Origin of Man
The problem of human origins is the principal object of research in human paleontology and has been the source of endless, and not always serene, controversies since C. Darwin, with the publication of his work *The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex* (1871), explicitly opposed the traditional literal interpretation of the Genesis passages concerning the creation of man. The ever more frequent discoveries of fossil remains belonging to human races very different from those now living and often possessing pithicoid characteristics have provided arguments that seem valid in favor of the evolutionary hypothesis, so much so that the majority of anthropologists and paleontologists believe that the origin of the human body corresponds to an evolutionary process.
Various authors who continue the materialistic current of the 19th century even maintain that the human soul itself would derive from that of beasts through a gradual transformation, parallel to that of the body. But at the present state of science, it can be affirmed that no concrete evidence supports this hypothesis, given that while anthropoid apes are incapable of any abstraction or invention, even the most primitive human fossil remains (with the exception of *Pithecanthropus*, whose human nature is uncertain) are accompanied by traces of fire and lithic or bone tools that attest to intellectual faculties distinctly human in these most distant ancestors. The same cannot be said, however, regarding the origin of the human body, since scientific documentation does not permit excluding derivation from some extinct primate (ape or prosimian). Indeed, the most recent paleontological discoveries have revealed that many thousands of years ago (v. HUMAN GENUS, AGE OF) there existed, on the one hand, human races whose morphological characters are much closer than those of present races to those of anthropoids, and, on the other, anthropoid apes significantly closer to man—anatomically speaking—than those now living (v. PALEOANTHROPOLOGY), so much so that there is an almost perfect morphological transition between present man and fossil anthropoid apes. To this observation of anatomical continuity must be added the certainty that in fossil man there occurred evolutionary phenomena of considerable magnitude. It is indeed the case that in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene there were men who, while fully displaying human psychic qualities, differed markedly from present human races in their anatomical characters, especially regarding cranial morphology. And since the unitary origin of humanity is admitted (v. MONOGENISM), it is also necessary to admit that all recent and ancient human forms, so diverse among themselves, derive through successive transformations from a single most ancient form very different from present ones.
It must still be noted that the aforementioned anatomical transition broadly corresponds in chronological order to the various fossil human forms. It is true that human fossils known from relatively ancient times (Fontéchevade, Swanscombe, etc.) exhibit characters very close to those of present human races, but the fact remains that the most ancient human fossils known to date (*Pithecanthropus*, Sinanthropus, Mauer man, proto-Australians) are decidedly pithicoid, and pithicoid human forms are all the more frequent the further back in time one goes. It can thus be concluded that the most recent paleontological discoveries do not permit excluding the possibility of derivation of the human body from that of some fossil primate and indeed seem to provide good arguments in favor of such derivation.
Naturally, admitting the evolutionary origin of the human body does not mean accepting the materialistic concept of natural creation, i.e., admitting that the origin of man and its progressive transformation are due to purely fortuitous causes or otherwise independent of a special creative divine action. On the contrary, it can be affirmed that modern paleontological and biological research, particularly studies on orthogenesis, demonstrate the finalism of evolutionary phenomena and thus the correspondence of evolution to a grand creative plan, of which the evolutionary origin of the human body would represent a worthy culmination. However, it must be objectively recognized that the latter is not yet scientifically established, for while the general observation of morphological analogy between fossil men and anthropoids is clear, when one seeks to identify a particular ape or prosimian with which even the most primitive human forms can be genealogically connected, the difficulties remain considerable. It must be honestly admitted that to this day the possible direct progenitor of man is still unknown, and one must await further discoveries—new fossil human forms—that may allow us to fill the many gaps currently affecting our knowledge in this field.