A. The Genographic Project  by National Geographic

B. Questions that I need to ask.

C. The Narmada Woman

A. The Genographic Project  by National Geographic : (Reference)

• This studies genetic markers and proposes migration theories.
• Prior to 60000 BC, their model recognises human presence only in Africa, Europe, China and South East Asia. It shows India, Australia, Arabia and the Americas as unpeopled.
• Then it proposes migrations via Arabia, To India by land and Australia largely by by boat around 60000 BC.
• It then shows a second migration to India, by boat closer to 50000 BC and by land all the way to Americas.
• In their model the branch that went to Europe stayed there, but the other branches circulated back and forth across Asia. Similarly in their model, the branches that went to the Americas stayed there.

B. Questions that I need to ask.

1. Can genetic markers suggest inter-breeding or does it have to mean migration?
2. Can genetic markers prove the absence of other indigenous people?
3. Is there no evidence of human existence in India prior to 60,000 BC?
4. Is there evidence that no humans existed in India prior to 60,000 BC?
5. Has the evidence found been ignored and  neglected?
6. Did no one even look for evidence? Dr Sonakia, GSI has looked for evidence in Narmada Valley and found the skull of a  Narmada Woman “in a layer of volacanic ash between 75000 and 750,000 years old, closer to the 750,000 boundary.”

C. The Narmada Woman (Notes)

In 1982, a human skull was found in the Narmada Excavation in a layer of volacanic ash between 75000 and 750,000 years old, closer to the 750,000 boundary. It is either a homo erectus. Some writers have used morphometry to highlight some features of the skull and ignore other features – such that they can call it a Homo Sapiens skull. If  they are right, then we have a Homo Sapiens skull buried close to the 750,000 year old boundary in Narmada Valley, India.

References :

1. Pictures on GSI web-site. ,
2. Excavations in the Central Narmada Basin.,: ““The broken skull specimen of Homo erectus, first & only of its kind in India, discovered by Dr. Arun Sonakia, Ex-Director, Palaeontology Division, Geological Survey of India, Central Region, Nagpur is one of such rare collection. This skull was discovered on 5th December, 1982 in the middle of the Narmada valley in Hathnora, Madhya Pradesh. This Hathnora Skull fossil carries a double interest: It is the most ancient human remnant so far discovered in Indian subcontinent and It was discovered in situ which allow a precise determination of its stratigraphic, palaeontological and cultural context all attributable to the Middle Pleistocene (around 500,000 years ago) age in the geological time scale. The material is a part of the cranium which may be ascribed to a female individual at the age of thirty. The skull was studied by Arun Sonakia in 1982 and Marie-Antoinette de Lumley in 1984 based on morphological comparisons with similar fossils discovered in Europe and Asia. The study revealed that the Narmada Man was a Homo erectus i.e. archaic man. At that time, it was impossible to do CT scan. Now, with the help of Geological Survey of India, Prof. Henry de Lumley, Marie de Lumley, Amilie Vialet from the Institute of Human Palaeontology, Paris are working upon a project based on serial CT scan data of the skull.””
3. An article on the Out-Of-Narmada theory proposed by Dr. Sonakia,: “Thanks to the discovery of very few fossil remains, the antiquity of humans is still an enigma. The Indian sub-continent has many relics of oldest ‘cultural evidences’ such as stone implements, but so far only one oldest hominid fossil has been discovered.  Taking a complete picture of the cultural evidences and fossils of our ancestors through the ages, some Indian palaeo-anthropologists believe that archaic human Homo erectus had his abode in the Narmada valley and from there he migrated in all directions and evolved to Homo sapiens with the passage of time. The other group, which happens to be in majority from the developed world sticks to Africa being the centre for human evolution. The story of ‘out of Africa’ stock is well publicised. ‘Out of Narmada’ is a comparatively new concept put forth by Dr Arun Sonakia ex-director of Geological Survey Of India (GSI) and an expert on hominids. His postulations are based on his own discovery of hominid skull in 1982 from Hathnaura on the bank of Narmada River near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh and interpretation of data available on early human sites of the SAARC region.”
   
4. Article in Current Science published in 1998.: ” Studies on lithostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and tephrastratigraphy reveal that Narmada Homo erectus is from a bed just above a formation of 0.73 Ma and at least 19 m below a layer of 74,000 BP. Fossils belonging to Hippopotamidae, Equidae, Stegodontidae, Suidae and Canidae are mainly relied upon for biozonation of the Narmada deposits. Fossils of these families collected along with the Homo erectus skull or from the same geological horizons containing the skull point to a Middle Pleistocene (in all probability its lower horizon) age of the Narmada Homo erectus. The discovery of IndianHomo erectus bridges the gap between African H. erectus in the west and Chinese and Javan H. erectus in the east and south east respectively. There is a general consensus of opinion that Afro-Asian H. erectus ranges in age from Lower Pleistocene to Middle Pleistocene. Indian H. erectus falls within this range.”
5. 100 fossilized dinosaur eggs found in Narmada Valley
6. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=35276 How old is the oldest human fossil found in India? 600,000 years old. The skull of a 30-year old woman in the western Narmada region of Madhya Pradesh. ”Dr Arun Sonakia, director, Nagpur Circle, GSI was the one who discovered the skull along with other mammalian fossils in late 1982.  Explaining with a plaster cast of the skull, Sonakia pointed out the differences that evolution had wrought. ‘‘This skull has a gently sloping forehead with massive eyebrow ridges and a cranial capacity of 1,100cc. Prehistoric man had better visual faculties and less grey matter. The skull of modern man has a more vertical forehead and not such deep-set ridges. Other sensory faculties are more developed and the cranial capacity is 1,400-1,500cc, indicating the presence of more grey matter,’’ Sonakia remarked. Radio carbon dating could not be done on the skull because the process can’t be used on any fossil that is more than 40,000 years old. Sonakia and his team managed to date the antiquity of the skull through faunal dating – by analysing animal fossils found with the skull. These fossils are of animals that flourished between a certain period all across the world in Europe, Africa and Asia. They all belong to the Quartenary period. Fauna of this period is 18 lakh years old and younger. ‘‘We also used changes in the earth’s magnetic field to date the skull. These changes in the magnetic field take place over a long time and affect these fossils,’’ Sonakia explained. The cast of the skull along with other discoveries of GSI are on display at the India Habitat Centre as part of the GEOSAS Congress taking place in the city.”
7. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110486818/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 : Western Idea claims it is a Homo Sapiens, based on some morphometry in which case, we have the oldest Homo Sapiens Skull. “In 1982 a fossil hominid calvaria was found in a middle Pleistocene deposit in the central Narmada valley of Madhya Pradesh, India, and was assigned to the new taxon Homo erectus narmadensis. Subsequently, morphometric studies of the specimen were conducted by two separate research teams from France and the United States, both in collaboration with Indian colleagues. Results of the most recent study, which includes morphometric and comparative investigations, lead to the conclusion that Narmada Man is appropriately identified as Homo sapiens. While the calvaria shares some anatomical features with Asian Homo erectusspecimens, it exhibits a broader suite of morphological and mensural characteristics suggesting affinities with early Homo sapiens fossils from Asia, Europe, and Africa as well as demonstrating that the Narmada calvaria possesses some unique anatomical features, perhaps because the specimen reflects the incoherent classificatory condition of the genus Homo.”
8. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v423/n6941/full/nature01669.html : The Homo Sapiens Idaltu is a 160,000 year old sub-species of Homo Sapiens whose skull was found in Herto, Middle Awash, Ethiopia. These were very, very large robust people. The link gives a picture of the skull and an artist’s drawing of the person. Their skulls were larger than our skulls. “Radioisotopically dated to between 160,000 and 154,000 years ago, these new fossils predate classic Neanderthals.”

