Science is supposed to be exact. Proving something with science is lauded as the ‘only way to fly.’ If something cannot be scientifically proven, then the scientists pooh-pooh all findings.
But time after time after time, using DNA for anthropology and genealogy, we come across new or updated information that changes all our results and findings.
Does this mean that some of these big money companies — like 23andme and AncestryDNA — have their big-money thumbs on the scale of accuracy to support shaky evidence that they wish to shill?
Or is it that the old demons push to makes differences in groups of earth’s peoples?
Of course we all have some Neanderthal DNA. And considering that science admits much of this so-called whole genome sequencing is not yet understood or fully classified, we know we will find out more about ourselves as time goes on.
I was writing about my Neanderthal ancestors in the 1990s. And long before then I began railing against the popular depiction of all early hominids. What sapien sapien arrogance!
EVERYONE IS A LITTLE NEANDERTHAL, NEW STUDY PROVES
For the first time, scientists have clear evidence of Neanderthal ancestry in African populations.
“Human history is constantly being rewritten.”
So we should not assume that anything we find is written in stone forever. There are variables.
Like when Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr was told and repeated: “Oh, almost no African Americans have any Native ancestry.” This was just simply unknown then, and since, to this day, there are very few Natives’ autosomal DNA in the reference populations of any of the DNA testing companies to be compared to, this is still unanswered. But more and more Americans and more and more African Americans are showing their native ancestry. Many Americans could easily have some Native ancestry (not identity), and it has been wrong to laugh at people’s, any people’s, family stories.
I might not have a family story about being Neanderthal 🙂 but I sure wished for it. As for Native ancestry, it might be tiny but like Neanderthal, it is there.
And I have to note, my poor Denisovan ancestors keep getting left behind for mention and from titles. And even before we are getting them named we know now another ancestor has been seen in DNA as a ghost! They all come to us in science after all being part of us for eons.
The, now gone, National Geographic’s Genographic Project’s reading of Neanderthal and Denisovan
Nat Geo’s Genographic Project
Insitome has a wonderful – I sat the best – reading of your Neanderthal ancestry.
23andme’s reading
Join us also on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/Cherie-Lynns-I-Identify-As-Many-Colors-DNA-Page-105041786503234/
Another great article on the subject of amounts of neanderthal in all humans today
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/everyone-is-a-little-neanderthal-new-study-proves
I am always surprised when someone says or writes – “earliest NOW known. or finally have the definitive answer. All DNA is still in pioneering mode and we all can learn something new everyday.
“These findings about the timing at which interbreeding happened in the human lineage is telling something about how long it takes for reproductive isolation to evolve,” said Rogers.
I read this as important. There was possibly a time when there were “many” of “us”. Maybe a dozen what we wish to call today – “different.” Maybe yes-ter-year’s differences are not as profound or as different as we might wish to view them.
Why is this some superiority contest?
I believe trying to see differences in yes-ter-year, might be trying to excuse wishing to see “differences” still to today – in todays populations. Maybe it is just bias against anything that appears or feels or is thought different.
Earliest interbreeding event between ancient human populations discovered
Ages ago with one page from one of my early Neanderthal stories – now lost.
https://cherielynnsherstory.com/2018/01/18/neanderthal-lovers/
Cherie Lynn's Herstory 