El Gringo

Ok, this article is about the genetic root of modern man.  It’s cool – scientists have pretty much pieced the information together to prove that we all stem from a small group of hunter-gathers that ventured out of Africa.

A study has been conducted on the genetic mutations, or what are referred to as markers, in our DNA.   By analysing these markers, scientists can trace ancestral connections.  Scientists now calculate that all living humans are related to a single woman who lived roughly 150,000 years ago in Africa.  All the variously shaped and shaded people of Earth trace their ancestry to African hunter-gathers. Between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago, one small wavelet from Africa lapped up onto the shores of western-asia.  All non-Africans share markers carried by those first emigrants.  From here, we spread out all over the world taking some 40,000 years to make the far reaches of South America.  Interestingly, we made Australia relatively quickly – only 5,000 to 25,000 years after leaving Africa. 

I subscribe to National Geographic and have done for about 12 years now.  Not only do I find the articles very informative – even if they do sometimes seem to come across with an American bias, they are after all, an American business (I want to avoid associating them with the “company”) – but I do also feel that by subscribing, I am somehow contributing to some form of world enlightenment about what this universe is really about.  I’d like to share some of these bits and pieces.