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula

Family Tree DNA is a service that provides the latest technology for genealogical research. They offer one of the largest DNA databases out of any company in the DNA business, with a total of 263,316 to date. Of these, 166,100 are Y-DNA records (what we will be collecting in Venice!) and 97,216 are mtDNA records.

They work in association with a scientific advisory board and also the University of Arizona Research Labs. The Family Tree’s chief scientist is Dr. Michael Hammer, whose expertise lies in the study of the variations of the Y chromosome as a model system to explore human evolution.

Population geneticist are able to use variations on the Y chromosome to create a phylogenetic family tree. The changes in the genetic code are known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms  (SNPs), or simply base pair variations. Scientists are able to determine when these changes diverged from one another, and can subsequently create these elaborate family trees.

Human migration pattern according to Y-chromosome variations

An SNP marks the a branch in the y-chromosome phylogenetic tree, and the branch points are known as haplogroups. These are named as A-T. The sub-branches are further known as subclades, which can also be tested by the Deep Clade Testing offered by the Family Tree DNA.

Origins are determined by the haplogroup: for example, Haplogroup E originated 50,000 years ago and has been linked to Neolithic expansion of peoples into Southern Europe.

Family Tree DNA actually provides the DNA tests to the Genographic Project, one of our sponsors. It might be worth our time to start a Venetian project with them, to specifically focus on the origins of its inhabitants.

Genetic connections and human migration are interesting, but they are also they are useful for tracing possible diseases and hereditary conditions for ourselves and generations down the line. These connections can lead to research that can result in a cure for some of them, so they are important. For instance, Muscular Dystrophy Research and others have made great strides in this arena.

In the 21st Century, Biotech industries and DNA research can make advances in Healthcare, Agriculture, Forensics, human Reproduction, and other fields. Problems in DNA tracking are evident in the resistance shown by individuals toward the findings of the Genographic Project sponsored by The Smithsonian, IBM, and National Geographic. Yet, these may be overcome in time. See:

Who Really Discovered America?

A couple of projects I learnt IBM is backing, that I think can have important long-term effects:

1. The Blue Brain Project: This was started in 2005 by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Essentially this aims to re-create the human brain using ‘the huge computational capacity of IBM’s eServer Blue Gene supercomputer to create a detailed model of the circuitry in the neocortex – the largest and most complex part of the human brain’. Though this is an attempt to reverse-engineer the brain, it is not an artifical intelligence project or one that aims to create a brain per se. The aim is to create a ‘physicological simulation for biomedical applications.’ Henry Markam, the director of the project, said at TED Oxford a couple of months ago that the creation of an artificial brain is about 10 years away.

2. The Genographic Project: In partnership with National Geographic, IBM have designed this project to find out where we humans came from, and how we got here. It is a 5-year project where DNA samples collected from 10 research centres across the world will help to map the process. Anyone can participate by buying a DNA kit and submitting samples of their DNA.

On a completely unrelated note, I think Hugh MacLeod’s painting Fred 44 looks very similar to this photo of a forest of neurons from the Blue Brain Project!

The Genographic Project is an effort funded by National Geographic and IBM. It is generally understood that mankind came from Africa. This project is looking to find out more about the migratory pattern of humans out of Africa. They want to know what kind of an impact culture has had on the genetic variation of humans. They also want to determine how the traditions of cultures has impacted genetic diversity.

To reach these goals scientists have been collecting DNA samples from males, 18 and older, from all over the world. These samples are then categorized and analyzed. Over itme, the human genome mutates and takes on a slightly modified form. These mutations are passed on to the next generation. Using these various mutations, scientists can track lineage. 

The Genographic Project is asking for participants from all over the world. For a fee, an individual will be sent a kit to take a sample of his or her DNA. The sample is then sent to one of 10 laboratories all over the world. The funds generated from these kits are put into the Genographic Legacy Fund. This fund “aims to empower indigenous and traditional peoples by supporting locally-led efforts that can also raise global awareness about the cultural loss indigenous and traditional communities face.” These projects range from preserving the craft of embroidery in Gaza to educating students in Ecuador about their heritage.

Greenland’s economy is largely based in fishing and fish processing, some mining, and some shipbuilding, along with high-quality native crafts. Travel and tourism make a big contribution, however, and the following link will explain more about that as well as about past migration into and out of Greenland.

The Genographic Project of the Smithonian, IBM, and National Geographic recently illustrated the tinydifferences that are related to all demarcations of human “race” and color.  Part of this project has been to track Inuit and other Indigenous DNA elements from northern Europe around the top of the entire globe to Greenland. Controversy surrounds the concept of relate DNA and blood makers even in Iceland.  Although everyone is actually related because we are all people, some angry folks prefer to deny the fact. 

Regardless, Greenland and its people and attractions are fascinating.

Largest Island in the World

I avoided calling my Amom for about 2 weeks, but I eventually called her to let her know to expect the DNA home test kit.  I am usually the one to call, except on our birthdays.  She is very good about calling to wish us happy birthday. 

If I dont call her at least once every 3 weeks, she will call and ask me…. Is everything alright?  Are you mad at me?  I think she usually asks that because we typically disagree on at least one topic each time we talk.  This is what I remember about our last disagreement regarding my oldest abrother and his son.

<me> So how is abrother and his family?

<Amom> Good.  It’s asister-in-laws birthday this weekend so they are coming over for dinner.

<me>  That sounds like fun!  Is anephew still planning on going into the military in Jan?

<Amom>  He finally got a job at a grocery store, but wants to get out of going into the military. (in disappointed tone)

<me> Glad he got a job.  What’s going on that he doesnt want to go now? Are you upset with anephew?

<Amom> He needs to go.  He needs to get motivated to start his life.  I think his girlfriend has talked him out of it and she wants….they want to get married now.

<me>  Oh wow!  Good for him!  He has found someone who cares for him and someone to love!  Why the change of heart?  At first, you didnt want him to go into the military and now you do? 

<Amom>  I didnt want him to go until I found out that he will be on a ship. He wont be on the ground, so he will be safe.  Your abrother is angry and doesnt like his new girlfriend.

<me>  I dont mean to be an alarmist, but assuming that he will be safe just because he will be aboard ship, may prove to be an inaccurate statement.  When entering in the military, I think everyone should prepare for the possibility of death. Why is my abrother angry and why does he not like anephew’s girlfriend?

<Amom>  (Loudly blurts out)….She is Filipino!

<me> (Careful not to raise voice)……Ok, so she is Filipino?  And?……..  Why doesnt my abrother like anephew’s new girlfriend?  From what you have said, I dont understand.

<Amom>  Silence…(Lightbulb goes on)

<Amom>  I think your abrother just doesnt like anything about her.

<me>  Hmmmmm…Well, maybe it’s just the inlaw syndrome…No one is good enough for my son attitude, but I know of many situations when someone has prejudged a future spouse and the marriage has lasted and they are happy.  I hope anephew does what he wants and not what he thinks others want him to do.  Well, wish asister-in-law happy birthday for us and dont forget….you will get your DNA home kit in a few days.

<aMom>  Why I am being tested again?  Why do you need me?

<me>  (Deep breath)….Let me  explain again…

I could celebrate the small successes of my afamily.  I have not heard them say the N word in the past 5 years.  I could feel good about that.  Still, it’s hard to forget what they have said to me in the past….such as,  when my abrother said….That black guy over there said you had a nice looking ass. Dont you ever bring one of THOSE home or we will beat YOUR ass.  Or… when my amom said when I was 14 yrs old……You need to quit tanning.  You look black.  Why did you get your hair permed?  Are you trying to look like them niggers up at my office?   Or…when my amom said to me…..Why do you wear cocoa butter?…You smell like them niggers up at my office.  That smell makes me gag.

