monogenism

[muh-noj-uh-niz-uhm]

noun

1. the theory that the human race has descended from a single pair of individuals or a single ancestral type.

Other Word Forms

• monogenist noun
• monogenistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of monogenism¹

First recorded in 1860–65; mono- + -gen + -ism

Example Sentences

Can the strict monogenism of the human race as traditionally understood by Christians, be modified to the scientific consensus that the human species originated in a small population, not a single couple?

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Among the biblical questions still being pondered by Catholic scholars is monogenism—the belief in one set of Adam-and-Eve "original parents"—as opposed to polygenism, the theory that evolution to human form occurred in many places at roughly the same time.

Read more on Time Magazine Archive

Theories of monogenism and polygenism.

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Five-sixths of the public are taught this Adamitic Monogenism as if it were an established truth, and believe it.

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Five-sixths of the public are taught this Adamitic Monogenism, as if it were an established truth, and believe it.

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