Upgrade your browser!

Skip to Content

Videos / Random Videos /

Human Ancestry Made Easy

Traces our migration out of Africa and explains, through DNA evidence, how humans colonized the world. Part of the Made Easy series of videos that show the evidence of our origins, from the Big Bang onwards. (Music: "Allegretto" by Bond)

  • Views: 2599
  • All Ages
  • All Ages

Related Media

  • Video:Real Autopsy
  • Real Autopsy
  • A real-life medical autopsy of a young woman's corpse. . . .
  • Votes 3.86/5 - Views 245 - Comments 8
  • Video:Your God`s An Ass
  • Your God`s An Ass
  • Matt Dillahunty takes on caller "John" and finishes off. . .
  • Votes 4.2/5 - Views 408 - Comments 11

View All


Trouble playing the media? Click here to manually download it.

Rate This Video:
Rate it 0.5 Rate it 1.0 Rate it 1.5 Rate it 2.0 Rate it 2.5 Rate it 3.0 Rate it 3.5 Rate it 4.0 Rate it 4.5 Rate it 5.0

4.49 out of 5 based on 390 votes

Rating Results:
Earn XP by sharing this video!
learn more

Video URL:

Embedded Link:

Send This Video To A Cell Phone! Digg

15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

klavlav : LVL 38: VP 4.6: said:

klavlav

17 votes NegativePositive

197 days ago...

He makes an important point at 6:30, one that deserves some more attention (and since I just posted a similar comment in respnse to the Johnny Cash `man Comes Around` upload, I thought I`d repeat it here):

He mentions that, far from the image of early human life as "nasty, short and brutal", people live fairly long lives, even compared to current lifespans.

Most of the evidence from the earliest human settelments in the Fertile Crescent, South Asia and elsewhere about 9 to 11 thousand years ago show signs that those cultures were fairly peaceful; cities had no walled fortifications, no evidence of huge arms caches, no mass graves of battlefield casualties or signs of largescale early death due to war. Indeed, quite a lot of the people in these early cities lived to a ripe old age.

Despite relatively high degrees of wealth, technology and resources, these earliest cultures showed very little income disparity. There are no lavish tombs of kings, nor mass graves of paupers. People seem to have lived and died with relative equality.

What many people consider to be "human nature" (warfare, violence, competition, hierarchical, male dominated etc.) is really only one model of human nature - the model that gained prominence in the fertile crescent about 5,000 years ago that those peoples violently spread throughout the region, then the world, to become what we think of as "normal", but is by no means the only norm.

Yes, we know all too well how violent humans can be when forced to be. However, it is remarkable how peaceful and cooperative people can be when they are allowed to be, when resources are shared equally, when disparity is low, and people`s basic needs are met.

**********

edit for Mufasa below (and for those mentioning Jared Diamond): Do yourselves a favour and read Daniel Quinn`s Ishmael to balance out your Guns Germs and Steel and Hobbes (and then track down some of the work being done in anthropology/archeology/sociology that Quinn bases his stories on).

There is a tremendous amount of evidence emerging that calls into question the determinism of Jared Diamond and the assumptions of "human nature" by those like Hobbes. Again, it`s not to say they are incoorect, but only conditionally so. To use Quinn`s language, Diamond and Hobbes are guilty of spreading the myth of our culture; of confusing `cause` with `effect` and claiming that any advantage will become a *competitive* advantage, that competition will lead to conquest, and that this is "natural" or "human nature".

Again, it is *one* aspect of human nature, but not the only one and certainly not the best.

Verh544 : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

Verh544

Hidden (Show Comment) -20 votes

187 days 6 hours ago...

amazing. it kinda says that black people are the least evolved. lol.

paperbag : LVL 1: VP 1: said:

paperbag

2 votes NegativePositive

187 days 5 hours ago...

^ using the same kind of logic, the Australian aborigines and southern indians are the most highly evolved of humans since they left Africa before anyone else

takai_san : LVL 23: VP 3.2: said:

takai_san

-6 votes NegativePositive

187 days 5 hours ago...

^ Taking note of Klavlav`s comment, it would also mean that White people invented War, Violence, and an imbalanced Hierarchy. Evolution isn`t always beneficial.