I have had a white man I’ve dated and a very close white girlfriend, along with my afamily put me in another category and try to convince themselves that I am not a minority or a person of color.  When I have responded to their racial remarks about niggers, spics, wetbacks, chinks,  kikes, etc..and yes, they have even said gooks……. by saying…When you say those racial slurs, you are not only offending those race groups, you are also offending me!   My afamily, the white man I dated and white girlfriend, have all said….Dont ever put yourself in the same class as them.  You are not the same! 

I responded to my afamily…. I am the same. I cant understand how you cannot see that and how it hurts my feelings.  Judging people based upon the color of their skin or their race is wrong and narrow-minded!

I responded to the white man I dated… I am the same whether or not you want to recognize me for what I am.  I cant see how we can go any further without you acknowledging that your belief is wrong and is offensive to me.   He was about 20 years older than I was at the time.  Initially, I was most impressed with his manners and persistence.  I met him one night through a co-worker who knew him through his roommate.  When I finally agreed to a date, he insisted on opening and closing the car door for me upon my entry and exit and told me I deserved nothing less.  Hmmmm, I would rather open and close my own car door than have you say racial slurs. He had one daughter who was 1st runner up in the Miss Teen USA pageant while we dated and she was only 7 years younger than I was at the time. He and I were definitely not on the same page, never dated exclusively and it was easy for me not to go out with him after that conversation, especially considering the age difference.

I responded to my white girlfriend….I am the same. I cant understand why you turn down men based on their looks or race, but you will hang out with me.  You have had a lot of good looking Latin men ask you to dance  and you like to dance!  Why wont you at least dance?  She responded with …You dont understand because you didnt grow up in Miami like I did!  You should see how these jews, wetbacks, niggers and spics act!  Anyways, your father is white! You are white!  You are white!  <sigh>  I tell her… I see.  I am white because my aparents are white and my afather makes more money than your father, so that makes me white? My girlfriend thought it’s about the color of my aparent’s skin and amount of money my afather made, but none of that had anything to do with me.  We were on our way to our college football game…one of our biggest rivals.  We would not have this same conversation ever again and our friendship lasted 2 more years until I changed and no longer enjoyed what we shared in common:  tanning and shopping.

I thought about all of them last night when I watched National Geographic Channel’s, “The Human Tree”, narrated by Keving Bacon.  It’s quite interesting!  I wonder what my late afather would say today if he were still living and the theory was presented to him that we all at one time had dark skin and came from Africa.  I remember in 1986 when we first observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day…my adad over his speaker phone, told clients nigger jokes and insisted that he would never take this holiday off from work, because he would NEVER celebrate THAT nigger or for that matter, ANY nigger.  I shudder to think of what he would say today.

To all of those still cannot see beyond facial appearances and skin color (including the Korean parents in “The Human Tree” who wont accept their daughter’s white boyfriend)…..consider this…..We are all connected and the evidence is in your DNA.  Take a look….and let me know your thoughts.

The Genographic Project

The country east of the Tanaquisl in Asia was called Asaland, or Asaheim, and the chief city in that land was called Asgaard. In that city was a chief called Odin, and it was a great place for sacrifice.

Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup Q.

The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day ending with M242, the defining marker of haplogroup Q. Some in this lineage also carry the markers M120 (Q1) and M25 (Q2).

If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors’ route, you will see that members of haplogroup Q carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

M168 > M89 > M9 > M45 > M242

Today, nearly all native Siberians, South Americans, and most native North Americans are descended from this line.

Source: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/

…this haplotype is, considering the pattern of matches, doubtless Norse Viking. The DNA evidence supports the family tradition. The haplogroup is very rare, and not found (to date) anywhere but the above mentioned locations (not Mainland Scotland). While there is little doubt that at the time of the Viking occupation of Shetland circa 800AD the HAY ancestor was residing in Norway, the ancient origins are not European. Haplogroup Q is only found among Central and East Asians as well as Native Americans. A Central Asian origin seems most likely, especially considering that in one classic study of Icelandic Y chromosomes, 7% were Q. There has never been any suggestion of any Greenland Inuit presence in Iceland, but the Edda sagas give Asia as the ancestral homeland of a substantial contingent of the Norse in pre – Viking times.

Source: http://www.davidkfaux.org/shetlandislandsYdataH1.html

So, does this mean that my ancestors knew the people who eventually became recognized as the Norse gods? I’ve looked up my haplogroup online, and it looks as if my ancestors either were taken by the Vikings and brought to Norway when the Norwegians went northwards, or simply took the route mentioned by poet and historian Snorri Sturlason in Heimskringla (the best known of the Old Norse kings’ sagas):

In those times the Roman chiefs went wide around in the world, subduing to themselves all people; and on this account many chiefs fled from their domains. But Odin having foreknowledge, and magic-sight, knew that his posterity would come to settle and dwell in the northern half of the world. He therefore set his brothers Ve and Vilje over Asgaard (Asia); and he himself, with all the gods and a great many other people,wandered out, first westward to Gardarike, and then south to Saxland. He had many sons; and after having subdued an extensive kingdom in Saxland, he set his sons to rule the country. He himself went northwards to the sea, and took up his abode in an island which is called Odins in Fyen. Then he sent Gefion across the sound to the north to discover new countries; and she came to King Gylve, who gave her a ploughgate of land. Then she went to Jotunheim, and bore four sons to a giant, and transformed them into a yoke of oxen. She yoked them to a plough, and broke out the land into the ocean right opposite to Odins. This land was called Sealand, and there she afterwards settled and dwelt.

My Norwegian heritage probably goes back even before 800 AD. Taking into consideration that “the frequency of Q in Norway and northern China is about 4%” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_Q_%28Y-DNA%29) and that “in one classic study of Icelandic Y chromosomes, 7% were Q” (http://www.davidkfaux.org/shetlandislandsYdataH1.html), I think it’s safe to say that my lineage is extremely local. Iceland was settled around 870 AD.

NW stands for Norway. Notice the small percentage of Haplogroup Q.

Anyhow, my ancestors did not come from the North, so much is certain. I know this since the Sami do not have Haplogroup Q and they came from the north. Thus, I guess my ancestors must originally have come from the east, then gone northwards through Germany and Denmark. I can’t be 100 % certain of course, especially since I’m drawing conclusions that I would want to be true. But based on where Haplogroup Q is found elsewhere in the world, I can be pretty sure that my ancestors came from the south. Here’s an excerpt from wikipedia:

In the Old World, the Q lineage and its many branches is largely found within a huge triangle defined by Norway in the west, the Iranian plateau in the south, and northern China in the east. It has also been detected in Yemenite Jews, Algerians, Lebanese, Turks, Indians, Sri Lankans, and Vietnamese.

So basically, you find this group to the south-east of Norway, spread all over the place. My Norwegian lineage goes at least 11-1200 years back, maybe even earlier. Here’s some more stuff from David Faux:

Q (Hg1, Eu40) This is one unequivocal Norse signature that has only recently been recognized as such – since Q is typically found only in those from Eastern Asia or North America. The Project Administrator was alerted to the probability of finding Q in the present work since in one unpublished study of Shetland haplotypes, the researchers found a relatively large number (just under 10%) of participants with haplogroup Q – the same percentage seen with the much more common Norse I haplogroup.

Typically those with a Q haplotype will have matches in Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands with Orkney showing a much smaller percentage. The Norwegian Q is very rare there (about 1%) and found more frequently in the north of the country than in the south. The only reason that the present work is able to identify Q is the Haplogroup Database of FTDNA which shows each participant’s matches, which have been SNP tested to show haplogroup, by country.

