Multiregional, not multiple origins

Multiregional evolution is a model to account for the pattern of human evol ution in the Pleistocene. The underlying hypothesis is that a worldwide net work of genic exchanges, between evolving human populations that continuall y divide and reticulate, provides a frame of population interconnections th at allows both species-wide evolutionary change and local distinctions and differentiation. "Multiregional" does not mean independent multiple origins , ancient divergence of modern populations, simultaneous appearance of adap tive characters in different regions, or parallel evolution. A valid unders tanding of multiregional evolution would go a long way toward reducing the modern human origins controversy. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.