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Out of africa theory
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The Recent African Origins (Out of Africa) Hypothesis states that, modern humans evolved in Africa and then spread around the world. In other words, all of us can trace our origins back to Africa. On the other hand, we have the Multiregional hypothesis, stating that modern human evolved in many locations around the world from the species Homo erectus. However, this hypothesis and its followers have their back against the wall, due to the three very different strains of evidence supporting the Out of Africa hypothesis (all coming from the “We Are All Africans” article). The first strain of evidence comes from mtDNA, otherwise known as mitochondrial DNA. By analyzing mtDNA, genetic analysists are able to trace ancestry because it is only inherited …show more content…
The next bit of evidence comes from Tim White and F. lark Howell. In the June of 2003, they publicized the finding of three fossilized human skulls in the Herto Bouri area of Ethiopia. With the use of relative and chronometric dating, they dated these fossils back to 154,000 and 160,000 years ago. After recovering the rest of the remains and conducting thorough observations of cranial and postcranial features they concluded that the Herto specimens to be the earliest modern Homo sapiens. Before the Herto skulls were found, the Omo Kibish was known as the oldest dated fossils with ties to Africa. However, with better technology and more reliabile dating methods, the Omo Kibish have been re-dated to about 125,000 years ago. Therefore, making the Herto skulls the oldest African fossils to date, further supporting the Out of Africa Hypothesis. The last piece of evidence comes from Svante and the genetic extraction of mtDNA from the original Neanderthal specimen. The mtDNA from the Neandertal specimen was compared with mtDNA from more than 2,000 diverse people living all over the
Paabo’s team discovered an mtDNA sequence from a finger bone they found from around 40,000 years ago, as carbon dating is one of the most commonly used methods of determining a fossil’s age. (Hammer, 70). Also, Neanderthal mtDNA is differs severely from modern human mtDNA. For example, Microcephalin is a gene for brain size during the development of the organism.
A study performed by Martin Hausler and Peter Schmid of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, appeared in the October 1995 issue of Journal of Human Evolution, igniting controversy over the 1974 Australopithecus discoveries in Hadar, Ethiopia. The most famous of the Hadar specimens is the 3-million-year-old skeleton, “Lucy,” who was recovered by paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson. In his article, Shreeve presents the methods and findings of Hausler and Schmid’s study as well as some counter arguments from other scientists in the field.
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
Prior to the arrival of European traders, the continent of Africa had developed sophisticated society as it demonstrated its ability to maintain advanced civilizations, withhold three major empires, and gain wealth through trade. Although European traders did advance organized society in Africa, it would be false to say that prior to their arrival Africa was underdeveloped.
During the late 19th century and the early 20th century many of the European nations began their scramble for Africa which caused Many Africans to suffer from violence like wars, slavery and inequality. Although the Europeans felt power as though they were doing a great cause in the African continent during the Scramble for Africa; Africans had many reactions and actions including factors as rebellion for freedom, against the white settlers and violent resistance.
On November 24, 1974, an American Anthropologist by the name of Donald Johanson and his research team, made a ground-breaking discovery that caused a mass dispute in human evolution. Dr. Johanson documented in his book, Lucy The Beginning Of Mankind, the discoveries he and his team have come across. Dr. Johanson and his team discovered a skeleton of a hominid, dated between 3.9 to 3 million years old (164). The hominid, which they referred to as Lucy, was discovered while surveying Hadar, in the Dafar region of Ethiopia (164-166). Lucy’s discovery, a 41% complete human ancestor caused a controversial alteration in the human origins. Lucy was the oldest human ancestor. During the following year, Johanson’s team discovered fossilized remains
My research strives to answer the presence and degree of interbreeding between Neanderthal and Modern humans. Researchers use different comparisons of the fossil record, phylogenetic, morphological, and genetic methods to explore these questions in more detail. The literature provided many positive correlations to my hypothesis that Neandertals and Modern Humans interbred on a small-scale basis after the dispersal of modern humans from Africa. The literature also predicts a time frame of likely interbreeding. To explore this question it is important to research article’s explaining the statistical, genetic, and physical evidence associated with possible interbreeding.
Australopithecus afarensis who existed 3.5 million years ago and a 4.4 million year old skeleton of an Ardipithecus ramidus are the closest science has come to discovering the human lineage. Shattered Ancestry an article written by Katherine Harmon discusses the remains of two hominids found within Ethiopia. These skeletal remains have created a huge controversy within the topic of evolution questioning many assumptions that have been made referencing the human lineage. The skeleton of the Australopithecus afarensis was named Lucy and was discovered in 1974. The evidence of her walking upright on her two feet essentially guaranteed her a spot in the human lineage line. Lucy was a chimplike ape that was said to walk upright making scientists believe the human ancestry was simple. The complete skeleton found in Ethiopia of an Ardipithecus ramidus named Ardi completely changed all assumptions made from scientists about the complexity of the human lineage. These remains have encouraged researches that the human line is not the only lineage to have evolved but the chimpanzee line has undergone drastic changes as well. There are many traits that researchers have always directly linked to the human lineage however since these discoveries occurred researchers are reconsidering. The recent discoveries that have shattered what has always suggested what linked a species to the human lineage have changed the certainty of whether it is possible to confidently identify the human’s last common ancestor. Majority of scientist had forgotten that there would have been many hominid species living together at one time. New theories have been suggested since scientists revealed that the foot of a hominid found called the Burtele site was found ju...