TriMeFoo : LVL 38: VP 4.6: said:

TriMeFoo

4 votes NegativePositive

187 days 5 hours ago...

^^Indeed. I only see where he says that people that migrated adapted to their climate. I don`t see the part where it says people in Africa stopped adapting because other people moved away... After all Sickle Cell is an adaptation to combat Malaria. They had settlements before the pyramids were built, but the pyramids were built and still stand today.

smokemylungs : LVL 34: VP 4.2: said:

smokemylungs

12 votes NegativePositive

187 days 4 hours ago...

Black people are not the least evolved.
They share the same DNA of everybody else.

Losing Melanin does not make one More evolved.. :/

Shadowflare : LVL 21: VP 3: said:

Shadowflare

1 votes NegativePositive

187 days 4 hours ago...

This is a good series. I need to go back and watch them all in order.

Uzo : LVL 38: VP 4.6: said:

Uzo

1 votes NegativePositive

187 days 4 hours ago...

A little advice - read anything written by a Mr JARED DIAMOND (I believe it`s the correct spelling). The authour of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse". Sure, perhaps he is a man standing on the shoulders of geniuses ... but the man clarifies *everything* about anthropology for the past 20,000 years. If you don`t get it, you ain`t thinkin` hard enough.

Again .. I cannot recommend it enough .. "GUNS, GERMS & STEEL" by Jared Diamond. One of the few pieces of non-fictional genius written in the last 100 years.

PS: Find a belief system not based upon blind faith.

PPS: GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL. All you useless fuckers who think Creationism counts as science go fuck yourselves. GUNS, GERMS and STEEL. Believe me, the Good Fucking Lord does not rate a fuckin mention.

PPPS: Not to annoy devout Christians, but you`re not gonna find a better explanation of human evolution. Learn what your enemy believes ... (ya backward fuckwits).

PPPPS: Like I give a shit. Rot in hell. Everyone who disagrees with Diamond`s opinion is worthy of hell. And stuff. See you there scumbags.

mufasa1023 : LVL 35: VP 4.3: said:

mufasa1023

4 votes NegativePositive

187 days 3 hours ago...

^Klavlav

I have to disagree with some of your assumptions, first off Hobbes quote of "nasty, brutish and short" is entirely accurate in most respects. He used it to explain why people form social contracts, which is to say, societies with norms, mores and law tend to live more peaceful and longer lives in the society, it had nothing to do with inter-societal conflict.

And your claim that humans were more peaceful because of the lack of evidence from 9-11 thousand years of walls, arm`s caches and mass graves is an appeal to ignorance. The obvious reason why those societies didn`t have those things is because they lacked the political cohesion required to undertake such projects. Bands of 20-40 humans simply could not support the making of a great wall of fortification because people have to hunt and plant food, there was no specialization yet.
Furthermore I find your claim of equality in economics lacking, in a society where no greater, more expensive technology exists to be had it is impossible to have more than your neighbor. I think you will see that when societies started to form the type of technologies that could only be afforded by some people, that only some people had that technology. Any equality that existed was the result of a want of luxury items.

Again, your concept of "human nature" as coming out of the fertile crescent is flawed because most human societies are male dominated, war-like and hierarchical, even those that split off of the continent before the fertile crescent came to rise, thus no possible transfusion of that form of "human nature"


Not to even get into the very minimal amount of evidence for any claims about any facet of human societal life before the written record.

stbasdf : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

stbasdf

1 votes NegativePositive

187 days 1 hour ago...

i don`t think anyone who doesn`t want to listen to new ideas will budge one bit. you can pepper them all you want but they`re not going to open up, just like that girl walking around school that i didn`t know but somehow knew my name and kept asking me to go to bible study and i said no everytime. the difference is people freely put knowledge out there for anyone to see on their own, while the others try to shove it down your throat, knocking on your door early in the morning, passing out those giddeon books and phamplets that i just throw in the next garbage can i pass by

but i guess it must be aggressively pointed out to ppl that the knowledge is out there so that the ppl who are on the borderline or those who didn`t know any better due to circumstances have the chance to decide what is really true

exploder : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

exploder

1 votes NegativePositive

187 days 1 hour ago...

^cheers mate, greatly appreciate your attitude in the ps`s. Funny, seems like the fundamentalists have nothing to say back about this one. OWNED.

