Genetic research sheds fascinating new light on the
evolution of Homo Sapiens.
Ancient DNA Tells a New Human Story by Matt Ridley (WSJ Saturday Essay)
Matt Ridley observes:
“In response to
such research and to their own findings, Joseph Pickrell of Columbia University
and David Reich of Harvard University argue
that “major upheavals” of human population have been “overwriting” the genetic
history of the past 50,000 years. The result, they say, is that “present-day
inhabitants of many places in the world are rarely related in a simple manner
to the more ancient peoples of the same region.” In short, we are none of us
natives or purebred.
…
The lessons of this
DNA revolution are not just scientific, however; they are social and political
as well. The discoveries made possible by our new access to ancient DNA show
that very few people today live anywhere near where their distant ancestors
lived. Virtually no one on the planet is a true native—an instructive fact to
consider at a time when ethnic and national differences still abound and the
world continues to throw human beings together in new and unexpected ways.”