Mitochondrial DNA has a lot of characteristics and features which makes its use very essential in determining the spread of humans throughout the world. Human mitochondrial DNA is solely inherited from mothers. A human’s mitochondrial DNA is the same as his mother’s mitochondrial DNA, which is the same as her mother’s mitochondrial DNA. Researchers can estimate a probability distribution of ancestors’ genes and migration paths through time if they are given a set of mitochondrial gene sequences. It is assumed that all mitochondrial DNA types in the human gene pool can ultimately be traced back to a common matrilineal ancestor that lived approximately 200,000 years ago in Africa.(Oven et al, 386) All human mitochondrial DNA can be traced back to a single mitochondrial DNA known as “mitochondrial Eve”, who lived in Africa a long time ago. Mutations are m...
From the ancient bones of the Neanderthals, scientists have been able to extract small amounts of DNA. The DNA comparisons to modern humans show no relationship, implying evolutionary separation (Kunzig, 159). Some anthropologists say the small sections of DNA found are not conclusive evidence, because modern humans show just as much variation in DNA. These people point out that individuals such as the “Portugal Kid” are hybrids of Neanderthals and modern humans, showing there was gene trading. One argument against this is that there is no skull from the ‘Portugal Kid” so it is hard to compare it to Neanderthals. Also, it is known that closely related species can breed and their offspring can be fertile, but they are still separate species (Kunzig, 161).
Scientists thought that interbreeding would be a logical assumption to the Neanderthal conundrum. Unfortunately, any evidence of DNA from Neanderthals mixed with human DNA is difficult to come by because their fossils are usually tarnished upon discovery. That is until Svante Paabo, and his research team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, came across the remains of twenty-four Neanderthals and forty early humans. All of these fossils were nearly 40,000 years old and were from Germany, Russia, and Croatia. Nine of these fossils (four Neanderthal and five human).
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.
Because of the fault lines that created the Eastern African Rift Valley and its affects on climate and food source availability, the australopithecines that came before early hominins were obligated to adjust from quadripedal to bipedal, increase their brain size and develop greater jaw muscles in order to withstand such extreme environmental pressures (Feder, 2013) (Gani and Gani, 2008) (Maslin et al., 2008) (Ungar and Sponheimer, 2011) (Lewin and Foley, 2004). Rapid and frequent fluctuations in climate (variation selection hypothesis) is most likely the major pressure that required early human ancestors to modify from what was once a lush, forest landscape to a drier, vaster grassland (Maslin et al., 2008). Because of the unique environment of the Eastern African Rift Valley and the limestone caves of South Africa, some of history’s most telling samplings of our early human ancestors have been preserved for some more than 5 million years (Conroy et al., 2008) (Maslin et al., 2008). With persistent efforts by archeologists and anthropologists alike, these valuable locations known as “The Cradle of Mankind” will continue to map out the origin on humankind and explain how environmental factors are the main reason why we are the species we are today
Africa My Africa by David Diop is an excellent example of a post-colonialism piece of work. After researching the author of the poem, I thoroughly understood and enjoyed the text more than just reading it over, without knowing his personal biographical information. David Diop is an African poet, who was born in France. His parents are of the West African descent (Poets.org). Diop emphasizes the problems of Africa that were brought about by colonialism, and shares a message to Africans to bring about change and freedom through his poem, Africa My Africa. Colonialism is the political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power.
It is no secret that Africa is comprised of some of the most deprived countries in the world. Each day millions of Africans are left starving and weakened from illness and poor health conditions. Surprisingly, this is not due to simple misfortune, but instead is the direct result of the lack of education in Africa. This is because education shapes many aspects of society and also the lives of individuals within that society. Education not only gives people the critical skills and tools necessary to help them provide for themselves and their children, but it also helps create job opportunities that are directly related to economic growth. Finally, education also helps fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, “A sexually transmitted disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus” (Sex 148) and other diseases as well as improves health overall. Therefore, it is crucial to provide a good education for the children of Africa in order to overcome larger issues such as poverty and the prevalence of diseases and high mortality rates. To do this, the quality of education must be improved, electricity must be provided to schools and other learning facilities, and schools must be kept safe. If these standards are met, and education is improved, many other aspects of the society will be positively affected too. This is because there is no doubt that education has the power to make a country, and more specifically the world, a better place.