Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 2013, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (04): 377-410.

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The origin of modern East Asians

Milford H Wolpoff; Rachel Caspari   

  • Online:2013-12-15 Published:2013-12-15

Abstract: With the development of paleogenetics in the past decade, it has become evident that modern humans do not have a phylogenetic origin in the appearance of a new species Homo sapiens; therefore, anatomical, behavioral and genetic aspects of modernity are not the consequence of the same, single event. In this paper, we examine the evidence for anatomical, behavioral and genetic modernity in East Asia. In each case, modernity can be understood as part of a multiregional evolutionary process, rather than as an entity. Although these three aspects of modernity are somewhat independent, each evolving at different times, they are linked through demographic changes that began in the late Pleistocene - increased survivorship and population expansions that changed the course of human evolution.

Key words: Asian Evolution; Modernity