ABSTRACT
In a recent review article on the origin of modem humans, Stringer & Andrews (1988a) made an attempt to test whether the genetic and fossil evidence is in greater agreement with a model of ‘Multiregional Evolution’ or with one of ‘Recent African Evolution’. Because it was more accessible to testing, the extreme cladistic position, which limits the species Homo sapiens to modern humans, was used to test the African Evolution model. Stringer & Andrews (1988a: 1263) justified this procedure by arguing that a test of these extreme models also makes it more likely to recognize the predominant mode of Homo sapiens evolution than would be possible with models which lie between the extremes.