There has been no scientific investigation of the Norse Q. In Helgason’s article on the haplotypes of Iceland, there are 13 of the 181 samples which are labelled R1b – Branch A, but which are actually Q. Thus slightly less than 1% of this Icelandic sample were Q – similar to Norway. A reasonable estimate for Shetland would be about 4%, making it likely that due to the “founder effect” Shetland has more Q percentage – wise than other Norse communities.

Source: http://www.davidkfaux.org/shetlandhaplogroupR1a.html

Airing August 30th at 9pm on the National Geographic Channel, “The Human Family Tree” traces the work of Spencer Wells, National Geographic, and IBM’s Genographic Project in piecing together the history of human migration through the study of DNA samples from diverse populations alive today:

“The Genographic Project focuses on the Y chromosome in males, which is handed down intact from father to son, and on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which a mother passes to her offspring. Over generations, small, harmless mutations accumulate on these two snippets of DNA; to Wells and other scientists these genetic markers constitute a history book. As ancient human populations migrated out of Africa, splitting off from each other and entering new lands, they accumulated different patterns of markers that reflect that history. Each individual today retains such a pattern.”

As the below map illustrates, all humans alive today descended from a population from East Africa a mere 200,000 years ago.  Considering that the Universe is thought to be 14 billion years old, that the Earth itself is approximately 4.5 billion years old, that mammals are 200 million years old, that the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago; 200,00 years is a moment in time in the evolution of the Earth.

The races which some people think are so intrinsic to the diversity of humanity only developed as humans migrated to Europe and Asia 50,000 to 20,000 years ago.  The religions which some people believe are so central to their identity are even younger, simply a few thousand years old at most.  Even the nations and states which we wage war against one another for are just barely a few hundred years old in most cases.

Our lives of a few decades upon this Earth we live in earnest hopes for some permanence to endure.  As said in Ecclesiastes “All is vanity.  What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?  One generation passes away, and another generation comes, but the Earth abides forever”

But what of this life, of this human race, of this Earth, and of this Universe?  All our vanities, our emotions, our thoughts, and our memories shall pass in time.  My hope is to keep the daily ups and downs in perspective and to enjoy what time we have and be thankful.

"From Africa to Astoria by Way of Everywhere"

Retyping your post from memory is horrible. Darn that silly iPod app for losing it:

We’ve just got our selves a National Geographic Genographic Project kit, and by ‘we’, I mean that I have bought my sister one.

“What if the results come back and we confirm that we are 100% Chinese”, I asked, not wanting to let this present become a new source of depression for my volatile, romantic sister.

“No no it will prove that we have Dutch blood!” I shrugged, made a mental note that Dutch are in Intellectual Vogue this week, and made my purchase at the counter.

This expensive belated birthday present will enable us to test our mitochondrial DNA (maternal), because my sister does not have Y chromosomes, so someone will have to cough up another 200 bucks to get my brother’s Y-chromosome DNA tested later, if we are so inclined. As for being ‘Dutch’, my sister has these flights of fancy where she thinks we, or rather she has Russian or Japanese or some other exotic blood and heritage, which I presume is an attempt to shore up her low self esteem. I last heard that she had adopted various Russian composers and pianists as her God-Fathers or ‘true’ Grandfathers. These individuals are either blissfully unaware of her existence, or too dead to be bothered about it, which I guess is best for everyone involved.

At the moment, L’enfant terrible is watching Federer’s match and stomping her foot every time he makes a foul.

Ok rewriting that portion was really hard, and did not seem as funny as the original draft. I went on in the original about giving up my seat to this apparently pregnant teen, while in the midst of typing the original blog entry on my iPod touch. My seat, “reserved” for those who really need it, was immediately hijacked by what I mentally labelled as an Odorific Spinster, but my disgust immediately turned to the pregnant youth for her insouciance at my generosity in giving it up to her, and the odorific spinster’s callous snatching of the seat.

What do you expect her to do anyway? Maybe she’s just being polite I thought, as I watch the young girl tap at her iPhone with her manicured nails. I continued to type at my iPod, envisioning slipping in jokes about middle age women who have lost any initiative to maintain personal hygiene. It was at this moment the seat next to odorific spinster opened up, and the teen flopped down quickly into it. Voila! The pregnant tummy hump has deflated. Damn bloody baby doll dress! I thought to myself. As if to teach me a lesson, odorific spinster immediately gave up her seat to a truly pregnant, glowing expectant mother.

This is why, more than a decade later I still maintain that baby doll dresses are ugly and the scourge of the earth. And I swear never to ever plant my ass on those reserved seats again. I always had my reservations, but my bad behaviour (even if it was limited to nasty malingering thoughts in my head and wrongfully turning teenage brats into Madonna) today just serves to prove that those seats should never be used unless you really need and deserve them.

Tent City here I come!

Everywhere I look, people are down-scaling as fast as they can to hang on to their pictures, books, laptop, piano, oboe, mp3s, and a 25-year-old bottle of Mouton-Rothschild Bordeaux…at least in that order for me.

My doomsday Cassandra-box just keeps getting bigger and spreading to others—a universe of debt created from the big bang aka greed, a universe exponentially expanding into the far reaches of uncharted uber-space.  Über Sucks.

The treachery of the World Trade Center destruction on 9-11-01, and subsequent spurious acts, some global, some by people and companies I knew and trusted, combined to leech all the liquidity out of my bank and money market accounts. I always hope for the best, but my preparations for the worst were still not enough to stop the sucking sound of my loot disappearing down a drain—lost income, lost retirement, lost hours worrying about over-draft fees, bogus contracts, compounded interest, and confounded drones calling my phone.

“If this is not blankety-blank, then please hang up the phone…”

“Ms. Drone, this is blankety-blank, where is my cash?”

Drones don’t answer, they only relay bad news. I only know the answer I’ve been told by talking heads with forked tongues. My expectations of a cushy, altruistic retirement are lost somewhere in a bubble that popped. Pop goes the weasel.

These days when I hear the phrase, “history repeats itself,” bile rises to my throat. Vietnam, the invasion of Iraq I & II—skipping a generation or two might have made more sense, but some of the same people or their philosophical and biological children (McNamara, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, and friends) orchestrated these disasters, and my government backed them—ludicrous sums of money—this business of war.

War, money, money, war; blood, greed, greed, blood. The words are interchangeable. The insidious reflection of one reveals the other.

Of course, the U.S. is not the only country to start wars for financial gain with no regard for human suffering; it’s just the one I know the most about. And as a 12th generation U.S. patriot, I can complain, unless someone shuts me down by invoking the Patriot Act, a newer, shinier version of the Sedition Act of 1798.

And now the banking fiasco….

Does the (Phil) Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, a bill passed by the Republican Congress before it slid across the desk of Bill Clinton in 1999, jerk your chain? This act repealed the Glass Steagall Act, banking restrictions that were put in place after the global financial catastrophe of the 1930s. Team Obama will need the strength of Titans (the gods, not the football team) to mop up this mess.

Meanwhile, the bile rises, as I frantically search through my packing boxes for antacid and waterproof fabric for my tent, a tent getting bigger by the minute as the economy shrinks, I may be entertaining tent galas–the new deal.

Why can’t we just play nice? Not enough people seem interested in talking about the gene ties we all share on this planet, the fact that all humans are closely related by blood, narrowed down to a tribe of about 10,000 individuals who spread out from Africa some 60,000 years ago, as well as a collective world heritage of literature, art, and music. Why not embrace our shared, precarious existence on a colorful rock flying through black space?

