The Polygenesis Theory and its Effect on Human Ethnic Relations

As we know, polygenism is a theory that believes that human origins came from different lineages. Co-adamism is one of the branches of Polygenism. Co-adamism is a theory about God created other human besides Adam and Eve at the same time. Co-adamism or often called double-adamism is a theory developed by Henry Home, Lord Kames from Scotland. He began with the languages and the origins of man and then he theorized that the new world was emerged from below the sea.

Kames’s view came after examining the differences in men, and he came with a conclusion that these differences were so great that men could not all be in the same race with others. He saw all the differences in their faces, hair, skin, shapes and basic moral quality. He then thought that God must have created many types of human races called multiple adamism referring to both externally and internally differences that every human has.

So, we can say that co-adamism is a theory that there were other human with different races besides Adam and Eve as the first people on earth. It believes there are other races referring to the major differences that every human has. Co-adamism also serves as a plausible view for the Christian. Kames himself made an effort to put his theory in accord with the teachings of Bible.

Another scholar who believed in Co-adamism is Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600). He is a co-Adamist who believed infinite number of Gardens of Eden exist during Adam’s time. In 1591 Giordano Bruno stated that because it is impossible to imagine that the Jews and the Ethiopians came from the same ancestry, God certainly has created different Adams.

Charles White was another believer of co-Adamism, but he used science to support his views. White's Account of the Regular Gr...

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...irm that skull could be one of the evidence to differentiate human races, he differentiated the size of skull then he divided the size of brain as well. Like Cuvier, Morton is also proponent of polygenesis theory. According to Morton theory, he assigned Europeans as the owner of the highest brain capacity, then Chinese, Southeast Asians, American Indians, and the smallest capacity is Africans and Australian aborigines.

Third, the factor that became consideration is the human quality in their civilization. From these three things (skin, skull, and quality of relation) Cuvier concluded that human origin could be ranked as this following stage, the top was the white race according to appearance and brain capacity. In the middle was yellow race, and black race at the bottom. That is why polygenesis could be one of the reasons why racism has existed in the human life.