Milford H. Wolpoff

Who is Milford H. Wolpoff?

Milford Howell Wolpoff is a paleoanthropologist working as a professor of anthropology and adjunct associate research scientist, Museum of Anthropology, at the University of Michigan. He was born in 1942 to Ruth and Ben Wolpoff, at Chicago. He is the leading proponent of the multiregional evolution hypothesis that attempts to explain the evolution of Homo sapiens as a consequence of evolutionary processes within a single species. He is the author of Paleoanthropology, 1980 and 1999 editions with McGraw-Hill, New York. ISBN 0-07-071676-5, and the co-author of Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction, which reviews the scientific evidence and conflicting theories about how human evolution has been interpreted, and how its interpretation is related to views about race.

He is best known for his vocal support of the multiregional model of human evolution that challenges the 'Out of Africa' theory. The basis for advancing the multiregional interpretation stems from his disbelief in punctuated equilibrium as an accurate model for Pleistocene humanity, noting that speciation played a role earlier in human evolution.