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Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

theatlantic.com

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Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#31

Post by emmelaich »

fein wrote: post #13
kapilkaisare wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he is. Let me try to explain why. I haven't done a DNA ancestry test yet, but I imagine I would be pretty happy to learn that there were several peoples/races?/cultures behind me, beyond my apparent South Asian heritage. This does not imply that I am ashamed of my origins - quite the contrary, in fact - but that I imagine it would be nice to ... be more, a citizen of the world, in a fashion. I would exp…

We've gotten to a point where Europeans seem to be looking for anything to give them some minority culture status. Just take pride in who and what you are and where you came from.

Take pride but don't take it too far. I have Irish ancestry among others but find St Patrick's day a little ridiculous.

Also, to echo another commenter here, take the classic quote from Samuel Johnson: "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"

Also pride is considered to be the worst of the seven deadly sins for good reason. So tempting yet can be so poisonous.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#32

Post by elboru »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #19
fein wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've gotten to a point where Europeans seem to be looking for anything to give them some minority culture status. Just take pride in who and what you are and where you came from.

It's pretty much frowned upon to be in any way proud to be a pale skinned European; mainstream media demands we feel shame for all the oppression we did in the centuries before our birth. That said, I don't understand how I've can be "proud" of which country you were born in, makes no sense to me.

>I don't understand how I've can be "proud" of which country you were born in, makes no sense to me.

I guess it all depends where you draw the line, do you feel proud of your parents? Some people will say "No, I only feel proud about what I accomplished myself." And that's ok, that's his point of view, we could say this is a subjective matter, from my point of view, I feel proud of who I'm, I'm proud of my parents, and then I can extend that line and say I'm proud of my community, my city, my country, my civilization, I'm proud of being part of humanity, obviously that "proudness" will increase when that line is nearer to me, in other words the more relatable to myself the prouder I can be.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#33

Post by mc32 »

emmelaich wrote: post #31
fein wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've gotten to a point where Europeans seem to be looking for anything to give them some minority culture status. Just take pride in who and what you are and where you came from.

Take pride but don't take it too far. I have Irish ancestry among others but find St Patrick's day a little ridiculous. Also, to echo another commenter here, take the classic quote from Samuel Johnson: "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" Also pride is considered to be the worst of the seven deadly sins for good reason. So tempting yet can be so poisonous.

Pride can be good and bad. Being proud to succeed as a single parent, or proud of being the first to graduate university in the family.

Proud to be black or proud to be white.... Getting iffy depending on context. Of course, the opposite would be troublesome, ashamed to be black, or ashamed to be white.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#34

Post by emmelaich »

jbeales wrote: post #9
fein wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disappointingly un-diverse I... What does this even mean? Are you ashamed of your heritage?

It probably means he was hoping for a fun surprise, (Something like You're 10% Inca!), but didn't get one. I did the same thing - my Ancestry test came back with a whole lot of "Western Europe" - even more than I expected, actually.

Yep. I got a 23andme test. Told me nothing I didn't already know.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#35

Post by allthenews »

mc32 wrote: post #30
allthenews wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are seeing is simply a reflection of what is socially acceptable.

So you're saying whites have the privilege of wishing they had "interesting" DNA history, but others don't have that privilege, even with all they have in say East Asia. I think it's more with social cues and pressures.

What? This isn't about privilege, this is about fashion, and white guilt is increasingly in.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#36

Post by smhost »

allthenews wrote: post #35
mc32 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying whites have the privilege of wishing they had "interesting" DNA history, but others don't have that privilege, even with all they have in say East Asia. I think it's more with social cues and pressures.

What? This isn't about privilege, this is about fashion, and white guilt is increasingly in.

And of course, it's not the white guilt that's in fashion. It's the black pride that's in fashion, as it always has been.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#37

Post by cimmanom »

jbeales wrote: post #8
fosco wrote: post #2

>Today, surprisingly, the people carrying the most Neanderthal DNA are not in Europe but in East Asia Interesting, I would love to see more information on this -- I had not heard this previously.

It makes fairly logical sense. Neanderthals were fairly well-installed in Europe when modern humans appeared in Africa. As modern humans would have expanded northward into Europe, done their thing with the Neanderthals, (some breeding, lots of killing), and continued eastward, so the human population still in Africa would probably have no Neanderthal DNA, but the population in Asia would carry the results of some int…

My understanding is that Neanderthals are now classified as a sub-species rather than a distinct species. So instead of Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis (sp?) we have Homo Sapiens Sapiens and Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis.

It's not entirely unlike dogs and wolves, which can interbreed fluently. There are dozens of subspecies of Canis Lupus (red wolves, gray wolves, etc, etc), and one of them is Canis Lupus Familiaris, the domestic dog.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#38

Post by mc32 »

smhost wrote: post #36
allthenews wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? This isn't about privilege, this is about fashion, and white guilt is increasingly in.

And of course, it's not the white guilt that's in fashion. It's the black pride that's in fashion, as it always has been.

What? I don't get any of either those assertions. People should be comfortable with who they are. I don't think pride is necessary, but also unnecessary and probably detrimental is to feel uncomfortable with yourself, be that anything, in this case ancestry.

Re: Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human and Neanderthal History

#40

Post by sct202 »

ryandvm wrote: post #4
fosco wrote: post #2

>Today, surprisingly, the people carrying the most Neanderthal DNA are not in Europe but in East Asia Interesting, I would love to see more information on this -- I had not heard this previously.

I have not heard that either. According to 23andMe, I'm in the 99th percentile for Neanderthal DNA variants and my ancestry report claims I'm a disappointingly un-diverse 99.9% European.

23andme results are subject to change. A few years ago when they first released their Neanderthal estimates, I was at the top of my contact list, but recently I'm like second to last.
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