The Genographic Project : The Human Family Tree

On 2010.03.18 myself, my daughter Jocelyn and her boyfriend Mikey, and my daughter Hayley, attended a screening and post-show discussion for the film The Human Family Tree. The film is a product of The Genographic Project, a long-term joint effort by many scientists and people at IBM. The project as stated on the website, "is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world." The film is a document about these efforts. Read more here:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-family-tree-3706-interactive

In the film, the researchers describe how they have taken DNA samples from people on one day on a Queens street, and correlated that with DNA from previous research to chart paths not only of how people of related, but how people have migrated around the world. For example, one black man from America finds he has roots that stretch back through Europe. Things like that don't necessarily make sense to people until one puts the evidence together with lots of other people and finds that we all have common roots starting somewhere in Africa. It's beyond the scope of my post to describe in more detail, but I'd encourage folks to read the background and watch the show.

For $99 you can get your own kit to participate by sending in a cheek swab sample and get your DNA charted in the same way as the people in the film. As soon as I think I can afford it I want to get myself and my kids to participate.

So, do I believe that every human on earth today can be traced back to a small group in Africa? It's believable. The film was designed as an hour and a half to tell a story, rather than an in-depth scientific analysis. There are finer details to how the research was done that were left out of the film that I think could have been included at the expense of some of the storytelling. As with any scientific proposal, I want to dig more into it to a finer level of detail before saying "count me in as a believer".

Assuming the science is solid, what does that mean for me? It doesn't change anything. I think I would feel a deeper connection to other people on the planet, but I've always sort of felt that way after having practiced Buddhism and really exploring what it means to be "not separate". I'm fascinated by the science used. I've been getting into genetics and biology lately and this is a way to take that science and knowledge and apply it. There's something that boggles the mind here that is a game-changer for some people in the way they see themselves fitting into the world, and for others a validation of what they have suspected anyway.