I Am Fascinated By Science, Religion, and Philosophy

@Alabamian that's a good question. It would appear that humans came from the same geographical area, but there may have been more than one group that left Africa. Hopefully someone with more information will post more details.

@Bushranger As I recall, one region in Africa, from which three migrations occurred... but that's just off the top of my head (which, some have suggested, may be the sexiest part of me) :-)

@newjaninev2 Love a girl with brains.

Not sure, but does that include the Neanderthall migration?

@Bushranger Again just what I recall right now, it seems that the Neanderthal population migrated independently of, and long before, the African group which led to us. We now know there was inter-breeding, and around 4% of our genome is Neanderthal linked.

@newjaninev2 Thanks for that clarification.

@newjaninev2 When did Alabamians and Tennesseans share a common ancestor?

@Bushranger [quote] It would appear that humans came from the same geographical area[/quote]

Yes. In several migrations. The Neanderthals made the journey to Eruasia before Humanoids. They only survive in less than 4% of our humanoid DNA. Seems we eliminated them.

@Northwest They may have been an evolutionary dead end as well. One thing you have to appreciate about [i]Homo sapiens[/i], we are certainly adaptable.

@Bushranger [quote]They may have been an evolutionary dead end as well[/quote]

Neanderthals? We killed them off, most likely, to take over their territory. We are close enough cousins though, that we are able to reproduce with them, hence the genetic breadcrumbs.

Europeans attempted the same thing with Native Americans.

@Northwest I take your point.

@Northwest And with Australia's indigenous population, the Maori in New Zealand, pretty much any native population. Those they didn't kill, they tried to indoctrinate into European life and beliefs. Just don't work, though.

@newjaninev2 At least the Maori got a treaty.

@Bushranger Yes, but until the 70s or 80s the policy was to ignore the treaty and to pursue, as you say, indoctrination and assimilation. The (unspoken) expectation was that they'd eventually 'die out'.
From the late 80s onward, there were increasing calls to honour the treaty, and that led to a revival of Maori culture... still underway today, but hampered by the damage wrought beforehand.

@newjaninev2 I'm not all that familiar with the NZ situation. Were there forced removals of children like there was over here?

@Bushranger Not to that extent, no... but there was a constant suppression of the culture. Children were punished in schools for speaking Maori, and my childhood education in history focused on British history. New Zealand history, especially Maori history, simply didn't exist.

@newjaninev2 Not much indigenous history is taught here, as far as I know.

@newjaninev2 The Welsh language was suppressed in Wales too.

@hippyjoe1955 Indeed so, although there are efforts to revive it nowadays, aren't there?

@newjaninev2 Don't know. My aunt told me about it as she grew up in Wales.

@newjaninev2 I think you will find that the Welsh language has made a significant comeback. And while I agree with hippyjoe that there was an attempt to suppress the language, its use continued as it also did in Ireland and Scotland. I may be wrong, but I seem to recall reading that the first non English language locally produced television show was in Welsh. Very proud of that side of my heritage.

@Bushranger My grandmother grew up speaking Welsh and after she moved to Canada she continued to speak Welsh with my Grandfather. After Grandfather died a man came from Wales and learned about my Grandmother. They got together and the man began the conversation in Welsh. After a few moments my Grandmother told him, "You'll have to speak English, I can't understand a word you are saying".

@hippyjoe1955 Sounds similar to a couple of people I've known. One was German and the other Dutch. They both came to Australia at reasonably young ages and spoke their mother tongues with their families. When they went to their countries of origin after many years away, the languages had changed that much they had difficulty understanding. It's amazing how things change.