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Thread: Humans Didn’t Evolve From a Single Ancestral Population

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    Humans Didn’t Evolve From a Single Ancestral Population

    In order to mix things up: Did monotheism influence the old notion of a single ancestor?


    Humans Didn’t Evolve From a Single Ancestral Population

    ...A new commentary paper published today in Trends in Ecology & Evolution is challenging the predominant view that our species, Homo sapiens, emerged from a single ancestral population and a single geographic region in Africa. By looking at some of the latest archaeological, fossil, genetic, and environmental evidence, a team of international experts led by Eleanor Scerri from Oxford’s School of Archaeology have presented an alternative story of human evolution, one showing that our species emerged from isolated populations scattered across Africa, who occasionally came together to interbreed. Gradually, this intermingling of genetic characteristics produced our species.

    ...“The idea that humans emerged from one population and progressed in a simple linear fashion to a modern physical appearance is attractive, but unfortunately no longer a very good fit with the available information,” said Scerri. “Instead it looks very much like humans emerged within a complex set of populations that were scattered across Africa.”

    The reality, as suggested by this latest research, is that human ancestors were spread across Africa, segregated by diverse habitats and shifting environmental boundaries, such as forests and deserts. These prolonged periods of isolation gave rise to a surprising variety of human forms, and a diverse array of adaptive traits. When stratified groups interbred, they preserved the best characteristics that evolution had to offer. Consequently, the authors say that terms like “archaic humans” and “anatomically modern humans” are increasingly problematic given the evidence.

    Scerri said occasional episodes of interbreeding between these different, semi-isolated populations created a diverse “meta-population” of humans within Africa, from which our species emerged over a very long time. Our species, Homo sapiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago, but certain characteristics, like a round brain case, pronounced chin, and a small face, didn’t appear together in a single individual until about 100,000 years ago, and possibly not until 40,000 years ago—a long time before genetics and other archaeological evidence tells us our species was already in existence. Isolated populations came together to exchange genes and culture—two interrelated processes that shaped our species, explained Scerri....
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Such a theory isn't exactly new but what I wanted to reiterate here is that egalitarianism is thoroughly, perhaps inextricably, rooted in theology. Some of us scoff at the myth of Adam and Eve but embrace its meaning without understanding that myth is essential to it.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


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    If I recall my schooling correctly. Supposedly we evolved from sea creatures who adapted to life on land. Why is it these sea creatures only came out of the water around Africa? Isn't it plausible that some came out of the water around Mexico, Brasil, China, Japan, the areas now known as California, Florida, Georgia?

    Why is it that all life has to have originated on the continent of Africa?
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    Quote Originally Posted by DLLS View Post
    If I recall my schooling correctly. Supposedly we evolved from sea creatures who adapted to life on land. Why is it these sea creatures only came out of the water around Africa? Isn't it plausible that some came out of the water around Mexico, Brasil, China, Japan, the areas now known as California, Florida, Georgia?

    Why is it that all life has to have originated on the continent of Africa?

    That was much earlier. This is about the rise of humans. Why Africa, because that's where the earliest evidence is found.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    That was much earlier. This is about the rise of humans. Why Africa, because that's where the earliest evidence is found.
    Well I look at the empires of the Mayans and Aztecs then look at the mud huts in Africa and have more than a little difficulty believing civilization started on that continent.

    I look at the aqueducts in Rome the advances in Greece then I look at the mud huts in African and have more than a little difficulty believing civilization started on that continent.

    Isn't it probable that, based on the complexity of the Mayan calendar, that man as we know him did not start on this planet at all but that our origins lie somewhere else in the galaxy? Stonehenge had to be something more than just an activity at a weekend retreat for druids. It had to have some intergalactic purpose.
    “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
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    Quote Originally Posted by DLLS View Post
    Well I look at the empires of the Mayans and Aztecs then look at the mud huts in Africa and have more than a little difficulty believing civilization started on that continent.

    I look at the aqueducts in Rome the advances in Greece then I look at the mud huts in African and have more than a little difficulty believing civilization started on that continent.

    Isn't it probable that, based on the complexity of the Mayan calendar, that man as we know him did not start on this planet at all but that our origins lie somewhere else in the galaxy? Stonehenge had to be something more than just an activity at a weekend retreat for druids. It had to have some intergalactic purpose.
    Those are recent events compared to the 300000 years ago humans fist evolved.
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    We have discussed these competing theories before, several years ago. Out of Africa has been the dominate theory. But other theories have humans evolving separately in Asia and I think Europe, or perhaps the Middle East.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    We have discussed these competing theories before, several years ago. Out of Africa has been the dominate theory. But other theories have humans evolving separately in Asia and I think Europe, or perhaps the Middle East.
    Yes, I recall that. This multiple-origin theory would probably support more than out-of-Africa origins.
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    Note that the theory here is not so much about competing origins as it is about multiple origins all of which over time interbred to give us modern human beings. The story also says:

    ndeed, the origin of Homo sapiens isn’t as neat and tidy as we’ve been led to believe.

    “While ‘Mitochondrial Eve’ was a real person, she wasn’t the only ancestor around, and would not have come from the only population around,” Scerri told Gizmodo. “She just happened to be the woman from which all people living today inherited their mitochondrial genetic code.”

    No doubt, Mitochondrial Eve, like other humans, featured a rich genetic lineage, and the story of her species, as this new paper illustrates, did not begin and end with her or the immediate population to which she belonged.

    ...“There is growing evidence that the emergence of so-called ‘modern humans’ did not occur in a restricted cradle in sub-Saharan Africa and at a precise point in time,” Hublin told Gizmodo. “Rather, it involved several populations across the continent and was a fundamentally gradual process.”
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister D View Post
    Such a theory isn't exactly new but what I wanted to reiterate here is that egalitarianism is thoroughly, perhaps inextricably, rooted in theology. Some of us scoff at the myth of Adam and Eve but embrace its meaning without understanding that myth is essential to it.
    What? Egalitarianism is not rooted in theology. If by "rooted", you literally mean sprang from. Your last sentence makes no sense.

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