368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



The appearance of the modern races only a few thousand years ago 

 is so sudden that theories have been developed to account for it. This 

 sudden appearance may be partly illusory. Skeletal remains are all 

 that are available, and the soft structures, which are not preserved, may 

 have been more differentiated. Also data are lacking from vast areas, 

 and so earlier representatives of the modern racial types may yet be 

 discovered in these places. It has been argued that the races must be 

 very old to account for the degree of difference seen today, but rather 

 than follow logic alone let us see what the men were like who lived in 

 the latter part of the Old Stone Age. 



In Europe (several remains of the Aurignacian period), in Africa 

 (Boskop, Springbok), in Java (Wadjak), and in Australia (Talgai, 

 Cohuna), 3 there have been discovered skulls and skeletons which all 

 belong to the species of modern man, Homo sapiens. Their limb bones 

 are typically modern. They had, on the average, larger jaws, teeth, 

 and brow ridges than living men but were not beyond the range of 

 variation of living races. Here there is definite evidence of modern 

 man spreading out over the world before the living races are recog- 

 nizable. All these fossils seem to be of approximately the age of the 

 latter part of the last Ice Age, 20 to 50 thousand years ago. Of course, 

 dating is subject to great error. At least it can be said that they are 

 much older than the earliest finds that can be assigned to living races, 

 and much later than the groups of ancient men to be considered. 



In the Americas the evidence of early modern man is not as clear 

 as in the Old World. The earliest finds (Minnesota, Lagoa Santa, 

 Punin ; see Roberts, 1943) differ from the later ones, and evidence seems 

 to be accumulating that the men who first entered the New World 

 some 25,000 years ago were a long-headed early type of modern man. 



Here is a commonly accepted hypothesis which will cover the main 

 facts of the last phases of man's evolution. Somewhere in the Old 

 World about 50,000 years ago a generalized type of modern man de- 

 veloped. Variations of this type spread out over the Old World and, 

 somewhat later, into the New. The groups that spread were small 

 parties of hunters. It has been estimated that there were not more 

 than 7 million people in the whole world at the hunting and gathering 

 stage of cultural evolution. Therefore, these groups lived in extreme 

 isolation. This isolation made an ideal setting for the development 

 of the local varieties which are called races today. 



Each of the major racial groups is characteristically located in one 

 area of the world. The Whites, originally, were located in Europe, 

 the Mediterranean area, and the Near East. The center of Negro de- 



* See Keith (1915 and 1931) for descriptions of these fossils. Hooton (1931) gives 

 useful short accounts of fossil meD, and the new edition of "Up from the Ape," now being 

 prepared, will Include all the Important recent discoveries. 



