[thechat] Journey of Man

Erika Meyer emeyer at lclark.edu
Tue Feb 4 19:32:01 CST 2003


Speaking of evolution and migration, this was a fascinating show,
"Journey of Man."   I showed the site to my father who is a biologist
specializing in genetics and human evolution.  He says the guy's
research is sound and in accord with other molecular approaches.

http://www.ngcasia.com/jom/jom.shtml
He traces a genetic pattern on y chromosomes stretching back 60,000 years.
(so it's literally journey of MAN.)

He is able to determine what DNA patterns are the oldest and by doing
so he is  able to find a bushman tribe in Africa he thinks are the
most direct descendants of the first man.  Indeed, this tribe has
facial features and light-brown coloring that seem a conglomerate of
all the world's people.

The idea is that humans evolved in Africa and lived there thousands
of years, but during an ice age 60,000 years ago the waters receded
and that caused a drought as well as opening up land passages and
that's when humans began to migrate.

The next closest DNA to the bushmen belonged to an aboriginal tribe
in Australia.  Archeology goes back beyond 60,000+ years in Africa,
and 50,000+ years in Australia. So he figured they walked along the
coast of Africa to Australia (using a boat to cover the last 30 miles
or so of open water at the time).  In order to verify this part of
his migration theory he then searched in India not far from the coast
and found the same DNA pattern.

 From his research he discovered that humans went from Africa to
Australia, and then there were two migrations north and south into
Asia, and that they stayed in Asia for a very long time.  Then I
think there was another (?) glacial period.  Humans who were living
in the middle east then moved up towards Asia Minor (around
Kyrgizstan), and from that area some migrated into Europe, while
others migrated across Asia, into Siberia, and eventually into Alaska
and the Americas.

It's kind of an interesting idea that migration into Europe and into
the Americas happened about the same time and from the same area.
Clovis points from earliest Americans have in the past incited
controversy because they are so similar to European artifacts of the
same vintage.  One theory being that Euros were in America back
then... but the likely reality is that we were two branches that
parted in the area of Kyrgizstan, with one branch entering Europe,
the other headed into Siberia and thru to the Americas.

Interesting to me is Yurok "mythology" which speaks of an ancient
light-skinned race that disappeared (turned into rocks, plants,
hills) long ago, so that when whites first came to Northwestern
California 150-200 years ago they were called "wogey" after these
spirit people.  The name "wogey" is used for whites to this day.

 From the TV show I learned that that white skin comes in part from
needing to absorb more vitamin D with less sun, and also from less
surface area of the skin exposed to sunlight (because of wearing
clothes).

A really cool show, shows how we are all related as humans.  We all
grew in Africa and adapted to so many different environments as we
migrated over the past 60,000 years. Really amazing.

Erika

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