ABSTRACT
Henry Fairfield Osborn's Central Asia hypothesis, and his search for the origins of man, must be understood as part of a fascination with the idea of identifying the original home of the human race and using that knowledge to promote social, nationalistic and personal salvation agendas which flourished from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Human-origin theories could be used to further views on race relations and the status of non-white European peoples, as well as justification for nationalism, colonialism and European economic and cultural domination. It also served 'pseudo-scientific' ideas like eugenics, polygenesis, racial anthropology and even occultism. While Osborn shared affinities with many of the movements and individuals that dealt with human-origin questions, he is not their direct intellectual descendant. He was not attempting to fulfill their programs or carry on their legacy. His work sometimes runs parallel to theirs because his own research led him to similar places and sometimes similar conclusions.
