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Weidenreich, Coon, and multiregional evolution

Human Evolution

Abstract

Many theories of human evolution emphasie that there was significant geographic variation. They may have little else in common, though, and the idea that Coon provided the evolutionary basis for Weidenreich’s polycentrism, while multiregionalism cleansed Coon’s writings of racism has been misleading. Coon and Weidenreich were as different as polygenism and monogenism, and in the basis of their differences lies the genesis of multiregionalism.

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Caspari, R., Wolpoff, M.H. Weidenreich, Coon, and multiregional evolution. Hum. Evol. 11, 261–268 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02436629

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