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million years ago, a revolutionary suggestion at Sarich, Vincent the time. Although their data could not resolve P. THOMAS SCHOENEMANN the human–chimp–gorilla trichotomy, their basic phylogenetic tree has been supported by decades Indiana University Bloomington, USA of work using higher resolution molecular methods (e.g., DNA sequence comparisons). Sarich and his students, including John Cronin, Vincent Sarich (1934–2012) was a Professor applied his methods to other orders of mammals, of Anthropology at the University of Califor- including carnivores, pinnipeds, the giant and nia, Berkeley from 1967–1994 and a pioneer lesser pandas, and rodents. Sarich also produced in applying biochemical methods to the study the first demonstrations of phylogenetic rela- of evolution. With Allan Wilson (see wilson, tionships of extinct taxa, outlining the positions allan), he established the basic outlines of of the extinct mammoth and Tasmanian wolf. human evolutionary history within primates that In the late 1980s, with Jon Marks, Sarich was is still accepted to this day. Most significantly, responsible for exposing important problems in their work on species differences in the blood published analyses of DNA hybridization data. proteins albumin and transferrin, estimated Later in his career, Sarich became increasingly by measuring the strength of immunological interested in understanding human behavior cross-reactions, concluded that humans were from an evolutionary perspective. Several of his closely related to the African apes to the exclu- later Ph.D. students pursued research in this area. sion of all other primates, and were not an Along with John Allen, he published a theoretical early, long-separate branch of hominoids (see paper on schizophrenia from an evolutionary hominoidea). perspective (see evolutionary medicine) and Sarich also made key contributions to assessing did pioneering work demonstrating the cross- the existence of “molecular clocks (see molec- cultural validity of schizophrenia using an ular clock),” showing that it was possible endophenotype marker. Karen Schmidt studied toassessthedegreeofrateconstancyforany the cross-cultural universality of facial expres- particular molecule through the application of sionsofpatientswithschizophrenia.P.Thomas a “relative rate test” on the data itself (Sarich Schoenemann studied the relationship of brain and Wilson 1967). The logic involved assessing anatomy and behavior in modern humans whetherdaughterspeciesofanygivennodein using MRI. In collaboration with the linguist aphylogenetictreewereequallydistantfrom William S.-Y. Wang, Sarich applied the logic an outgroup. Applying this to their empirical of reconstructing evolutionary histories from estimates of albumin and transferrin differ- comparisons of differences between extant taxa ences, they showed these molecules had evolved (which Sarich developed for reconstructing in a reasonably clocklike fashion in primates mammalian evolutionary relationships) to the and other orders of mammals. Once Sarich analysis of the evolution of languages, by mapping and Wilson demonstrated rate-constancy for the relative rates of change in human languages these proteins, they reconstructed the relative in the Pacific islands. branching order of major subgroups within Sarich was also actively engaged in public the Order Primates. The approximate dates of debates with “scientific” creationists, particu- different primate phylogenetic branch points larly with Dr. Duane Gish (Ph.D. UCB ’83) (see were then estimated by calibrating the rate of intelligent design). molecularevolutionusingthemostdefinitive Sarich was an iconoclast, and much of his fossil divergence dates then known. This analysis work was controversial, beginning with his early indicated that the human lineage had diverged work on molecular evolution demonstrating that from that of the other African apes only ∼4–6 thehumanlineagewasonly∼5millionyears The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology.EditedbyWendaTrevathan. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781118584538.ieba0572 2 SARICH, VINCENT old.Averypopularandaward-winningteacher, SEE ALSO: Ancient DNA; Anthropoid origins; he addressed controversial topics in his classes, Anthropological genetics; Catarrhine origins; including questions of race, IQ, physical abil- Genetic distance; Mitochondrial DNA; Phyloge- ity, and human variation generally. In 2004, he netics; Phylogeny; Platyrrhine evolution; Primate co-wrote Race: The Reality of Human Differences genomics; Primate origins; Primate phylogeny with Frank Miele. Sarich also wrote a positive review of The Bell Curve,aswellasaneditorial arguing against the use of affirmative action REFERENCES policies (see race: conceptual history and racial hierarchy (history, classification Gribbin, J. R., and J. Cherfas. 1982. The Monkey Puz- of modern humans)). The latter was the catalyst zle: Reshaping the Evolutionary Tree.NewYork,NY: for a disruption of his large introductory human Pantheon. evolution class in 1990, and brought charges of Sarich, V., and F. Miele. 2004. Race: The Reality of racism and Nazism against him. However, many Human Differences. New York, NY: Basic Books. colleagues and students argued that he spurred Sarich, V. M., and A. C. Wilson. 1967. “Rates of critical thinking, and he received numerous Albumin Evolution in Primates.” Proceedings of the letters of support both from Berkeley and other National Academy of Science 58: 142–48. institutions. He authored 66 articles and one book, and in 2004 was awarded the Kistler Prize. His origi- FURTHER READING nal work was described in The Monkey Puzzle: Reshaping the Evolutionary Tree (Gribbin and Schoenemann, P. Thomas. 2012. In Memorium: Cherfas 1982). A brief reference to Sarich and Vincent Matthew Sarich, accessed June 11, 2017, Wilson’s molecular anthropological work occurs http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/ in the 1980 movie Altered States. inmemoriam/html/VincentMatthewSarich.html..
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