Davidson Black - Asia Hypothesis

Asia Hypothesis

Paleotontologists who believed mans origins to be found in Asia included Johan Gunnar Andersson, Otto Zdansky and Walter W. Granger. All three of these scientists were known for visiting China and for their work and discoveries by excavating the sites at Zhoukoudian that yielded the Peking man (Homo erectus pekinensis). Further funding for the excavations was carried out by Davidson Black a key proponent of the Asia hypothesis. Because of the finds in Zhoukoudian, such as Peking man, the focus of paleoanthropological research moved entirely to Asia, up until 1930.

Davidson Black writing a paper in 1925 titled Asia and the dispersal of primates claimed that the origins of man were to be found in Tibet, British India, the Yung-Ling and the Tarim Basin of China, his last paper published in 1934 before his death argued for human origins in an Eastern Asian context.