/image%2F2575472%2F20180507%2Fob_0df9a9_logo-white.png){kind=logo}
anthropology
The African Origins of China : the Genographic Project
/image%2F2785598%2F20230509%2Fob_201871_boxer-6.jpg)
/image%2F2785598%2F20230509%2Fob_9a16b0_china-1.jpg)
source: web
The Genographic Project was launched on 13th April 2005 by the National Geographic Society and IBM. It was a genetic anthropological study that aimed to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analysing DNA samples.
Professor Jin Li at the National Human Genome Center and currently the president of Fudan's University in Shangai has been credited as the principal investigator of East Asian populations for the Genographic project and the leading proponent of the model of recent African origin of modern humans. It is said that his research presented evidence that the majority of the gene pools in China originated from Africa. His team analysed the chromosomes of males around China and compared this group with those of South East Asians and Africans. Results of the analysis suggested that South East Asia was the first destination of the migration from Africa to Asia which began approximately 60,000 years ago, contrasting with the hypothesis that the Peking Man was the ancestor of the Chinese People. African migrants moved into Southern China from South East Asia, then crossed the Yantze Rivern to Northern China.
/image%2F2785598%2F20230509%2Fob_e6ad93_untitled.jpg)
However, it was neither a new finding, nor a new hypothesis. The People's Daily of 15th July 2000 stated " In 1987, the U.S.'s scientists brought forward a theory based on mitochondrial DNA evidence that all human beings originated in Africa and later migrated to other corners of the globe. In the intentional academic circles, few arguments were raised about the theory that all palaeoanthropic mankind originated in Africa. Meanwhile, the scientists note that fossils of Peking Man who lived 500,000 years ago and Yuanmao Man over 1.7 million years ago were found in China, but both lack any direct hereditary connection with modern Chinese man. There is a disconnection or "faultage" in fossils of palaeoanthropic Chinese who lived some 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, researchers say. Coinciding with the fossil record, Chinese scientists discovered last year that primitive elements of DNA found in modern Chinese are identical with those found in Africans. The discovery has provided weighty evidence on the genetic basis for the theory that modern Chinese were not evolved from the archaic upright-walking human beings in China but originated in Africa."
Anyhow, what is important to single out, is that the world, globally, is becoming more and more comfortable with its African origins and recognising Africa's contribution to worldwide civilisations and that is good news!
We will begin a series of articles titled "the African Origins of ...", stay tuned.
