in shaping 99.4 % nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: enlarging genus Homo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 100(12): 7181-8. WU, X. 1998. Continuity or replacement: viewed from the source of certain features of modern humans in China, in K. Omoto & P.V. Tobias (ed.) Origins and past of modern humans: towards reconciliation: 139-44. Singapore: World Scientific Press. Human Evolution: Theory and Progress Djuke Veldhuis 1 , Peter C. Kjærgaard 1 and Mark Maslin 2 1 Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark 2 Department of Geography, University College London, London, UK Introduction In one of the most remarkable understatements in the history of science, Charles Darwin wrote about his theory of evolution by natural selection that “light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history” (Darwin 1859: 488). That was prac- tically all Darwin was prepared to share about the consequences for humankind of his theory in the Origin of Species, the seminal work on modern evolutionary ideas. But everybody around him immediately understood the implications, and as archaeological evidence and human fossil remains accumulated during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in combination with genetic data, theories of human origins eventually became the science of human evolution. Often overlooked, but central to Darwin’s original method and the force of his argument, is the power of converging evidence from a number of different disciplines and bodies of knowledge. For the general theory of evolution, these originally included geology, paleontology, zoology, botany, physiology, anatomy, and, famously, selective breeding. Similarly, human evolutionary studies today are characterized by their multidisciplinarity. Whereas archaeology and paleoanthropology have been central to defining early human history, pushing the chronological boundaries of the first of everything further back in time, they no longer stand in unique positions to the understanding of the evolutionary history of humans. Definition Every extinct and extant species on earth have resulted from the same evolutionary processes determining the way they are through shaping their morphology, physiology, and behavior. The traits specific for the human species are the result of the same evolutionary processes respon- sible for any other living creature. From a general evolutionary perspective, humans are conse- quently no different than any other species on the planet. Human evolution refers to the natural process involved in the evolutionary history of all members of the human clade (consisting of Homo and other members of the human tribe, Hominini, after the split from chimpanzees and bonobos). Members of the human clade are referred to as hominins. Previously, the date, nature, and identity of the last common ancestor between modern humans and their closest living relatives were determined on the basis of comparative anatomy of living species and fragmentary fossil remains. Today, molecular genetic data play an increasing role in establishing phylogenetic relat- edness between hominoids, the superfamily including all living and extinct ape and human species. Theories of human evolution refers to the complex defining methods, practices, hypothe- ses, models, explanations, and interpretations of data, answering the question what makes us human from an evolutionary perspective. Historical Background Nineteenth-century discovery of early human archaeological and fossil remains led to a systematic investigation of human origins using a scientific explanatory framework. The gradual H 3520 Human Evolution: Theory and Progress