And thanks for the book recommendation. Will check it out. Oops, ordered that and a couple other Jared`s. Thanks.

jbob : LVL 16: VP 2.5: said:

jbob

6 votes NegativePositive

187 days ago...

Verh544 said "amazing. it kinda says that black people are the least evolved. lol. "

I would ask you to explain yourself if I wasn`t so sure you`re an idiot.

whatthefark : LVL 8: VP 1.7: said:

whatthefark

0 votes NegativePositive

186 days 23 hours ago...

Man, humans be messed up.

erico : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

erico

5 votes NegativePositive

186 days 22 hours ago...

I think we should be wary of gun touting steel germs.

Tada : LVL 40: VP 4.8: said:

Tada

3 votes NegativePositive

186 days 4 hours ago...

Verh544: Where the hell did you see that? There are thousands of tribes in Africa all of which are divided by their genetic-legacy, the only thing that makes them even closely similar is their skin color. Most tribes in Africa has unique cultures which favor one body trait over another, like being tall, have like a penis or having an elongated cranium. So most tribes even have unique body features so they generally don`t look the same. The only thing they have in common is their skin color.

Just because we have a common ancestor doesn`t make the ancestor less evolved, especially since the changes in the genetic markers have nothing do to with actual progress as a species. We are all human, the thing is that we just look different.

Post a Comment:

Avatar

The Spikedhumor Drawing!Moderators Contest
Prize
Entry Dates: 11/4/2008-12/15/2008

Recent Blog Posts

Squeegee Duel

Surgeon Saves Life By Text Me...

9 Year Old Writes 'How to Tal...

Gay Penguins Steal Eggs from ...

Study: Mice Research Links Fa...

Keys Penetrate Toddlers Brain...

8 Year Old Crashes Teacher's ...

Man Releases Worms on Train t...

Hotlinks on Spiked

Top 100 Artists of the Decade: The White Stripes

Keyboard Cuts: How To Build A Slasher

Batman: Arkham Asylum Trailer

Hipster Music For Those Over 25 Years Old

Badass New Internet Terminator Poster

Sexy Mrs. Claus Tribute Gallery

Forgetting Sarah Marshall And Boffing Mila Kunis

World's First Known Lolcat Discovered

Spiked Classics of 2006

Benny Benassi: Whos Your ...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.2
  • 5
1815694
Neon
View Profile
Level: 32
Voting Power: 4.1

Tom Hanks - Big
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.3
  • 5
3813290
Xplosive
View Profile
Level: 38
Voting Power: 4.6

SNL - Celebrity Jeopardy
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.3
  • 5
2226019
PorridgeGun
View Profile
Level: 49
Voting Power: 5

Dog Attempts Suicide
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.4
  • 5
5445836
cp-opi
View Profile
Level: 38
Voting Power: 4.6

"V for Vendetta" - 2nd Fi...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.1
  • 5
3412803
carrotfire
View Profile
Level: 37
Voting Power: 4.5

Condom Ad
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.2
  • 5
5922299
DragonMaster666
View Profile
Level: 1
Voting Power: 1

PumpCast News
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.3
  • 5
4825127
Beeziie
View Profile
Level: 36
Voting Power: 4.4

Gatling Gun Test
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.0
  • 5
6020720
03_Pirate
View Profile
Level: 36
Voting Power: 4.4

Scrubs and Turk
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.3
  • 5
4717669
travis
View Profile
Level: 13
Voting Power: 2.2

American History X - The ...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.2
  • 5
4216076
xebulba
View Profile
Level: 39
Voting Power: 4.7

Second Largest Tetris Boa...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.1
  • 5
29615050
Pr0n
View Profile
Level: 40
Voting Power: 4.8

Conan O' Brien: Walker Te...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.5
  • 5
5588585
Ron_Tha_Ripper<-A...
View Profile
Level: 25
Voting Power: 3.4

See No Evil Hear No Evil ...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.2
  • 5
2715299
The Gatekeeper
View Profile
Level: 47
Voting Power: 5

Conan O' Brien - Rebecca ...
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4.4
  • 5
3129208
PorridgeGun
View Profile
Level: 49
Voting Power: 5