Why not look each other in the eye and see our commonalities for a change, instead of only our differences, instead of screwing, killing, schnooking, lying, cheating, and sticking-it to each other. We’ve tried the war-greed model ad nauseum. Let’s try a new model: communication-sharing.

Something good might come from my losing a sense of security that never really existed. After all, if I default on my home loan the mortgage company will be out the exorbitant interest I would have gladly paid had the income continued. My current financial disaster was jump-started by “Royal Scam” rock stars wiggling out of paying royalties and promised salaries, while they were “reeling in” huge checks—a situation no different than Enron-AIG-Madoff executive-types squirreling off with all their stockholders’ money.

But like Nietzsche, I believe “a good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.”

(I wonder if Nietzsche’s friends ever said, “Dude, the mustache is too friggin’ big for your lip.”)

In the spirit of friendship, again, why do humans generate the intense suffering rendered by a perpetual motion machine of war fueled by greed and ideologue?

And the song says, we go “Back Jack and Do It Again,” and so it seems, until we explode or sicken ourselves into extinction.

Exibit A: Donald Fagen

At least a bomb hasn’t dropped on my head…yet.

Maybe forget the tent. Cave City, here we come!

I think that this statement may be debated by many. Might some even mock it, especially those who have vowed allegiance to the Arab Nation and identify themselves as Arabs.

But the following is a scientific proof of what many have attempted to deny or refute. We can’t deny history or science now, can we?

 

Phoenician Fleets (Web image)

 

The genetics lab at the Lebanese American University  part of the multimillion dollar Genographic Project has been conducting genetic studies on Lebanese citizens to trace their phoenician ancestry.

Read the article on BBC News.

The scene through which the article started was perfect to illustrate the importance of the study.

A play called “The Rise of Phoenix” (refer to the previous post about the Phoenix) about overcoming hardships and the ability to rise again from the ashes. It also refers to the Phoenicians lack of unity which led to their fall, much of this is still a reality that Lebanese have inherited from their ancestors.

“We inherited that Phoenician mentality,” says Osama Rahbani, one of the creators of the play.

“The Phoenicians were good businessmen, but they were selfish, they were not united. I think the main point of the play is to remind the people that we must learn from our own history,” Mr Rahbani says.

Described by historians as the ”worlds first capitalists” the Phoenicians controlled the Mediterranean for nearly 1,000 years, until they were finally conquered by the Romans….

The study has revealed that while one in 17 people across the Mediterranean carry the Phoenician gene, in Lebanon almost a third of the population have Phoenician roots.

“Whether you take a Christian village in the north of Lebanon or a Muslim village in the south, the DNA make-up of its residents is likely to be identical,” says Dr Zalloua.

“I think it’s a truly unifying message, and for me its very gratifying. Lebanon has been hammered by so many divides, and now a piece of heritage has been unravelled in this project which reminds us that maybe we should forget about differences and pay attention to our common heritage,” says Dr Zalloua.

 

Here’s an image of Phoenician statues that are sold as a symbol of the ancestors of the Lebanese, in souvenir shops in Lebanon.

 

Mini statues of Phoenicians (American University of Beirut imagery)

(photo, courtesty of sailblogs) Mother's Day is held the first Sunday in June in French Polynesia. Rose Corser, an ex-pat who firsts sailed to these islands in the early 1970's to work on her dissertation on Marquisan art and who subsequently permanently settled here in 1979, hosted a pig roast at her restaurant and provided entertainment in the form of traditional dancing and music by a local group.

The magestic beauty of these mysetrious people may just be closer to home than we thought.  This ethnic race is mostly populated along the South Pacific, the Hawaiian islands, Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

The Man Behind the Ancestry:

Jonathan S. Friedlaender, professor emeritus of anthropology at Temple University, conducted a study, “Genetic Structure of Pacific Islanders,” is published in the January issue of PLoS Genetics came to a finding thanks to a diverse range of great help, including: the researchers from Temple, University of Maryland, Yale, Binghamton University, the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Victoria University in New Zealand, Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taiwan, and the Institute for Medical Research in Papua New Guinea.  The research analyzed more than 800 genetic markers (highly informative microsatellites) in nearly 1,000 individuals from 41 Pacific populations, as opposed to prior small-scale mitochondrial DNA or Y chromosome studies, raised many eyebrows.

This mysterious race populated in the New World, estimating “50,000 and 30,000 years ago, when Neanderthals were still conquering Europe,” says Friedlaender,  the study’s lead author.

He goes on to add, “Over the last 20 years there have been many hypotheses concerning where the ancestors of the Polynesians came from in Asia, how long it took them to develop their special seafaring abilities in Island Melanesia, and how much they interacted with the native Melanesian peoples there before they commenced their remarkable Diaspora across the unexplored islands in the Pacific.”

“Our genetic analysis establishes that the Polynesians’ and Micronesians’ closest relationships are to Taiwan Aborigines and East Asians,” says the author,  “… Some groups in Island Melanesia who speak languages related to Polynesian, called Austronesian or Oceanic languages, do show a small Polynesian genetic contribution, but it is very minor – never more than 20%.

“There clearly was a lot of cultural and language influence that occurred, but the amount of genetic exchange between the groups was remarkably low,” he says.  “From the genetic perspective, if the ancestral train from the Taiwan vicinity to Polynesia wasn’t an express, very few passengers climbed aboard or got off along the way.”

Jonathan Friedlaender, Ph.D. (Emeritus) of Temple University

Diverting from folklore (Polynesians originated from a mythical homeland called Hawaiki), there are in total, three theories (or hypothesis): First is, ‘fast train hypothesis,’ supported by the mitochondrial evidence that ancestors originated from Taiwan, having migrated through Indonesia to Island Melanesia, before their last recorded inhabitance in the unknown islands of the Pacific, without significant contact with the Island Melanesians; second is reffered to as the ‘slow boat hypothesis,’ stating that the Y chromosome evidence suggesting that the [Polynesian] ancestors derived from early Melanesians, with limited to very little Asian or Taiwanese influence; and the third and final, called the “entangled bank hypothesis,” reports the ancient migrations, not accurately reconstructed in the method of visualizing through the genetics of today’s populations, in context of the available archaeological evidences.

(Please refer to, “genetic signspots.”  )

(The project was possible and due in thanks in part by the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration generous funding.)

To contact Friedlaender…

To visit Friedlaender’s website…

The Linguistic Evidence:

The Polynesian languages are part of a larger group of languages called the Austronesian family.  The indigenous languages of Taiwan are also members of this family.  The bulk of them however form a group called the Formosan languages which have very little in common with languages spoken anywhere outside of Taiwan.

Throughout Polynesia there was a belief in a mythical homeland called Hawaiki.  This name crops up in various forms, Hawai’i, Savai’i, Tahiti.  It is still possible that Taiwan is yet influence on this place name.

As yet we have been unable to track down very much about the languages.  But we have come across the Yami phrase for “the heavens” – “mata-no-angit” which translates as “eyes of the firmament“.  The Samoan word for eyes is ‘mata‘ and for sky ‘lagi‘.

Paul J. K. Li of Academia Sinica and author of “Formosan vs. non-Formosan features in some Austronesian languages in Taiwan,” provides numbers of the Yami and Atayal languages:

Yami (Imorod dialect) : 1 asa, 2 dowa, 3 a-tlo, 4 apat, 5 lima, 6 anem, 7 pito, 8 wawo, 9 siam, 10 poho

Atayal (Mayrinax dialect): 1 qutux, 2 rusa’, 3 tuu’, 4 sepat, 5 ima-gal, 6 ma-tuu’, 7 pitu’, 8 ma-spat, 9 ma-qisu’, 10 ma-galpug

1 asa, 2 rowa/dowa, 3 atlo, 4 apat, 5 lima, 8 wawo, 9 siyam, 10 amnateng

The problem in looking at the languages is that they have changed significantly, and may at certain distant future, disappear.  In a region with no record of written languages until the arrival of the Europeans makes it difficult to determine a specified time period which particular language it wass derived from.

