Talk:William W. Howells
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This article says: "Professor Howells had a moderating effect" over the origins
editHarvard. "Professor Howells had a moderating effect" over the origins of modern humans as he "tended toward the Noah's Ark theory."[2] From the nyt obituary cited in the article: "Professor Howells also had a moderating effect on the often contentious argument over the origins of modern humans. One school upholds what is called the multiregional evolution of humans, essentially evolving in separate regions of earth, with some interconnections, after an initial worldwide migration out of Africa two million years ago. The other theory, known as Noah's Ark or the out-of-Africa hypothesis, postulates several migrations from Africa, the latest of them by modern humans who then supplanted all those earlier ones less than 100,000 years ago.
Professor Howells tended toward the Noah's Ark theory. But his many writings on the subject provided one of the more even-handed approaches to the relative merits and shortcomings of either explanation."
- So the current version says Howells moderating influence is due to his favoring the Noah's Ark theory, which is not what its nyt source says. Also, "Noah's Ark theory", to me, sounds like Howell's favored a theory that we are all descended from Noah after the Flood, which is not what Howells thought. (Although it is true that the link to "out of Africa" clears that up.) I suggest we change the article to make it clear that Howells' evenhandedness was the moderating influence, and make it clear that his favored theory was the "Out of Africa" one.76.218.104.120 (talk) 05:42, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
Just a heads up
editScientific racists have begun citing his work, sometimes to claim that Africans are not human (which is exactly the opposite of Howells’ own conclusion that humans are one species). Apparently it’s because of all the craniometric measurements he took, which the racists use to argue for a different conclusion than the one he drew. 2600:1014:B01F:8B09:7852:F4D1:BDFB:CC13 (talk) 17:39, 6 March 2020 (UTC)