Modern Human Origins: The ‘Out of Africa’ Debate

John H Relethford, State University of New York College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, USA

Published online: March 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0003349.pub2

Anthropologists continue to debate on the evolutionary origin of modern humans. Although most researchers agree that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa between 150 000 and 200 000 years ago, there is still debate over whether this was a speciation event that replaced other human populations outside of Africa, or whether there was genetic mixture.

Keywords: human evolution; Homo sapiens; Africa

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    book Stringer C and McKie R (1996) African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
    book Wolpoff M and Caspari R (1997) Race and Human Evolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Related Sub-Topics:

Fossils and Evolution | Human Evolution
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Article Title: Modern Human Origins: The ‘Out of Africa’ Debate
 
How to Cite close
Relethford, John H(Mar 2008) Modern Human Origins: The ‘Out of Africa’ Debate. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0003349.pub2]