(Please refer to Li’s writing of “Formosan languages” and “Most Endangered Formosan Languages.”)

(Photo, courtesy of Science Daily and Public Library of Science / PLoS Biology) Ancient mitochondrial DNA from these nine indigenous Taiwanese tribes provided clues about the movement of these people throughout Polynesia.

**Quoting from physorg.com is a strong recommendation which I emplore all to take a moment to read,

Jean Treajut of the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei and his colleagues analyzed mitochondrial DNA from indigenous Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, Polynesians and other southeast Asian peoples.  He found the Taiwanese, Melanesians and Polynesians share three mutations, indicating a close relationship, that are absent from mainland populations.

Polynesian legends say that the people came from a mythical place called Hawaiki. The Polynesians spread across the Pacific, ranging from New Zealand to Easter Island and Hawaii, and their origin has been debated for centuries.

Genetic analysis showed the Taiwanese appear to have been isolated from mainland Chinese for 10,000 to 20,000 years, confirming archaeological evidence Taiwan has been inhabited for a long time.

The study was published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

Findings in Archaeology:

(Photo, courtesy of Prof. Jonathan S. Friedlaender) A Lau blonde girl from Malaita, the largest island in the Solomons, which is part of Melanesia.

Archaeologist Patrick Kirch, of the University of California, Berkely, commented in a National Geographic review, “It’s what you’d expect over a long time period like that.

“You see the same complexity in languages. New Guinea alone has something like 900 languages in its interior. That’s probably the highest density of language differential per square mile in the world.”

Previous studies of genetics, pottery styles, and the shared family of Austronesian languages suggested that the Lapita’s most likely origin was Taiwan and East Asia.

Dr. Spencer Wells leads the Five Year Epic Genographic Project sponsored by National Geographic and IBM.

Geneticist, scientist, author, and documentary filmmaker, Spencer Wells is a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence and director of the society’s Genographic Project.  Wells thinks that the genetic data may show that Polynesians and Micronesians are a mix of Taiwanese aborigines, East Asians, and Melanesians, “I certainly don’t think the data refute a slow-boat model.”

He pointed out that the mitochondrial DNA evidence—which is passed down from females (X-chromosome)—tends to support the express-train theory.  But the Y-chromosome, or male, evidence supports a slow-boat process…  This “suggests something interesting is going on, perhaps with different male and female migration patterns, which we see in other regions of the world,” he said.

(Spencer Wells has dedicated much of his career to studying our family tree and origin, in closing the gaps in our knowledge of human migration.  Wells is Project Director of the multi-year Genographic Project, a project consisting of the use of DNA samples in tracing human migration from Africa over 60,000 years ago, a discovery that has broken grounds all over the world.)

(Please refer to “Future Migration Matterns” by Spencer Wells, documented May 2008.)

(Photo, courtesy of The Scribe, April 2007) In 2003, archaeologists working in the Pacific islands of Vanuatu located the region’s oldest cemetery, which contained a rather surprising sight: although the bodies had been carefully placed in their graves 3,000 years ago… The skulls of 70 people were missing!

In Schock and Awe:

Archaeologists, in research on the island of Vanuatu, discovered the region’s oldest cemetery…  And it’s filled with mounds of headless bodies.

The Vanuatu burials of mismatching bodies and mis-arranged heads are discovered to have been originated from different corners of the Pacific Islands, said dig leader Matthew Spriggs, archaeologist with the Australian National University.

Heads removed after death: A grand total of 70 bodies with only 7 skulls along with a range of rare pots, were discovered from the site over several, tiring digging seasons.  The work was led by Spriggs, Stuart Bedford of the Australian National University and Ralph Regenvanu of the Vanuatu National Museum.

Thirty-five bodies, buried in various manners, were discovered recently, but not in a manner of ritual sacrifice as one would conclude to explain the disemembered bodies.  The deceased were all laid in formal burial, initially with their skulls firmly attached, Spriggs said.

“The head was believed to be the seat of the soul and so was often dug up after burial when the flesh had rotted away and kept either in skull shrines or in the house as a treasured memento of the person,” he told LiveScience (by Imaginova – Constantly Curious, a leading digital media and commerce company with award-winning, original content in all things Science and Discovery).

“Some curated heads, shiny through handling, had been placed on the chest of one individual some time after his burial–they may have been his descendants,” said Spriggs.  “Needless to say, he had no head either.”

(Test revealed: none of the skulls belonged to the bodies with which they were buried.)

MAP and Discovery:

The controversial Chinese map argued, by some, to be from 1418. (Photo creditited: 1421.tv)

The Chinese voyage to America theory was popularized by British amateur historian, Gavin Menzies in his 2002 published book, “1421: The Year China Discovered America.”  The controversial theory claims that Chinese admiral, Zheng He (Cheng Ho) reached the shores of the Americas over 70 years prior to Christopher Columbus’ maiden “discovery.”

Upon reading “1421,” Chinese lawyer, *Liu Ganng, foresaw potential significance in the map purchased, intentionally as a private collection.  Dated 1418, depicting outlines of North and South America, the map was used to support Menzies’ theory, if proved legitimate.

Geoff Wade, Senior Researcher of the University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute, echoed her thoughts.  In an exerpt to a group of maritime scholars, he wrote “The map is an 18th-century copy of a European map, as evidenced by the two hemispheres depicted, the continents shown and the non-maritime detailed [sic] depicted.”

In the other camp, Menzies wass strongly leaning in the support of Liu and the 1418 map.  His reason being, through a forwarded email, “every continent, ocean, land, island, river shown on the 1418 map also appears on other Chinese maps of the same date or earlier.  There is nothing new on the 1418 map—it simply combines everything on one sheet of paper.”

Menzies debates, “In 1419, European voyages of exploration had not started.  If the 1418 map is a forgery, then the 1419 map must be as well.  How do you forge something yet to be discovered.”

(Please refer to: 1412 bunkum.)

(Please see related, The Map That Changed The World: “Thinkers in the early 1800s disagreed over the age of the Earth, with some standing by Bible-based estimates of 6,000 years old.”)

As Captain James Cook was conducting his voyages of exploration and discovery, Polynesian navigators had already successfully explored and settled the islands from New Zealand to Hawaii. Remarkably, the Polynesians had developed a sophisticated and reliable means of wayfinding based not on science and mathematics, but rather on their innate knowledge of the seas and sky.

Discovery: In an exploration and a quest for discovery, a picture is emerging of the development of a seafaring culture oriented toward oceanic migration.  In 1500 B.C.E., voyagers moved east, first along the Solomon Island chain, followed by the Banks and Vanuatu Archipelagos.  Oceanic colonizers created double-hulled vessels and as the voyages lengthened, the colonists developed a navigation system (astronomical observations, the ocean swells, flight patterns of local birds) to help navigate the ocean waters.  Sailing out of South-East Asia and having developed a portable agricultural system, they were able to obtain and transfer domesticated plants and animals onto the discovered lands.

Archaeological evidence indicates that they sailed Eastward and colonized the Northern islands of Hawai’i, the Easter Island (South-East), and New Zealand (South-West), and finally concluded their settlement around 1000 A.D.E., in what we recognize today as the Polynesian Triangle.

(An average sized canoe 50 to 60 feet long could easily accomodate two dozen migrants, their food supplies, livestock, and planting materials.)

