por What is the Asian theory of Ales Hrdlicka?
The asian theoryor Asian monogenic theory, is a scientific theory that proposes that the common origin for all human races is the current Asian continent.
The author and main defender of this theory was Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943), an anthropologist of Czech origin who settled in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, who maintained that the first settlers of the American continent entered from Asia through the Bering Strait – between Siberia and Alaska.
This Asian single-gene theory is in contrast to the autochthonist theory promoted by Florentino Ameghino (1854-1911).
Ameghino, supported by the scientific studies of Charles Darwin, maintained that the American human originated on this continent as a product of their own or autochthonous evolution, and that the rest of the races originated from this. This was raised in 1890 based on bone remains found and that he adjudicated to the Tertiary Era.
One of the main detractors of the autochthonist theory was precisely Hrdlička, who was called together with other scholars of the time to learn and give their opinion on it. Finally, it was concluded that the human remains on which Ameghino supported his investigations were not really that old.
Due to the rise of evolutionary thought in the late 19th century, the Asian theory gained adherents, many of whom believed that the famous «missing link» was to be found in Asia.
Foundations of Asian theory
Aleš Hrdlička took many elements into consideration to support his theory. The strongest were:
– geographical basis: the proximity of the Asian continent with the American one.
– ethnological foundation: common characteristics among the natives of all America that suppose a common origin, such as the use of polysynthetic and agglutinative languages (languages that agglutinate several meanings or compound ideas in a single word).
– anthropological foundation: Physical similarities of the inhabitants of both continents, among which are prominent cheekbones, shovel-shaped teeth, little facial and body hair, skin and eye color, hair shape and thickness.
Another physical feature to take into account is the so-called Mongolian flange (skin fold of the upper eyelid that extends inward, covering the tear duct), distinctive of Asians, as well as of American aborigines.
According to the Asian theory, the passage of the Asian settlers to the American continent took place at the end of the Pleistocene period, when there was a considerable drop in sea level (Wisconsin glaciation), which left more than 1,800 kilometers free of water, allowing a migration on foot.
Asian theory and African theory
There are other monogenic theories, such as the African theory, which defends the idea that each living human being descends from a small group in Africa that later spread throughout the world.
This hypothesis gained strength in the early 1990s with mitochondrial DNA studies carried out by scientists Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann, which suggested that all humans descended from a female: mitochondrial Eve.
The rise and decline of Asian theory
Already Charles Darwin and several of his supporters had advocated at the time for the monogenesis of the human species, considering that the common origin of all human beings is essential for evolutionary theory.
There is some consensus within the scientific community on the possibility of a significant migration from Asia to America. But, on the other hand, the fact that there are different blood types or languages that are not polysynthetic and agglutinative, shows that not all American settlers had a single origin.
All this leads to the conclusion that, in addition to Asians, there were also other migratory currents, such as Melanesian and Australian, which makes the Asian single-gene theory a theory of multiple origins (polygene theory).
Robert Knox, a Scottish anatomist considered the father of scientific polygenism, argued that the breeds should have been created separately due to the obvious and extreme visual differences of some of them.
Many arguments have been put forward by numerous scientists over the centuries to support the monogenic theory, such as environmental monogenism, which claims that different environmental conditions over time were what produced changes in the appearance of subsequent migrations. .
The Asian theory was falling into decline, especially from the studies of Franz Weidenreich (1873-1948), who combined the hypothesis of Asia with the multiregional origin of humans.
Jia Lanpo (1908-2001), a Chinese archaeologist and one of the last defenders of the Asian theory, argued that the cradle of humanity was in the Chinese southwest.
Scholar Sigrid Schmalzer dismissed any scientific evidence for this, going so far as to claim that the only modern proponents of the Asian theory have their beliefs firmly rooted in Chinese nationalism.
However, from time to time the true possibility of the Asian theory reappears with scientific force: an international team of scientists unearthed a new fossil in Southeast Asia in 2012.
They call him Afrasia djijidae: Afrasia, as a way to interconnect Africa and Asia; Djijidae, by the village of Mogaung in central Myanmar, where the remains were found.
Afrasia is a 37-million-year-old primate, and its four teeth (recovered after six years of sifting through tons of sediment) closely resemble those of another early anthropoid primate: Afrotarsius libycus38 million years old, discovered in the Sahara desert of Libya.
The great similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius suggests that the first apes colonized Africa from Asia.
The paleontological community is still divided on this age-old debate.
For example, John Hawks (2010) argues that “we are all multi-regional now”; but Chris Stringer (2014) rebutted: “we are all Africans accepting some multi-regional contributions”.
It remains an open question how early apes migrated from Asia to Africa. Back then, the two continents were separated by a longer version of today’s Mediterranean Sea. They may have swum from one island to another, or been transported on natural log rafts.
References
K. Kris Hirst. Out of Africa Hypothesis – Did All Humans Evolve in Africa? Retrieved from thoughtco.com. Charles Darwin (1871). The Descent of Man. D. Aplleton and Company.