Everyone you see everyday is your kin. Everybody alive on earth today is your distant relation. Only about 2,000 generations ago, our collective ancestor walked around what would one day become sub-Saharan Africa. About 10-20,000 years after that, a group of his progeny walked off the continent of our birth, perhaps pushed by the arid climate created by the ice age, and began our species' history of exploration. An early group walked to Australia along the expanded coastline of south Asia. Another group later walked up into the middle east. From there they multiplied and split -- some went further east and became the ancestors of Asians; after a sojourn in central Asia, others forged deep into the heart of the northeastern ice, eventually emerging south into the Americas; still others (the Cro-magnon people) took a circuitous route into the central Asian steppes, later heading westward to reach the dark and cold European forests where dwelt the Neanderthals, a very different human species.
How do we know all this? Archeology gives us clues, but the pivotal player here is our DNA. All the genetic markers carried by our ancestors are also carried by us. Our blood is laden with history.
The Genographic Project is now attempting to examine the DNA of 100,000 indigenous peoples over the next five years in an attempt to definitively map the great human migrations across the globe, and build a world family tree. I bought a
Public Participation Kit from the National Geographic Society to submit my own DNA for testing and analysis. This weekend I swabbed, scraped, and sealed my samples in an envelope and sent them off. In a few weeks I should be able to log onto their website and learn something about my deep ancestry. I know it makes me a huge geek, but GODDAMNIT I love this stuff.
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10 comments:
ohmygawd. this is fascinating. i wanna do one too!
That's a really cool idea. Can men ask for their maternal line, or do they have to stick to the paternal line?
Either way, I'm getting one.
u been going to the gym, dude?
A good question oOo. From the FAQs and watching the accompanying DVD, "The Journey of Man", I assume they are testing only the Y-chromosome DNA. Remember this is deep history stuff, so if both of your parents are of European stock, it won't make much difference whether they test your paternal DNA or its mitochondrial counterpart.
Xopher...ever the scientist. You really should have been a scientist. As a bonus: undergrads are often the (poorly) paid subjects of graduate level research. I think it would have been right up your alley, Mr. Curiosity.
swak! this is cool. can't wait to hear about the results. :)
cool site. i signed up too! i also did the religion test (i'm home sick from work)... i was 77% agnostic and 74% satanic. satanic??? not me...
gibby
That is so amazing - I love this type of stuff! Hope you share your results.
i've been meaning to participate for a long time now. searched for it in your blog and clicked on the link and it redir to general nat geo landing page. here's the new link to the project: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
Thanks for the update -- let me know about your results if you want!
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