ASIAN THEORY OF ALEŠ HRDLIČKA - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The Asian theory or Asian monogenic theory is a scientific theory that proposes that the common origin for all human races is the present Asian continent. The author and main defender of this theory was Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943), an anthropologist of Czech origin settled in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, who argued that the first settlers of the American continent entered from Asia through the Bering Strait -between Siberia and Alaska-.

This Asian monogenic theory is in contrast to the autochthonous theory promoted by Florentino Amenghino (1854-1911). Amenghino, supported by the scientific studies of Charles Darwin, argued that American man originated in this continent as a product of his own or autochthonous evolution and that the rest of the races originated from this. This was raised in 1890 based on skeletal remains found and that he assigned them to the Tertiary Era.

Bering strait

One of the main detractors of the autochthonous theory was precisely Hrdlička, who was called together with other wise men of the time to know and comment on it. It was finally concluded that the human remains on which Amenghino supported his research were not actually that old.

Due to the rise of evolutionary thought in the late 19th century, Asian theory gained adherents, many of whom believed that the famous "missing link" was in Asia.

Foundations of Asian theory

Aleš Hrdlička

Aleš Hrdlička took into consideration many elements to support his theory. The most solid were:

• Geographical basis: the proximity of the Asian continent with the American one.
• Ethnological foundation: common characteristics among indigenous people from all over America that suppose a common origin, such as, for example, the use of poly-synthetic and agglutinating languages ​​(languages ​​that bring together several meanings or compound ideas in a single word).
• Anthropological basis: physical similarities of the inhabitants of both continents, among which the prominent cheekbones, shovel-shaped teeth, little facial and body hairiness, the color of the skin and eyes, the shape and thickness of the hair stand out.

Another physical feature to take into account is the so-called Mongolian bridle (skin fold of the upper eyelid that extends inward, covering the tear duct), distinctive of Asians, as well as Native Americans.

According to Asian theory, the passage of Asian settlers to the American continent took place at the end of the Pleistocene period, when there was a considerable decrease in sea level (Wisconsin Glaciation) that left more than 1,800 kilometers free of water, allowing migration walking.

Asian theory vs African theory

There are other monogenic theories, such as the African theory, which upholds the idea that every living human being descends from a small group in Africa that later spread throughout the world.

This hypothesis took hold in the early 1990s with studies of mitochondrial DNA by scientists Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann, which suggested that all humans descended from one female: Mitochondrial Eve.

The rise and fall of Asian theory

Charles Darwin and several of his supporters had already advocated 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 major 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 binders, shows that not all American settlers came from a single origin.

All this leads to the conclusion that, in addition to the Asians, there were also other migratory currents such as Melanesia and Australia, which makes the Asian monogenistic theory a multiple origin theory (polygenist theory).

Robert Knox, a Scottish anatomist considered the father of scientific polygenism, argued that the races must have been created separately due to the obvious and extreme visual differences of some races.

Many arguments have been used by numerous scientists over the centuries to support the monogenist theory, such as environmental monogenism, which alleges that different environmental conditions over time were those that produced changes in the appearance of subsequent migrations..

The Asian theory was declining, especially from the studies of Franz Weidenreich (1873-1948) who combined the Asian hypothesis with the multiregional origin of humans.

Jia Lanpo (1908-2001), 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 defenders of Asian theory have their beliefs firmly rooted in Chinese nationalism.

However, every so often 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 called it 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 37 million years old, and its four teeth - recovered after six years of sifting through tons of sediment - closely resemble those of another early anthropoid: Afrotarsius libycus, 38 million years old, discovered in Libya's Sahara desert.

The close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius suggests that the first anthropoids colonized Africa from Asia.

The paleontological community is still divided when it comes to this age-old debate: For example, John Hawks (2010) argues that "we are all multi-regional now"; But Chris Stringer (2014) refuted: "We are all Africans who accept some multi-regional contributions."

It remains an open question how early anthropoids migrated from Asia to Africa. Back then, the two continents were separated by a more extensive version of today's Mediterranean Sea. They may have swum from one island to another, or have been transported on natural log rafts.

References

1. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Culture. Americas: Native American Science. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1997. Helaine Selin, Editor. 60.
2. K. Kris Hirst. Out of Africa Hypothesis - Did All Humans Evolve in Africa? Recovered from thoughtco.com.
3. Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man.D. Aplleton and Company, 1871.
4. Arun B. Late Evolvers: Life is All About Timing. Bloomington, Indiana, 2013, p. 35.
5. Arun B. Late Evolvers: Life is All About Timing. Bloomington, Indiana, 2013, p. 38.
6. Sigrid Schmalzer The people's Peking man, popular science and human identity in twentieth-century China University Of Chicago Press, 2008, p. 252.
7. The Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by Jean-Jacques Jaeger, paleontologist at the University of Poitiers in France. June, 2012. Recovered from livescience.com.
8. Stringer C. Why we are not all multiregionalists now. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2014.