Many of you who read this blog happen to live in countries that value freedom, realize we are one big human family, that we are a whole human race of Homo Sapiens, and our home is the earth we all share. Some of you live in troubled countries where human life is not as valued as the life and death causes of a select few. Even in lands where predjudice, bigotry, racism, sexism are considered a normal way of life, the fact of the matter is, we are all part of the same human family, living on the same planet.We are more alike than the differences we profess.
In 2009, National Geographic made an educational documentary, “The Human Family Tree (2009) Documentary,” which traced the roots of all humanity back to Africa through DNA testing. This film was narrated by Kevin Bacon, and featured Spencer Wells, Ph.D. with the Genographic Project, sponsored by National Geographic and IBA.
https://www.ultius.com/ultius-blog/entry/film-review-of-the-human-family-tree.html#:~:text=The%20Human%20Family%20Tree%3A%20A%20film%20by%20National,the%20beginning%20point%20for%20all%20of%20us%3A%20Africa.
This project took DNA swab samples on a single day, from a couple hundred random people on a single street in Queens, NY, USA; a microcosm of the world. According to this scientific study, the cradle of humanity is Southeast Africa. They traced markers in the DNA and found that all humanity, you, me and the people across the street, whoever they may be, all of us can trace our DNA back to Africa.
This group has been collecting DNA from more than 350,000 people all over the world, confirming the 2009 study. Most families can trace their family back four or five generations, but this study used genetic markers, finding that we all decend from a small group of Homo Sapiens, which began in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Not only do we decend from this small group, all of whom are 99.9 percent genetically just like us, all of us can be traced back to what they term Scientific Adam and Scientific Eve, one man and one woman.
The documentary traced those people in the New York study, through DNA markers, and following cell structures of mitochondria. These markers allow scientists to connect people through history. Markers serve as a kind of clock for when people lived, and also act as a roadmap reflecting where they came from and where they were going.
Climate change, the Ice Age in the northern continents, and drought in the southern continents dropped the human population to about 2,000 people. We were an endangered species.
We recovered. Here we are. How do you care for yourself mentally, physically and spiritually? How are your relationships in your immediate family, personally and socially? How do you interact with your neighbors and strangers you meet every day? How responsible are you with valuing all human life in the world at large?
As members of the human family, it is important to make the most peace where we can, make decisions based on the most life saved. We were once at the brink of extinction. With common effort, we survived. Peace begins with us now, right where we are. It begins with us individually, then extends out to our immediate family, then further out to our human family.
This is the history of our human race, which includes all ethnicities, colors, creeds, genders, ages, abilities and disabilities. Not one age of people is better than the other, nor is one race of human beings better than the other, etc. You will notice there are not different earths for the many different belief systems. We all have one earth, one origin. We are all related.
It is ignorance to believe any one of us is better than the original race of people from which we decended. We all share the same experiences of life and death. No one escapes this fact. Pretending we are “greater than thou” only limits our expanse of knowledge and experience. While we are here gracing this planet with our presence, let us remember the accurate history from which we came.
Namaste