ALEŠ HRDLIČKA'S SINGLE ORIGIN THEORY: IDEAS, ARGUMENTS, CRITICISMS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The theory of the unique origin of Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943) is a scientific proposal that maintains that all human races have a common root and that man came to America from Asia, crossing the Bering Strait.

According to this Czech anthropologist, man first set foot on this continent about 12 thousand years ago, through different migrations that crossed from Siberia to Alaska.

According to the single origin theory, man came to America by crossing from Siberia to Alaska. Source: pixabay.com

To develop this hypothesis, he relied on the anatomical and physical coincidences between the Mongols and the Native Americans, as well as other common cultural and linguistic aspects.

The theory of single origin was presented by Hrdlička in his book The Neanderthal Phase of Man, published in 1927. With it he refuted the opinion of the Argentine Florentino Ameghino, who maintained that America was the cradle of humanity.

Today the idea of ​​Asian immigration is accepted by the vast majority of the anthropological and scientific community. However, many consider that it was not the only one and that there were also other groups that came to this continent from Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia, as argued by ethnologists Paul Rivet and Antonio Mendes Correia.

Ideas and studies by Aleš Hrdlička

Aleš Hrdlička

Aleš Hrdlička was born in the town of Humpolec, in the Czech Republic, on March 29, 1869. As a teenager he moved with his family to the United States, where he studied medicine and anthropology.

As part of his academic work he devoted himself to researching Neanderthal man, seeking to prove that Homo sapiens was an evolution of him.

In this way, Hrdlička understood that all races had a common and unique origin in Europe, from where they began to migrate to other continents.

In his book The Neanderthal Phase of Man, he explained that the first settlers of the American continent had been Asian hunters, who entered through the Bering Strait during the Ice Age, in the last of the four Pleistocene ice ages.

In that period, which occurred about 12 thousand years ago, there was a great drop in sea level, which would have allowed passage on foot from one continent to another.

Hrdlička argued that these migrations developed in different stages, crossing from Siberia to the Yukon Valley in Alaska, and then dispersing throughout the rest of America.

Arguments of the single origin theory

Hrdlička based his theory on the structural and physical coincidences existing between the Indians of the entire continent, including the Mayas of the north, the Quechua in the center and the Patagonians of the south. According to his idea, this was due to the fact that they all descended from a common trunk, coming from the Asian races.

For the anthropologist, Mongols and Native Americans shared common morphological features, such as coppery skin, hair thickness and color, wide cheekbones, semi-slanted eyes, shovel-shaped teeth, and scant hairiness on the face..

In addition to this, both groups had a congenital pigmentation known as "the Mongolian stain", which disappears over the years.

In addition, other arguments of Hrdlička were the small distance between America and Asia and the coincidence of certain cultural aspects, such as the existence of polysynthetic and agglutinating languages, in which a single word has several meanings or compound ideas.

Criticisms of the single origin theory

Although the theory of Asian immigration to the American continent was confirmed by the vast majority of the scientific and anthropological community, it also received various criticisms.

In the first place, subsequent studies confirmed that the arrival of these peoples occurred some 40 thousand years ago and not 12 thousand as suggested by Hrdlička, who was unable to complete his research in Siberia due to lack of time.

Regarding the anthropological similarities, in America the blood group "O" prevails while in Asia the "A" and "B" do. In addition, it was established that the "Mongolian spot" was peripacific, that is, it was also present in the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

On the other hand, among the different tribes of American Indians certain structural differences were found and, in terms of language, not all were polysynthetic and binders as Hrdlička suggested.

All these arguments put in doubt the unique origin of the American settlers and many consider that in the continent there were multiple migrations, coming from various regions.

The other theories

To develop his theory, Hrdlička studied Neanderthal man, seeking to prove that homo sapiens was an evolution of him. Source: pixabay.com

In addition to Aleš Hrdlička's single origin theory, there were other ideas that also sought to explain the arrival of man on the American continent.

Among them, the autochthonous origin of Florentino Ameghino, the multiple origin of Paul Rivet and the Australian origin of Méndez Correa stood out.

Theory of autochthonous origin

This hypothesis was raised by the Argentine scientist Florentino Ameghino in 1890. It argued that the man was originally from America, more specifically from the Argentine pampas, from where he dispersed to the rest of the world.

This idea was based on the discovery of skeletal remains at the site, which were supposedly from the Tertiary Era. However, later it was found that these studies were wrong and that the bones found were from the Quaternary Era and were mixed with animal fossils.

Multiple origin theory

This hypothesis was proposed by the French ethnologist Paul Rivet. In it he argued that, in addition to the Asians who came to America through the Bering Strait, other groups did so by navigating the Pacific Ocean from Polynesia and Melanesia.

With this multiple migration, he sought to explain the physical and linguistic differences that were not covered by Hrdlička's unique theory.

Australian migration theory

This idea was raised by the Portuguese anthropologist Antonio Mendes Correia. In it he pointed out that migration to America occurred from Australia through Antarctica, whose territories were united in the past. For this he was based on the cultural, physical and blood similarities between the inhabitants of Patagonia and the Australian aborigines.

References

1. Aleš Hrdlička, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com
2. Aleš Hrdlička, New World Encyclopeadia. Available at: newworldencyclopedia.org
3. Hrdlička's Theory on the Origin of American Man, Wikiversity. Available at: wikiversity.org
4. Theories of how America was populated, Primera Hora. Available at: primerahora.com
5. Montelíbano Educational Foundation. Theories of settlement in America. Department of social sciences.
6. Ales Hrdlička, Wikipedia. Available at: wikipedia.org