolution Of Culture Midterm Essay

1307 Words6 Pages
Theresa Salopek
Evolution of Culture Midterm Essay
October 20, 2015
The Question of Our Origin: Two Opposing Theories
During ancient archaic times, several species existed in the Old World including Homo sapiens in Africa and the Middle East, Homo erectus inhabited Asia, and Homo neanderthalensis flourished throughout Europe. These species however, all lacked a cognitive flexibility which would destroy the blinding walls that blocked any connection between their multiple intelligences. All of science agrees that Homo erectus originated in Africa and expanded to Eurasia one million years ago. However, around 30,000 years ago, taxonomic diversity suddenly disappears and humans evolved into their modern form, signified by their fluent speech,…show more content…
Between 100,000 years ago and 30,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens were the only humankind left on Earth, a very critical period of time took place during our evolution towards modern man. The replacement theory suggests that as Homo sapiens left Africa they isolated themselves in terms of reproduction and evolved independently while spreading throughout the world and replacing all other human populations. One form of evidence for this theory comes out of genetic research which finds "genetic variation between populations of chimpanzees is enormously greater than differences between European, Asian, and African populations"(Johanson). This fact supports the idea that anatomically modern humans originated and evolved in Africa as one species and after migrating onward, they ultimately came to conquer the world. Also, Africans display a greater genetic variation in comparison to other populations, further supporting the idea that they were the first modern humans.
When classifying species, those assumed to share ancestors are categorized into one genus, based on similarities. Species are considered similar based on physical features and in some cases, their DNA sequences. The Out-of-Arica theory is also known as the Eve theory due to the fact that mitochondrial DNA is passed down only through the offspring 's mother, which preserves the family record. This record is influenced solely through mutations occurring at a steady rate, allowing molecular geneticists to
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