Definition of "polygenesis" []

• Derivation of a species or type from more than one ancestor or germ cell. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Modern Synthesis replaced "one gene – one trait" with "one gene – one enzyme", then added polygenesis and pleiotropy."
• "For example, militant nativist Euro-Americans, who first arose in the late 1730s, believed in polygenesis, asserting that the Master of Life engineered separate creations of Europeans, Africans, and Indians and placed them on different continents."
• "David Hume's position on the conflict between polygenesis versus monogenesis is the subject of some scholarly debate."