It began in the early 1950’s as genetics, which studies heredity and the evolution of a species by examining its molecular structures, was exploding into mainstream science. Dr. Luca Cavalli, then the Professor of genetics at the University of Parma, was beginning down a path of revolutionary discovery that would eventually lead him on an expedition to Africa in the 1970’s as he took a professorship at Stanford; the purpose—blood. Dr. Cavalli was in search of variations and similarities in DNA among the isolated tribes that could link each and every one of our pasts to a single ancestry. Just two decades later, a young and very optimistic student would begin researching with Dr. Cavalli at Stanford; Spencer Wells. Even as technology improved and research began to take genetics to new heights, it would be another ten years before Wells would set out on a journey that would change our perspective on everything we ever thought we knew about ourselves—the Journey of Man.
In 2002, Dr. Spencer Wells, a noted geneticist and anthropologist, was determined to prove a theory which was the result of research that began with Cavalli nearly a half century earlier. Wells believed that every person on Earth could trace his or her lineage back some 2000 generation to perhaps a single man that led a migration out of Africa to eventually populate the entire world. This hypothesis was based on decades of accumulated data on genetic mutations, or “markers”, in the male Y-chromosome and Dr. Wells was absolutely confident that it was undeniable. However, it would take more than just data to convince billions of people around the world, which have been subject to many different cultures, traditions, beliefs and religions for thousands of years, that, fundamentally, we are all one and the same. So, the journey picked up where Dr. Cavelli left off—in Africa.
The San Bushmen tribe is where it all began nearly 50,000 years ago. One of the most isolated tribes in the world, the Bushmen of South Africa retains a dialect of clicks and words that comprise what is thought to have been one of Humankind’s original spoken languages. From this tribe, a group of only ten or twenty decided to make a trek north out of Africa and would eventually end up following the coast of India into Australia to populate around ten percent of the globe including the Aborigine tribe. Soon after, another group took a different route to the Middle East. Splitting into two groups, the first would branch into northern India and rapidly expand its population; the second made its way towards China. From this area in modern-day Kazakhstan, two more groups had diverged paths and after nearly 10,000 years, the first Human Beings would finally make it west to Europe (and beyond to become Americans) and northeast towards North America. It would not be, however, until around 15- to 13000-years ago that these well-adapted Humans would cross the Bering Strait and become Native American Indian tribes. How did they do it?
It is believed that around that time, the temperature had fallen and waters along the strait receded substantially to allow for passage across this most perilous passageway. Even so, these conditions are crippling to anyone who is unconditioned for the unimaginable temperatures inside the Arctic Circle, which easily reach -60 degrees Celsius. The Chuckchi of northeastern Russia still live in this arid, hostile environment and are proof of just how resilient the Human body truly is. And, it is doubtless that this was the path taken by this group of only about ten people. By about 11,000 years ago, these people made it through Canada and into what is now the United States; and, in just 800 years to the tip of South America. The land provided plentiful resources and so the population expanded rapidly. It took 35,000 years for Humans to fully populate the Earth, and another 15,000 until a curious scientist decided to retrace those steps. The results can be summed up best in Dr. Wells’ words: “The markers I follow are found only in men, in their Y-chromosome—the chromosome that makes men; men. But, of course, men don’t travel alone and the journey of man is the journey of everyone.”
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