No Bones About It:

Recently discovered bones, not of humans, but CHICKENS!  The findings, along the coast of Chile have been dated prior to Columbus’ “discovery” of America, the chickens’ DNA matched fowls breeds of Polynesia. This finding dates the Polynesian contact with the Americas, over a century before the arrival of the Spainairds.

(Photo, courtesy of LiveScience, credited to Daniel Quiroz) El Arenal artifacts.

Anthropologist, Lisa Matisoo-Smith, University of Auckland, New Zealand explains, “Chickens could not have gotten to South America on their own-they had to be taken by humans.

“The chicken DNA suggests at least one group did make the harrowing journey across the remaining stretch of Pacific.  We cannot say exactly which island the voyage came from.  The DNA sequence is found in chickens from Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Easter Island and Hawaii.”

In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl, the famous Norwegian anthropologist, proved that a voyage designating from Peru to Polynesia, with only a raft (Kon-Tiki), was possible. The discovery explains the possibilites of the Easter Island like similarities of its statues with Andean sculptures.

How did the ancient Polynesians manage to settle islands of the Pacific – which makes-up to 1/3 of our earth’s surface…  Within only 1,000 years?

60 years ago Thor Heyerdahl tried to show with his Kon-Tiki expedition that the ancient Polynesians could have sailed from South America on Balsa rafts. His book and film about the expedition were sensational, but it was later found, that the Polynesians did not come from South America.

Today we know that these skilled seafarers came from Asia, from Taiwan.

Travel backward through time from today’s scattered billions to the handful of early humans who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago and are ancestors to us all.

In Deep Ancestry, scientist and National Geographic explorer Spencer Wells shows how tiny genetic changes add up over time into a fascinating story. Using scores of real-life examples, helpful analogies, and detailed diagrams and illustrations, he explains exactly how each and every individual’s DNA contributes another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of human history. The book takes readers inside the Genographic Project�the landmark study now assembling the world’s largest collection of DNA samples and employing the latest in testing technology and computer analysis to examine hundreds of thousand of genetic profiles from all over the globe�and invites us all to take part.

Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project is available at Amazon for $10.36. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
• Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland
• The Seven Daughters of Eve
• Journey of Man
• Trace Your Roots with DNA: Use Your DNA to Complete Your Family Tree

I had to pleasure to be one of the hosts for NYU group visit in Hawthorn. The students were very lucky and got to see really good talks. Robert Morris presented explained why services are so important for IBM and how research applies to business. It was really an excellent spontaneous talk and it was to bad he didn’t stick around so I could talk to him about it. Then they got to see talk on Stream Processing and how to manage real time processing and analysis for quantities of data that are possible considered impossible to handle by most common people. I also managed to see Grady Booch for the first time, in second life. He also gave an great talk about the beauty of software (www.booch.com/architecture/blog/artifacts/Turing%20Lecture.ppt) and showed the potential of second life for this kind of event. By then both Robert and Grady had my curiosity set on the future in what concerns intellectual property but I guess that’s not a good subject for showing IBM to graduate students eheh. It finished in beauty  with Laxmi talking about the famous Genographic Project (https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic). For those who still don’t know the genographic project is a joint venture between IBM and National Geographic where they try to find out more about the history of migrations using DNA. Cool!! The social aspect was also really important and I think students were happy with the feedback we gave them about IBM. By the way the lack of blog posts is mostly because Twitter is taking over all my blog post that can fit in under one hundred and something chars.

Click on this map and read about the latest in this fantastic research effort called the “genographic project“. The dots show the areas of the Mediterranean with the highest frequency of the Phoenician haplotype.

They swabbed the cheeks of men from Syria and Cyprus to Malta and Morocco to have a closer look at the Y chromosome of these guys. (The Y chromosome is passed from father to son, and so a good marker of paternal descent. Mitochondrial DNA, inherited only from the mother, does the same trick for maternal descent.)

The result, as the New York Times article puts it, is that

as many as 1 in 17 men living today on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male-line ancestor…

These men were found to retain identifiable genetic signatures from the nearly 1,000 years the Phoenicians were a dominant seafaring commercial power in the Mediterranean basin, until their conquest by Rome in the 2nd century B.C.

Now, why is this exciting for the Hannibal Blog? Because Hannibal was a Phoenician, as I explained here when arguing that Denzel Washington, as much as I love that man, would not be the most ethnically correct choice of actor for this “African hero”.

Carthage, to remind, began as a Phoenician colony. The Roman word for Phoenician was Punic, hence the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. In Punic itself, the name Phoenicia means “land of purple”, because they loved that color and exported its dye.

Carthage’s mercenaries came from the other peoples of northern Africa at that time, the Numidians and the Libyans. The Numidians, as I said here, were the ancestors of today’s Berbers, and you might as well picture them looking like Zidane. The Libyans, as I said here, were not today’s Libyans, but “white” Mediterraneans. The Arabs, of course, showed up fully 900 years after Hannibal.

I’ve spent the better part of this week trekking between IBM’s Somers office (an interesting building designed by I.M. Pei, the force behind the last addition to the Louvre) and The T.J. Watson Research Center. IBM has research labs scattered around the world, but much of innovation history is housed in the research facilities of Hawthorne and Yorktown, where many significant innovations have occurred, from the relational database to the chess champion Deep Blue.

The net of my meetings were primarily in the services and computer science domains where we find many technologies for alphaWorks. This visit reaffirmed a strong focus on SaaS delivery, and projects in areas such as information analysis, semantics, speech recognition and visualization.

I was most interested in learning about some projects that have the potential for great impact, including the Genographic Project, a collaboration with the National Geographic Society to gather one of the largest collections of DNA samples in order to map how humankind populated the planet, as well as IBM’s collaboration with chocolate giant Mars on the genetic quest for better chocolate. Sadly, there were no free samples to be had.

I find human ancestry fascinating. How are we all related? What did my ancestors look like, and where did they live? What are the stories of our forbearers as they struggled for survival, made discoveries, and lived together?

Adam and Eve were African. That’s not a new discovery, but many people have never heard it. The immediate consequence is that you yourself, regardless of where you come from or where you live now, have African ancestors. The reason that we can be sure of that comes from population genetics.

Here’s a TED Talk that took place in my home-country, Tanzania, that explains in simple terms how you can be sure that you have an African heritage. The speaker is Spencer Wells, who is the director of the Genographic Project. They analyze DNA from indigenous people around the world, building a family tree for the human races. If you want to purchase the kit, you can actually participate in the project yourself by sending in your own DNA for analysis.

Here’s what I found interesting about this talk:

Adam and Eve never met each other. That’s because, by ‘Adam’, I mean the most recent common ancestor of all the men that are alive today (according to the biblical account, ‘Noah’ would have been a better name since all men are said to descend from him more recently than Adam). Correspondingly ‘Eve’ refers to the most recent common ancestor of all the women that are alive today (Noah’s wife).

Now men generally have more disproportionate reproductive success. That is, some men father many children while others father none. For example, Ghengis Khan had so many concubines that it is believed he is an ancestor to more than half the men on the planet (does that explain a lot to you ?). Women, on the other hand, are generally more evenly reproductively successful. The consequence of this difference between men and women, is that ‘Adam’ appears in our history far more recently than ‘Eve’. So much so, that they lived in completely different time periods and could never have met.

Another interesting realization about Adam and Eve, is that they weren’t the first “humans”. Far from it. The origin of our species dates much earlier, but we defined Adam and Eve as the most recent common ancestors. To find the actual first “humans” is an impossible task, given that evolution works along gradients making only gradual changes. It would be like trying to find the first moment that a child is “grown-up”.

Finally, Adam and Eve lived side-by-side with other non-human bipedal apes. Actually it’s been that way throughout our history. There has almost always been other walking, thinking hominids living with us. It’s a fair question to ask why there’s just our species left now. Did we kill-off, or out-compete the others?

