Homo Sapiens

HOMO SAPIENS

Facts:

I always have a keen interest in the human species, of the species’ survival in general, and of the survival of my Vietnamese people in particular. I know a little bit, from reading, about various human species prior to the emergence of Modern Man, the Homo sapiens. Apparently all those Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo egaster, Homo erectus, Homo nearnderthalensis, etc… all died out, except for the latest arrival, the Homo sapiens. What interested me the most was that the Homo sapiens also almost died out.
The following was taken from Heart of Dryness by James Workman (New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc., 2009) pp 36-37, and Wikipedia.
A human is a member of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae (taxonomically Homo sapiens—Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man"). Mitochondrial DNA and fossil evidence indicates that modern humans evolved in east Africa about 200,000 years ago. When compared to other animals and primates, humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection and problem solving. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees the forelimbs (arms) for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species. Humans are distributed worldwide, with significant populations inhabiting most land areas of Earth.
Like most higher primates, humans are social by nature. Humans are particularly adept at utilizing systems of communication—primarily spoken, gestural, and written language—for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families to nations. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of traditions, rituals, ethics, values, social norms, and laws, which together form the basis of human society. Humans are distinctive as a species on the Earth by having a perception of beauty and aesthetics at least to a point which results in a material culture. This, when combined with the desire for self-expression and a proportionally large brain-size, has led to innovations such as art, written language, music and science.
Humans seek to understand and influence the environment around them by trying to explain and manipulate natural phenomena through philosophy, art, science, mythology, and religion. This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills. Although humans are not the only species to use tools, they are unique in building fires, cooking their food, and clothing themselves; as well as using other advanced technologies. Humans pass down their skills and knowledge to the next generations and so are regarded as dependent upon culture.

The scientific study of human evolution encompasses the development of the genus Homo, but usually involves studying other hominids and hominines as well, such as Australopithecus. "Modern humans" are defined as the Homo sapiens species, of which the only extant subspecies is known as Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens idaltu (roughly translated as "elder wise human"), the other known subspecies, is now extinct.[5] Homo neanderthalensis, which became extinct 30,000 years ago, has sometimes been classified as a subspecies, "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis", but genetic studies now suggest a divergence of the Neanderthal species from Homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago[6]. Similarly, the few specimens of Homo rhodesiensis have also occasionally been classified as a subspecies, but this is not widely accepted. Anatomically modern humans first appear in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago, and studies of molecular biology give evidence that the approximate time of divergence from the common ancestor of all modern human populations was 200,000 years ago.[7][8][9][10][11] The broad study of African genetic diversity headed by Dr. Sarah Tishkoff found the San people ( formerly known as the Bushmen) exhibiting the greatest genetic diversity among the 113 distinct populations sampled, making them one of 14 "ancestral population clusters".The research also located the origin of modern human migration in south-western Africa, near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola.[12]
The closest living relatives of humans are gorillas and chimpanzees, but humans did not evolve from these apes: instead these apes share a common ancestor with modern humans.[13] Humans are probably most closely related to two chimpanzee species: Common Chimpanzee and Bonobo.[13] Full genome sequencing has resulted in the conclusion that "after 6.5 [million] years of separate evolution, the differences between chimpanzee and human are ten times greater than those between two unrelated people and ten times less than those between rats and mice". Suggested concurrence between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%.[14][15][16][17] It has been estimated that the human lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees about five million years ago, and from that of gorillas about eight million years ago. However, a hominid skull discovered in Chad in 2001, classified as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is approximately seven million years old, which may indicate an earlier divergence.[18]
Human evolution is characterized by a number of important morphological, developmental, physiological and behavioural changes, which have taken place since the split between the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The first major morphological change was the evolution of a bipedal locomotor adaptation from an arboreal or semi-arboreal one,[19] with all its attendant adaptations, such as a valgus knee, low intermembral index (long legs relative to the arms), and reduced upper-body strength.
Later, ancestral humans developed a much larger brain – typically 1,400 cm³ in modern humans, over twice the size of that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. The pattern of human postnatal brain growth differs from that of other apes (heterochrony), and allows for extended periods of social learning and language acquisition in juvenile humans. Physical anthropologists argue that the differences between the structure of human brains and those of other apes are even more significant than their differences in size.
Other significant morphological changes included: the evolution of a power and precision grip;[20] a reduced masticatory system; a reduction of the canine tooth; and the descent of the larynx and hyoid bone, making speech possible. An important physiological change in humans was the evolution of hidden oestrus, or concealed ovulation, which may have coincided with the evolution of important behavioural changes, such as pair bonding. Another significant behavioural change was the development of material culture, with human-made objects becoming increasingly common and diversified over time. The relationship between all these changes is the subject of ongoing debate.[21][22]
The forces of natural selection have continued to operate on human populations, with evidence that certain regions of the genome display directional selection in the past 15,000 years.[23

