Hacker Cinema
The Human Family Tree
2009 · Film · documentary · 90 min
Directed by Chad Cohen
Dr Spencer Wells retraces the footsteps of 200 random New Yorkers and proves they are all cousins. On the most diverse street in the most diverse city in the most diverse country in the world, a team of National Geographic scientists swab the cheeks of some 200 random New Yorkers. The goal: to retrace our ancestral footprints and prove we are all cousins in the “family of man.” Cutting edge science, coupled with a cast of New Yorkers – each with their own unique genetic history - will help paint a picture of these amazing journeys. Ultimately, Man’s First Migrations answers some of humanity’s most burning questions, such as who we are and where we come from, and forces us to change how we think not only about our relationships with our neighbours, but ourselves.
2 positivefrom 2 commenters
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2 comments on Hacker News
"There is a wide consensus that the racial categories that are common in everyday usage are socially constructed, and that racial groups cannot be biologically defined."[1]
From a genetic perspective there is basically no basis for the traditional categorization of race. Two people of the same skin color, from the same country, who would be considered by traditional definitions to be the same race, can have completely different genetic lineages. There is a National Geographic documentary that discusses this called "The Human Family Tree" that is available on Netflix.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28human_classification%29#Complications_and_various_definitions_of_the_concept
This is just plain wrong, if you watch the documentary "the human family tree" the first people with less pigment were southeast asians as in towards China, and there is genetic evidence for it.
I think it is sad the more I watch these genetic documentaries the more I see the mixing of gene pools the more you know humans are very much the same but we also have a massive innate disposition to see people with different physical traits or culture as different from ourselves.