Archaeology Magazine - Neanderthal DNA Decoded
Well, the confirmation that a huge percentage of most all non-African folks walking the earth today carry a good bit of Neanderthal DNA is not at all surprising to me, but certainly will be to many.
I've been arguing about this subject for 7 years and hope this will help incrementally swing people away from the "Modern Humans Wiped the Neanderthals from the Earth with their Notorious Violent Tendencies" theory. Yes, without a doubt there had to be some conflicts between Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals when they encountered each other. The same sort of things that happen when culturally and physically dissimilar groups of people meet today. But ya know, other stuff happens when those groups meet too. Exchanges in culture, technology, religion, goods and yes, genes.
The unraveling of this genome is going to reveal a lot of interesting things about us humans. It may be revealed that the reason we have fair skinned, colored eye people on this earth is a directly contribution of our kissing cousins, the Neanderthals! People who evolved in cool climates with overcast skies tend to have fair skin and some mutations that produce colored eyes and red hair. Wow, think of the consequences... I suspect that a great many of the people that resist the idea of Neanderthal DNA existing in Modern Human populations is because the old first impression of Neanderthals as the primitive, ape-like, dumb, brutish cave man still swims in their paradigms.Real quick, let's go back to the African thing. This study reveals that in two groups of Africans tested, there was little or zero evidence of the Neanderthal genes. Think about that.... That may very well mean that people of Africa or African decent are probably more likely to be of "purer" Homo Sapien stock than everyone else! Hmmm... What on earth might that do to the psyches of white supremacists!?!
Well, those of you who have heard my rantings of the equality of Homo Neanderthal, Homo Erectus and Homo Floresiensis already know that I believe them all to be "Human", to have souls, to love and laugh just like we all do. I feel even more emboldened now and look forward to more discoveries, both genetic and dirt based! I truly believe that God chose to create Humans out of different ingredients. God's mechanisms and deployment models for creating us is not our place to question. We should just be thankful that he did.