Around the turn of the twenty-first century, affordable computerized data systems of biotechnology could break down, sequence, and unlock the secret code retained in the molecules of human cells---specifically cells embedded within female mitochondrial DNA and male Y chromosomal DNA. Genetic mapping projects began to test the bloodlines of global residents for definite scientific links, seeking mutations---the spelling errors found in all “genetic markers”---to trace our ancestry. Once testing began, researchers could reel back through time, tracking who begat whom, racing along family tree tops and branches to family tree trunks to our deepest blood roots, right down to our earliest human origins.

Homo sapiens appeared about 200,000 BP, in the Middle Paleolithic. By the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic 50,000 BP, full behavioral modernity, including language, music and other cultural universals had developed. The out of Africa migration is estimated to have occurred about 70,000 years BP. Modern humans subsequently spread to all continents, replacing earlier hominids: they inhabited Eurasia and Oceania by 40,000 BP, and the Americas at least 14,500 years BP.[24] They displaced Homo neanderthalensis and other species descended from Homo erectus (which had inhabited Eurasia as early as 2 million years ago) through more successful reproduction and competition for resources.[25]
Evidence from archaeogenetics accumulating since the 1990s has lent strong support to the "out-of-Africa" scenario, and has marginalized the competing multiregional hypothesis, which proposed that modern humans evolved, at least in part, from independent hominid populations.[26]
Geneticists Lynn Jorde and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah propose that the variation in human DNA is minute compared to that of other species. They also propose that during the Late Pleistocene, the human population was reduced to a small number of breeding pairs – no more than 10,000, and possibly as few as 1,000 – resulting in a very small residual gene pool. Various reasons for this hypothetical bottleneck have been postulated, one being a cataclysmic drought had swept across the African continent, wiping out humanity until scarcely a few thousand of our species endured. Another megadrought had scattered off many of our human ancestors to populate the earth in a mass exodus. Only the hardiest survivors remained in small, isolated pockets on the continent of Africa.
By sifting through that shrinking African pool of diverse DNA samples, researchers traced back 150,000 years (according to Workman, 200,000 years according to article in Wikipedia above) until a single female bloodline emerged from a primordial Eden. From that anthropological Eve, all humanity had descended, over two thousand generations, to the 6.7 billion of us as of February 2009. Apparently Eve existed, but she was not blond and fair-skinned, plucked from Adam’s rib. Instead she more closely resembled a savvy, wise, and wrinkled light red-skinned forager old woman in the Kalahari.
Conclusions/Theorizing:
1. We are all interrelated. Being racist is being ignorant since after all, we are the descendants of no more than 10,000 people (and could be as few as 1,000 people).
2. No wonder if you look at photos or watch on TV, people of a certain region or “race” look remarkably similar. For example, Southern Chinese and Vietnamese look very similar (re: Bách Việt). All the Middle Eastern peoples look the same to me. The Nordic peoples look the same. The Mediterranean peoples do likewise. Answers: few genetic variety and inbreeding due to very small population size. Thus, it is no surprise that offspring of mixed “races” are usually very smart. In the past, humans raided neighboring tribes for wives to avoid inbreeding.
3. Notwithstanding point #1 above, it is important to cling to “racial” identity and culture because of the feelings of tribalism (group consciousness: us versus them). For this reason, Vietnamese must vigorously resist Chinese attempt of assimilation. After all, the Vietnamese at the very beginning must have been very few, probably no more than 50 individuals. From this small number, we somehow have managed to survive and retain our language for over 4,000 years. Now we are more than 87 million strong, it would be a damned shame if we lose the will to resist and want to roll over and play dead when China wants to take over our country. Are today Vietnamese a bunch of cowards and defeatists?