Well, if you find ancestry like this interesting, I highly recommend Richard Dawkin’s book “The Ancestor’s Tale”. It takes you on a journey back to the most recent common ancestors of humans, apes, mammals, vertebrates, and eventually all of life.  It’s a beautiful book.

Vor etwa einem Vierteljahr war ich über eine Meldung erstaunt, die besagte daß die Menschheit vor etwa 70.000 Jahren fast ausgestorben war, nach DNA Analysen auf eine Population von etwa nur 2000 Leute geschrumpft. Seit dieser Zeit haben wir uns vom afrikanischen Kontinent aus wie eine Seuche über fast den ganzen Planeten verteilt. Auf der Spur dieser Ausbreitung ist Spencer Wells, Direktor des Genographic Projects. Sein TED-Vortrag zum Thema ist seit letzter Woche online:

Spencer Wells: Building a family tree for all humanity

Hier der Link zu weiteren Informationen über das Genographic Project Public Participation Kit.

—————————————–

I recently came across the Genographic Project and I’m pretty excited. By looking at the shared DNA of human communities across the world, it is possible to build a map of migration patterns out of Africa and the development of diversity among humans.

It is thought that the harsh conditions of the ice age reduced the human population to a group of two thousand people trying to survive in the slightly more forgiving conditions of Africa. Around 60,000 years ago, humans starting migrating outwards from Africa and settling in new lands across the world. The Genographic Project examines DNA samples from human populations across the world and compares similarities and differences to see where the different groups branch off. The project works particularly with indigenous communities that have lived in one place for many generations, because their genes offer a clearer and possibly more stable comparison than those communities that have moved around.

However, participation in the project is open to anyone. Any individual can buy a participation kit and send off a DNA sample from a swab of the inside of their cheek. They then receive a breakdown of which branch of the family tree they belong to and the migration pattern of that group. More information will be added as the study continues. There is also the option of adding your DNA sample to the Anonymous Database for further research. Furthermore, but just as importantly, the project provides grants to indigenous communities to fund projects which preserve their heritage, be it cultural, technological, etc, and empower the communities.

I find this project pretty exciting. I love the idea of being able to see myself in a whole history of humans as one family. It’s also fascinating to understand the movement of humans and the changes that were taking place in the world geographically and climate-wise. This is also tied in with technological and cultural developments that were happening at the time too. I like that we all come from one source, one fragile surviving community way back on the African continent. That said, I also appreciate the diversity and variation that has occurred as people made their way in the world. This issue of how we are the same and how we are different raises some troubling questions though.

I would love to live in a world where everyone was as fascinated and glad as I am to learn about our genetic heritage and to respect and celebrate the differences. However, with information comes the responsibility of what to do with that information. Unfortunately, we live in a world where racism and suspicion of that which is and those who are different abounds. The three main criticisms of the project arise from the areas of racism, consent in indigenous communities and how the data will be used. The Genographic Project has been criticised for its links with the Human Genome Diversity Project, and in May 2006 the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recommended suspending the project.

So what are these criticisms then? First, there is the concern that data about genetic groupings will be used to identify and discriminate against certain sections of the community. The findings could be used as scientific evidence to support racist views and practices. Secondly, there is concern about informed consent with individuals and communities where  cultural and language barriers may impede a full understanding of the consequences and implications of participating in the study. Finally, there is the issue of what the samples will be used for. A family tree of the human race is fairly harmless, but who is allowed access to this database and for what purposes? Can a private firm access the data and then try to patent some of it? Could the government use it to develop biological weapons that target particular genetic groupings? Should the data be accessible for medical research? What about non-medical research?

Personally, I still find the idea of a study of human diversity and development absolutely fascinating, and I don’t believe that it’s better to remain ignorant of the variation in the human gene pool. However, I do agree that there is an obligation to use the information responsibly, to respect those who participate and to be fully open and accountable for the use of the data. Individuals should know what the data will be used for before consenting. I think that putting money back into indigenous communities is the right approach to take. I also think the organisation needs to be committed to helping people acquire a basic understanding of the genetic ideas involved and emphasising the importance of human rights and educating against racism.

See Genographic Project Director, geneticist Spencer Wells, talk about the ideas and the project here.

Siempre me ha gustado el tema de la evolución humana. Creo que es muy ilustrativa de lo que realmente somos, y no de los que en nuestro engreimiento creemos ser, como especie.

En una entrada publicada en Microsiervos sobre The Genographic Project, me encuentro con un enlace a National Geographic, donde puedo leer un pequeño artículo sobre las conclusiones que va ofreciendo el estudio genético de las poblaciones. En estos momentos se sitúa la aparición de nuestra especie, Homo sapiens, en hace unos 200.000 años. El comienzo de su expansión por todo el globo se sitúa en algún momento hace unos 60.000 años. Lo cual deja un intervalo de tiempo de 140.000 años en los que la especie humana moderna fue una especie exclusivamente africana.

El artículo nos habla de varias cuestiones, pero la que más me ha llamado la atención es que las tremendas sequías que se produjeron en África hace unos 150.000 años pudieron reducir la población total de la especie humana moderna a unos 2.000 individuos. Estuvimos a punto de extinguirnos por la dureza implacable de la que puede ser capaz la cuna de nuestra especia. y sin embargo, según Word POPClock Projection, en el momento de empezar a redactar esta entrada la población se estimaba en 6.713.708.102 personas. Y en los doce minutos que llevo editándola ha aumentado en 1.850 individuos. Casi el tamaño de aquella población que penosamente se arrastraba por la reseca sabana africana.

Habrá gente a la que esto no le diga nada. O muy poco. Pero a mí me da que pensar. Y estamos provocando unas nuevas condiciones climáticas que nos pueden llevar otra vez a un grave riesgo de extinción… ¿Saldremos de ésta como nuestro antepasados de 1.500 siglos atrás?

En la imagen de hoy,… seres humanos… ¿modernos? Sí, en el sentido biológico; de lo que trata el artículo. En lo sociológico o ideológico,… pues cada uno tendrá su opinión. Todas respetables. En Cracovia, Polonia. En cualquier caso, fotografía ya publicada con antelación, pero con un nuevo tratamiento del color y el contraste de la fotografía.

(Canon EOS 40D; EF 24-105/4L IS USM)

Before becoming pregnant, I never wanted kids.  Mike used to point out that it was ironic that the family genealogist was willing to let her branch of the tree whither and die.  That astute observation really hit home to me.  So, this morning as I was enjoying breakfast at Cracker Barrell and looking around at all of the old photos hanging on the walls, I felt a little comforted that Baby Bonfanti will grow and flourish! And I hope that he or she has at least a small interest in history so that Mike and I are not complete pains.

If Baby Bonfanti is a girl, she has really, really deep and interesting roots.  A year or so ago, I sent off to have my mitochondrial DNA analyzed through the National Geographic Genographic Project.  This “landmark study of the human journey” seeks to use DNA to trace human migration back to a group of African ancestors some 60,000 years ago.  I received a test kit and an extremely entertaining and informative DVD explaining the project in depth and was thrilled to get the results.

Keep in mind, that the mitochodrial DNA basicly traces my mother’s mother’s mother’s … line.   When I opened the website to read where my ancestors had trecked across the world, my secretary laughed and said, “I could have saved you some money. You are northern European. Just look at you!”  Sure enough, she was right.  I belong to haplogroup U5.  According to the Genographic Project site, this means that my routes are unique: “U5 is quite restricted in its variation to Scandinavia, and particularly Finland.”

So, should Baby Bonfanti be a girl, I cannot wait to tell her about her rich maternal line and the wonderful journey our mothers have been on for 60,000 years.