Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In anthropology, the multiple genesis of man; the supposed independent origin of the human races, as opposed to monogenism, or the theory of unity of genesis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Polygenesis.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In the real world genes often affect more than one trait (pleiotropy), or more than one gene affects a given trait (polygeny).

    Death of a popular anti-ID argument 2007

  • Important characteristics tend to be determined by whole constellations of different genes polygeny while each gene is now also seen as contributing to the characteristics of many different traits in the individual.

    "Retraining the Scientific Imagination..." - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • It was not so very long since my kind friend, Sir William Lawrence, one of the ablest men whom I have known, had been well-nigh ostracised for his book "On Man," which now might be read in a Sunday school without surprising anybody; it was only a few years since the electors to the chair of Natural History in a famous northern university had refused to invite a very distinguished man to occupy it because he advocated the doctrine of the diversity of species of mankind, or what was called "polygeny."

    The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Huxley, Leonard 1900

  • Lawrence, one of the ablest men whom I have known, had been well-nigh ostracised for his book "On Man," which now might be read in a Sunday school without surprising anybody; it was only a few years since the electors to the chair of Natural History in a famous northern university had refused to invite a very distinguished man to occupy it because he advocated the doctrine of the diversity of species of mankind, or what was called "polygeny."

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1 Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

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