“We are all mongrels – the idea of a pure population doesn’t exist,” says Professor Himla Soodyall.
In the fragmented and divided society of 2021, the geneticist insists on driving home this point. It’s because this isn’t the only narrative of us. At the level of our DNA, another story holds too – the one where the rich diversity of who we are today converges as an ancient truth of common heritage.
“Every living person today can see themselves as a leaf on a tree placed on a small branch that eventually connects to bigger branches that are ultimately connected to a common trunk. And the path of the branch is based on the movement and collective history of your ancestors,” Soodyall says.
Understanding the tangled paths of these metaphorical branches gives us clues to understanding our evolutionary journey. It’s from when we dragged our knuckles, hunched close to the ground to evolving to use tools for a determined outcome.
Early humans all migrated out of sub-Saharan Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago and then settled with their domesticated animals and crops.
Today, we imagine futures of gene editing for disease-free offspring, maybe also green-eyed babies on demand and the return of mammoths to reinhabit tundra somewhere.
