Vincent M. Sarich was born in Chicago in 1934. As a physical anthropologist, Dr. Sarich was a Professor at Stanford University from 1967 to 1981 as a professor. Then, he joined the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. His comparative studies of protein lead him to the theory that human beings branched off from African apes about 4 million years ago, and this theory is regarded as contentious and evolutionary.
Dr. Sarich trailblazed in the use of molecular evidence to measure the biochemical similarity in relative degree between human beings and other kinds of animals. He drew a "Molecular Clock Hypothesis" and "African Eve Theory" (It is also called "Mitochondrial Eve Theory" or "Out of Africa Theory") with Allan Wilson, who is a biochemist in Berkeley. They thought at the time that the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and human beings were alive was not so long ago but much more recent than people have been estimated. They compared the structure of certain blood proteins of human beings and those of African apes. After finding many differences of the structure, they were able to determine the age of divergence of two species because mutations, which make difference of the structure, take place at a constant rate.
Dr. Sarich said that what makes racial differences more functionally important is the "Out of Africa Model" not that of regional continuity. The reason is because the period of time involved in the raciation procedure is much shorter even though the degree of racial differentiation is apparently the same or larger. The smaller the amount of time required to create a given number of morphological difference, the more selectively significant the differences become.
Even though fossil experts fiercely resisted their hypothesis, Wilson and Sarich’s date and methodology came to the fore. Because of this accomplishment, Dr. Sarich built reputation as a great figure of human evolution studies and as a strong controversialist. Sarich’s reputation, as a scientist, came mostly from the study of molecules rather than the study of the tribes. In addition, because he was politically conservative, it was known that Sarich was out of the mainstream of anthropology. The viewpoint that Sarich had was that logic of evolutionary biology should be expanded to the inquiries of human nature and social policy. His approach is highly contentious since "the political left regards anything reminiscent of "social Darwinism" as pseudoscientific propaganda for the status quo".
Dr. Sarich is the author of articles including:
Zihlman, Adrienne L. , John E. Cronin, Douglas L. Cramer, and Vincent M. Sarich. (1978). Pygmy chimpanzee as a possible prototype for the common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. Nature 275: 744-746.
Zihlman, L., John E. Cronin, D.L. Cramer, and Vincent M. Sarich, Pygmy Chimpanzee as a Possible Prototype for Common Ancestor of Humans, Chimpanzees and Gorillas. Nature.
Marks, Jon, Carl W. Schmid, and Vincent M. Sarich, (1988). DNA hybridization as a guide to phylogeny: Relations of the Hominoidea. Journal of Human Evolution, 17: 769-786.
http://www.athenapub.com/molclock.htm
19 April, 2000
http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-229.htm
19 April, 2000
"Biography.com" http://www.biography.com 19 April, 2000
"Article by Phillip Johnson Archives (Access Research Network)" (12 June 1997) http://www.arn.org/docs/johnson/twostories.htm 19 April, 2000
"Article by J. Philippe Rushton (Future Generations)" http://www.eugenics.net/papers/rushton.html 20 April, 2000
"Primary Literature (Literature Review by Jonathan Marks)" http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~jonmarks/biblio.html 20 April, 2000
Written by Kozue Takahashi