Wissai
August 29, 2009
Notes: (as references taken from Wikepedia)
5^ Human evolution: the fossil evidence in 3D, by Philip L. Walker and Edward H. Hagen, Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, retrieved April 5, 2005.
6^ Green, R. E., Krause, J, Ptak, S. E., Briggs, A. W., Ronan, M. T., Simons, J. F., et al. (2006) Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA. Nature, 16, 330–336. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/abs/nature05336.html
7^ http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=102968
8^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4269299.stm
9^ The Oldest Homo Sapiens: - URL retrieved May 15, 2009
10^ Alemseged, Z., Coppens, Y., Geraads, D. (2002). "Hominid cranium from Homo: Description and taxonomy of Homo-323-1976-896". Am J Phys Anthropol 117 (2): 103–12. doi:10.1002/ajpa.10032. PMID 11815945.
11^ Stoneking, Mark; Soodyall, Himla (1996). "Human evolution and the mitochondrial genome". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 6 (6): 731–6. doi:10.1016/S0959-437X(96)80028-1.
12^ BBC World News "Africa's genetic secrets unlocked", 1 May 2009; the results were published in the online edition of the journal Science.
13^ a b Wood B, Richmond BG (July 2000). "Human evolution: taxonomy and paleobiology". J. Anat. 197 ( Pt 1): 19–60. doi:10.1046/j.1469-7580.2000.19710019.x. PMID 10999270.
14^ Frans de Waal, Bonobo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. ISBN 0-520-20535-9 [1]
15^ Britten RJ (2002). "Divergence between samples of chimpanzee and human DNA sequences is 5%, counting indels". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99 (21): 13633–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.172510699. PMID 12368483. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/21/13633.
16^ Wildman, D., Uddin, M., Liu, G., Grossman, L., Goodman, M. (2003). "Implications of natural selection in shaping 99.4% nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: enlarging genus Homo". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100 (12): 7181–8. doi:10.1073/pnas.1232172100. PMID 12766228. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/100/12/7181.
17^ Ruvolo M (01 Mar 1997). "Molecular phylogeny of the hominoids: inferences from multiple independent DNA sequence data sets". Mol Biol Evol 14 (3): 248–65. PMID 9066793. http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/14/3/248.
18^ Brunet, M., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., Mackaye, H., Likius, A., Ahounta, D., Beauvilain, A., Blondel, C., Bocherens, H., Boisserie, J., De Bonis, L., Coppens, Y., Dejax, J., Denys, C., Duringer, P., Eisenmann, V., Fanone, G., Fronty, P., Geraads, D., Lehmann, T., Lihoreau, F., Louchart, A., Mahamat, A., Merceron, G., Mouchelin, G., Otero, O., Pelaez Campomanes, P., Ponce De Leon, M., Rage, J., Sapanet, M., Schuster, M., Sudre, J., Tassy, P., Valentin, X., Vignaud, P., Viriot, L., Zazzo, A., Zollikofer, C. (2002). "A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa". Nature 418 (6894): 145–51. doi:10.1038/nature00879. PMID 12110880. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6894/full/nature00879.html.
19^ Vančata1 V., & Vančatová, M. A. "Major features in the evolution of early hominoid locomotion". Springer Netherlands, Volume 2, Number 6, December 1987. pp.517–537.
20^ Brues, Alice M. & Snow, Clyde C. "Physical Anthropology". Biennial Review of Anthropology, Vol. 4, 1965. pp. 1–39.
21^ Boyd, Robert & Silk, Joan B. (2003). How Humans Evolved. New York: Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97854-0.
22^ Dobzhansky, Theodosius (1963). Anthropology and the natural sciences-The problem of human evolution, Current Anthropology '4 (2): 138–148.
23^ Wade, N (2006-03-07). "Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/science/07evolve.html. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
24^ Wolman, David (2008). "Fossil Feces Is Earliest Evidence of N. America Humans" National Geographic
25^ How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans. The Observer. May 17, 2009.
26^ Eswaran V, Harpending H, Rogers AR (July 2005). "Genomics refutes an exclusively African origin of humans". J. Hum. Evol. 49 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.02.006. PMID 15878780.