Monogenesis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monogenesis means "single origin". It has been used in various contexts as an antonym for polygenism, or "multiple origin".

[edit] Anthropology

In the 19th century, the term monogenesis was used to refer to the theory, supported by traditional interpretations of the Bible, that human beings all descended from a single recent pair of ancestors, and were thus closely related to one another. In contrast, polygenists argued that the different races had been created separately in different places of the world. Monogenesis claimed to have Biblical support.

This dispute later evolved into the debate over the single origin hypothesis.

[edit] Linguistics

In linguistics monogenism refers to the theory that all languages derive from a single Proto-World language, as opposed to the view that language may have evolved independently on more than one occasion.