Getting Started

Physical Anthropology of Mankind

Emails describing my progress in this subject

January 14.

The words "physical anthropology" was the key word (synonyms found: Molecular anthropology, genetic archeology) -- dozens of books. Current textbooks (latest information) cost $40-$140, but there are popular paperbacks, too. Think I will order the book that explains the National Geographic’s Genographic Project and results found on the Internet. Then try other libraries armed with a list of hardbacks that have pictures that the paperbacks don't contain -- when the snows clear. (eleven inches on the ground -- yesterday I had to shovel for 80 minutes in minus 12 degrees (not windchill) to get her to work (you know I approve) Still minus temp at noon when I shoveled out what the plowman did (3 times) to get her back home.

An early attempt of modern man to get Out of Africa by going across Sinai up to the Middle East died out. (Neanderthals lived in that area and may have won round one.)
Later, as few as a hundred people (out of about 2,000 humans existent) crossed the Red Sea 60,000 years ago to populate the world (Adam, earliest common male chromosome). (Eve is over 100,000 years earlier and the first common female chromosome of homo sapiens. Do the arithmetic -- increase in total population by one person every 70 years -- big risk of mankind having never survived.)

The Red Sea route was used by possibly two groups.
The first populated coastal Asia and Australia before earliest Cro-Magnon evolved. They or a second group moved north into plains of Russia then east and west throughout Eurasia. I have found paths based on genome, language and pottery on the internet, too complex to integrate quickly in my poor brain.
As few as ten individuals moved east from Bearingia (1000 mile wide, fertile land connection that is now the Bearing Sea) to populate N and S.Am when it flooded (global warming). We think of mass emigrations, but just a few people with wanderlust (or exiles or escapees) can populate continents. A few astronauts may be the next stage of man populating planets

Eskimos are a branch of early man with common language features that extends from Lapland, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland that came to far-north America later, but may be a more ancient people. Note, Neanderthal (300,000 to 25,000 years ago) had previously been forced north in competition with modern man for warmer lands, so there is a precedence for genetically older populations to exist in the far North.

There are three levels of homo sapiens -- H.S. Idaltu (elder man, Eve, found 200,000 years ago in Africa) ; H.S. Cro-Magnon (Adam, popular 40,000 to 10,000)(genomes still exist in Lapps), and H.S. Sapiens (modern) (10,000 to date), plus a linage that died out, H.S.Jim (1939 to 2009). I still don't know what physical characteristic differentiate H.S.I., H.S.C-M. and H.S.S. I am pretty sure, but need to confirm, that Aborigines are HSI because populated before CroM. is said to have evolved and were isolated. That Amerindians are HSC-M seems obvious as they migrated before modern man is said to have evolved. Most literature found today gets "politically correct" saying race does not exist, let alone subspecies. Physical characteristics are myriad, for example, pygmies exist in Indonesia and Africa (and midgets, dwarfs and giants in USA). (Is a dog a dog?) Yes, culture predominates in social spheres, but physical anthropology needs to be un-suppressed.

Rather than sharing more of my discoveries, I will put them on a web page (as I am want to do soas to find things I have discovered as reference before I forget them as we elders tend to do). But I use emails such as this to formulate my thoughts for blogs and web pages. Sorry to bore you. If you ever get interested I will forward the web page names. But not today, the Dryer man just called and I have to clean up the basement laundry room. So I will quickly attach an email to Carolyn from last week at that stage of learning, that you can skip if you wish.

National Geographic has an advanced "Seven Daughters of Eve", called the Genographic Project
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lan/en/index.html
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/participate.html
Outrageous cost, otherwise I was going to participate. $100 for either male or female lines, thus $200 for both.

But it breaks down the 7 genotypes that Betty (from Mensa) did some years ago, with dozens of genetic markers that originated within each strain dated from 60,000 to 10,000 years ago. They have paths on the website, where and when the mutation occurred and the path of current high percentage of populations to indicate its migration path. Quite involved to trace them, as you would image (the website takes a while to figure out (and our internet has slowed further) and it would be neat to know one's own designation to follow it forward and back from Europe to Eurasia to Africa in time.

Betty's Seven Eves you will recall had her 1 of 7 genotypes found in various proportions around the world and I was disappointed because the results were so indecisive and you (Carolyn) never participated and neither of us read the book you bought.
http://www.familytreedna.com/images/migration_map_tut.gif

Now one can discard those high-level genes found round the world and concentrate on the more recent paths within and follow it back to the point were a specific people branched from successively higher level types which were too general and found in percentages everywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mitochondrial_DNA_haplogroup
Slide show map:
https://www.cambridgedna.com/genealogy-dna-ancient-migrations-slideshow.php which I find interesting is that SoAmer was populated before N. Europe.

Following Adam ( the male line of genes, from 100,000 years later than Eve) (NationalGeo expands on these in geography and migrations) Where younger paths continue on, it may mean one's ancestors settled at the that point.

The more detailed markers go a long way to eliminating the need to describe people by their "culture".
Any one geographic location may have had an evolving culture with many peoples passing through that geographic spot, dropping off some of their culture and picking up and carrying off some from there in their journeys onward. In the past we would try to follow a traditional style of pottery design or axe head.
Now we can follow bloodlines. If I were young again, this would likely be my minor in college. I used to put down on forms that my hobby was "modern cultural anthropology". Now we can define "modern" as being homo sapiens in the journey of mankind from jelly fish to astronaut. The key words I was looking for from our doctors in Philly may be "physical anthropology". I'll have to search bookstores -- will have to pay for newest editions, used books may be at Seven Daughters of Eve level of 2001.

Link to 29Jan2009

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