Polygenism is a theory of human origins positing that the human races are of different lineages, either from a scientific or a religious basis. This is opposite to the idea of
monogenismMonogenesis means "single origin". It has been used in various contexts as an antonym to polygenism or "multiple origin".* In nineteenth-century anthropology, the term was used to refer to the theory that all human beings descend from a single, recent pair of ancestors and are therefore closely...
, which posits a single origin of humanity.
Many
oral traditionOral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
s feature polygenesis in their creation myths.
The difference between polygenesis and polygenism is this: polygenesis is a process of multiple origin, polygenism is the doctrine that such a process occurred.
From the point of view of religion, polygenism is an uncommon
Biblical interpretationExegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text.Biblical exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of the Bible. The goal of Biblical exegesis is to find the meaning of the text which then leads to discovering its significance or relevance.Traditionally the term exegesis...
. Until the mid-1800s it was largely considered
hereticalHeresy is proposing some unorthodox change to an established system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established opinion of scholars of that belief such as canon. It is sometimes confused with apostasy which is disaffiliation from orthodoxy and blasphemy which is...
. It was first raised by
Isaac La PeyrèreIsaac La Peyrère, or Pererius, was a French Millenarian theologian and formulator of Pre-Adamite theory.-Life:Born into a Huguenot family in Bordeaux, and possibly of Jewish descent, La Peyrère was a lawyer by training and a Calvinist by upbringing, though he later converted to Catholicism.La...
, a French
polymathA polymath is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable...
seeking to reconcile the limited number of generations between Adam and Eve and modern day by positing "pre-Adamites".
It was not believed that the number of races could have developed within the commonly accepted Biblical timeframe.
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
brought the subject up in his
Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations and on the Principal Occurrences in History in 1756 (which was an early work of comparative history), although he made no attempt to solve the problem.
Polygenism came into mainstream scientific and religious thought due to the work of
Samuel George MortonSamuel George Morton was an American physician and natural scientist. Morton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1820. After earning an advanced degree from Edinburgh University in Scotland, he began practice at Philadelphia in 1824...
and more prominently
Louis AgassizJean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a paleontologist, glaciologist, and geologist, and was a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The issue of race was polemical, and
slaveSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
owners attempted to justify their treatment of slaves using claimed empirical
scienceScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
such as Morton's work.
They argued that each race was a different
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
, and that black Africans were mentally inferior to Caucasians. Agassiz believed that each race was unique, but could still be classified as the same species. Contemporary geological discoveries described the earth as far older than strict interpretation of Genesis allows, and among some thinkers, polygenism was a way to reconcile the new discoveries with their faith.
In the race debates of the 1860s and 1870s,
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
and some of his supporters argued for the
monogenesisMonogenesis means "single origin". It has been used in various contexts as an antonym to polygenism or "multiple origin".* In nineteenth-century anthropology, the term was used to refer to the theory that all human beings descend from a single, recent pair of ancestors and are therefore closely...
of the human species, seeing the common origin of all humans as essential for evolutionary theory. This is known as the single-origin hypothesis.
Ernst HaeckelErnst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel ,also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in...
, the major publicizer of Darwin's ideas (or his interpretation of them) to the German-speaking world, attacked this view, arguing that human beings do not form a single
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
but a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
divided into nine separate species that have been evolving separately since before the development of speech.
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~hsci278/Readings_on_Language/Darwin_and_language_by_Richards.htm#_ftnref62 Haeckel's view remained influential until well into the 20th century.
Polygenism was heavily criticized in the 20th century
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, and especially by Pope Pius XII in the encyclical
Humani GenerisHumani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine". Theological opinions and doctrines known as Nouvelle Théologie or neo-modernism and their consequences on the Church...
, who felt that, although evolution was compatible with Catholicism, polygenism was seemingly incompatible with the doctrine of
Original SinOriginal sin is, according to a doctrine proposed in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt,...
.
In the late 20th century, the work of the
paleoanthropologistPaleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-Nineteenth century:...
Carleton CoonCarleton Stevens Coon, was an American physical anthropologist, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer and professor at Harvard, and president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.-Biography:Carleton Coon was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts...
was the closest to what can be perhaps considered a "modern" polygenism by positing that the individual races of the earth separately evolved into modern
Homo sapiens. This hypothesis, called the
multiregional hypothesisThe multiregional hypothesis is a model to account for the pattern of human evolution proposed by Milford H. Wolpoff in 1988. Multiregional origin holds that the evolution of humanity from the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.5 million years BP to the present day has been within a single, continuous...
, was not very popular when it was presented in the mid-1960s, though there continue to be some vocal advocates for it within the scientific community.
See also
- Quantitative trait locus
Inheritance of quantitative traits or polygenic inheritance refers to the inheritance of a phenotypic characteristic that varies in degree and can be attributed to the interactions between two or more genes and their environment...
- Single gene disorders
- Multiregional hypothesis
The multiregional hypothesis is a model to account for the pattern of human evolution proposed by Milford H. Wolpoff in 1988. Multiregional origin holds that the evolution of humanity from the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.5 million years BP to the present day has been within a single, continuous...
- Polygenesis (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, polygenesis is the view that human languages evolved as several lineages independent of one another. It is contrasted with monogenesis, which is the view that human languages all go back to a single common ancestor....
- Monogenesis
Monogenesis means "single origin". It has been used in various contexts as an antonym to polygenism or "multiple origin".* In nineteenth-century anthropology, the term was used to refer to the theory that all human beings descend from a single, recent pair of ancestors and are therefore closely...
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