Just who are we Europeans? If we follow a native European religion - Asatru - it only makes sense to delve into the question of our fundamental identity, our roots, our origins. "Know thyself," as Socrates said.
Along these lines, the most recent research indicates that the earliest homo erectus inhabitants of Europe interbred with Neanderthals, meaning that modern Europeans carry Neanderthal genes.
In the words of the article, "The Leipzig group’s interbreeding theory would undercut the present belief that all human populations today draw from the same gene pool that existed a mere 50,000 years ago. 'What we falsify here is the strong Out-of-Africa hypothesis that everyone comes from the same population,' Dr. Paabo said. In his and Dr. Reich’s view, Neanderthals interbred only with non-Africans, the people who left Africa, which would mean that non-Africans drew from a second gene pool not available to Africans."
This discovery raises interesting questions. I've seen other articles asserting that modern Chinese also have genetic contributions from interbreeding with older Asian populations. Could it be that the origin of races is more complex than we've thought? Shades of Carlton Coon!
http://tinyurl.com/2uuocug
Steve McNallen
Asatru Folk Assembly
http://runestone.org
2 comments:
An interesting idea. For a while I've been considering the whole "Out of Africa" theory to be questionable, either because of some evidence of other "human-like" entities appearing in Europe and Asia with no real trail from Africa at best and view it as little more than a political move to appease/raise-up the African population in terms of importance. I'll admit that I've thought it possible that all humanity came from a single source (perhaps located more in the Middle East) thought lately I've begun to consider that each race/tribe was in fact created by their individual pantheons, even if that isn't scientific.
It's good to have you back sir.
I saw this on a news website a few days ago. As someone who was raised on the "out of Africa" idea, I found it truly interesting, and more than a little surprising.
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