Origins of Humankind

DNA testing has revealed much about humanity and origins of people over the years. Curiosity often strikes when one might wonder just where they came from and testing can sometimes reveal interesting origins, almost like an audit trail of family ancestry. If we think on a wider scale, tracing the origins of humans could prove to be a mammoth task that would take some serious investigation.

//Land Before Now//

The existence of humans dates back a couple hundred thousand years back and new discoveries may have discovered an origin location in the South of Africa. DNA testing and analysis has come a long way over the years, finding origins and advancing the field of medical treatment and understanding. Inherited DNA is a link between generations that researchers have used to find the maternal origins of humans. What is now known as Northern Botswana, a place rich in culture and heritage, is thought to be the place where it all started. Over 200,000 years ago, this would have been the home to first humans that would eventually migrate due to climate changes over the next hundred thousand years.

Scientists have known that the origins of humans resided well within Africa, but exact locations were still unknown until the recently during a genetic analysis study. The discovery was made in Nambia, South Africa where researches analysed DNA of Khoisan people, a population that is thought to have lived in South Africa over 260,000 years ago. Analysis revealed the presence of a specific maternal DNA branch. Combining this various data banks, a timeline was created to project the possible origin of humans and eventual dispersion into what is called modern society today. Life many years ago would have been very different today yet it is thought that farming and herding may have occurred during this early period of civilization.

//Migration and Surivival//

Much of the migration of the initial population was dictated by climate change, seeking conditions that were habitable and most likely habitable with respect to cultivation and life. Where foraging and farming could not provide sufficiently, it’s thought that adaption through hunting and gathering would become an essential part of survival. Migration would also introduce genetic development as diversity in the genetic pool was introduced during these periods of life. Genetic evolution is thought to be heavily influenced by the new environments that the population would be exposed to and varying developments would be consistent depending on area of migration. It’s amazing how genetic studies are a look back in time that can reveal some of the most elusive mysteries about humanity. While it is certainly exciting to discover a plausible origin of humankind, there remains various other unknown areas of exploration that will need to be discovered before a definitive origin can be declared without refute.

Sources :

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/28/ancestral-home-of-modern-humans-is-in-botswana-study-finds

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humans-oldest-maternal-ancestors-may-have-arisen-southern-africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan#Origins