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The Shallow Roots of the Human Family Tree
An anonymous reader writes to mention an AP story about research discussing the relatively recent origins of every human on earth. Despite the age of our species, every human on earth can trace their ancestry back to someone who may have lived as recently as the Golden Age of Greece (around 500 BC). From the article: "It is human nature to wonder about our ancestors -- who they were, where they lived, what they were like. People trace their genealogy, collect antiques and visit historical sites hoping to capture just a glimpse of those who came before, to locate themselves in the sweep of history and position themselves in the web of human existence. But few people realize just how intricately that web connects them not just to people living on the planet today, but to everyone who ever lived."
In a couple decades somebody is going to start a great project to just check people's DNA and plug them into a world family tree.
You mean like this?
This guy's the limit!
Richard Dawkins writes in The Ancestors Tale (page 43, "The Tasmanian's Tale") that roughly 80 percent of all invidiviuals of a current population will be universal ancestors to all living decendants a certain number of generations later. How many generations? That depends on the populations size: roughly the base 2 logarithm of the population size number of generations. This is more true for small, isolated populations, especially on islands (Tasmania is given as example) - you can not take the current population of people on earth today (6 billions) and trust this number.
is passed through the female line. As the Roman author had it, mater certus, pater semper incertus est (The mother is certain, the father always uncertain.)
Pining for the fjords
If you knew anything about Iraq & Iran, you'd know that Iraq is an Arab country and Iran is a Persian country.
The Arabs have a long running grudge against the Persian empire, which Saddam used to unite the Iraqi people during that war.
Maybe 30% of Iraqi families are mixed Sunni-Shia. To pretend that the sectarian violence in Iraq isn't religiously motivated is ignorance in the extreme.
It's exactly the thing that Bush Sr. predicted would happen if he invaded Iraq. So he didn't. If you honestly believe that "This generally artificial tension is being produced as a convenient cover" then i suggest you go read a book or two, because Civil War is exactly what most political scientists expected would happen.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Neither of David's parents were relevant to his becoming king. Jonathan was the scion of Saul, as he was Saul's son. David, the son of Jesse (and later Jonathan's best friend), was unrelated to Saul, and became king because he was annointed by the prophet Samuel. Neither David's patrilineal, nor his matrilineal line mattered to his being king of Israel.
Your facts were wrong, your point is right.
You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas - Davy Crockett
Iranians called their land Iran beginning around 226 AD/CE
Yes, I wrote that correctly. 1,780 years of calling themselves Iranians.
Before 226 AD, the Persians referred to themselves as Aryanam, which the word "Iran" is a spinoff of. The earliest written self-reference of the Persians as Aryanam was in 486 BC. That stretches the Iranian timeline back another 712 years.
Iran (the Persian Empire) started out roughly 700 BC when several Aryan tribes united.
Iran literally means "the land of Aryans"
Culturally and linguistically they're Aryans.
Ethnically, Iran (the Persian Empire) is a mix, which includes Caucusians.
It's a bit confusing to discuss since the 'Iranian (Persian) people' covers more than just the people inside Iran's current border.
P.S. Aryan, as I'm using it, has nothing to do with the racial supremecists or Nazis. In the 1900's they confused & bastardized the word.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!