The Origins Of The Human Of South America, And Through The Analysis Of Morphological Data

Bartolome’ de Las Casas was a Spanish colonist and a Dominican friar. His uncles and father were part of Christopher Columbus second voyage to America. There were rumors of all the gold, spices and other valuables going around Europe, so the Spanish built small colonies on the island of Hispaniola. Las Casas in 1502 traveled to the New World to serve as an officer of the king. He was given a group of Native Americans forced to serve and obey him. However he released his laborers and spent the rest of his life protecting the Native Americans.

For many years there has been a debate over where modern humans originated from. The first theory, out of Africa, discusses modern humans evolving in Africa. They migrated out to Eurasia and as the time went on their species evolved independently and developed into distinct species. All other human populations were eventually replaced with no interbreeding involved in the process and Homo sapiens had successfully dominated the rest of the world. On the other hand, the second theory, regional continuity, says that our earliest hominid ancestors had departed Africa and spread into other parts of the world later evolving into modern human beings. In this paper I will discuss the Regional continuity theory and elaborating on the Out of Africa theory. Evidence based on fossils, artifacts, and other crucial components will be discussed. Based on the evidence found I will come to a conclusion as to which theory I think best fits the origins of humans.

Cabeza de Vaca was known for his discovery of America. He documented his trek in America, as a lost traveler, exposed to unfamiliar territory, multiple hardships, and the native Indian tribes. His journal entry over his reencounters with the Christians is only a small record over his adventures on the whole Narvaez Expedition of 1528. The document was published in Spain, 1542, at a time when dispute over the mistreatment of natives in America in their colonization became a subject to resolve. His journal entry discusses his brief experience in an Indian tribe, the news he receives of nearby Spanish men penetrating the tribal communities, and the realization that the “Christians” were not a character he thought they were. Cabeza de Vaca sympathized the indigenous tribes and believed that they should not face the cruelty the Spanish settlers set in order to

From three thousand BC to one thousand two hundred BC, this mighty nation lived. In Peru, near the city of Lima, scientists discovered a city. A sunken plaza, a big amphitheater, a city in ruins. Sadly, they disappeared. One of the skeletons they found, was a woman. By what the scientists could tell, she had a high status, and, based on what they found in the grave, this civilization practiced equality between men and women. I welcome you, to the oldest civilization, Norte Chico.

In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.

Discoveries relating to the human lineage are extremely exciting and often baffling. This is the case with the recent discovery of what seems to be the oldest member of the human family. A skull found in northern Chad in 2001, has been deemed the earliest relative to the human ever found. Nicknamed Toumai, and discovered by Michel Brunet and his paleontology team, this new category of human has been given the scientific name, Sahelanthropus tchaensis. What makes this skull so definitive is the fact that it dates back approximately 6-7 million years in the earth’s history (Whitfield 2002). Since the discovery there have been anthropologists and paleontologists that have

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, c. 1488/1490/1492[1] – Seville, c. 1557/1558/1559[1]/1560[2]) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La Relación ("The Relation", or in more modern terms "The Account"[3]), which in later editions was retitled Naufragios ("Shipwrecks"). Cabeza de Vaca has been considered notable as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of American

Archaeology provides clues to the past when no written record existed, making the field the only way to expand the existing knowledge of the Clovis and pre-Clovis cultures. In South America, there is an abundance of archaeological sites dating to both Clovis and pre-Clovis times, but in North America, specifically on the East coast, there are only a handful of excavated sites. In reference to pre-Clovis, this statement is especially true, with varied sites that have not been fully excavated or are not convincing enough to be considered hard hitting evidence in favor of their existence. These sites are the basis for the debate over who came first and if pre-Clovis really existed or not, making the analysis of excavations a key factor to understanding

Some researchers believe the Out Of Africa expansion took a southern route, following the Indian Ocean coastal boundary down in to Indonesia and finally into Sahul (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 2013; Derricourt, 2005; Field and Lahr, 2005). However, genetic testing of aboriginal inhabitants of Sahul favors a combination of southern and northern routes. The northerly migration path traversed through the Altai Mountains, and shows a consistency with Denisovan genetics (Cooper and Stringer, 2013:321; Davidson, 2013:3). Modern human gene flow with Denisovans is believed to have occurred in the mainland area of Asia, before migration to Sahul (Cooper and Stringer, 2013:322; Reich et al.,

Anthropologists argue that race does not exist because it is not a biological entity. The cornerstone of this basis is Fish’s illustration that humans are a species; therefore we cannot be genetically different. This means that people from anywhere on earth can mate and produce fertile offspring. Using mitochondria we are able to trace the migration of mankind by using genetic markers. This is based on the idea that both males and females inherit mitochondrial DNA identical to their mother. By performing a general DNA analysis on people from all over the world, social scientists can

According to physical evidence, and theories, scholars have concluded upon a whole hypothesis. Based on their knowledge and belief, modern humans diverged from Homo sapiens between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago specifically in Africa, that between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago members of Homo sapiens left Africa, and that these

Human origins, evolution, and diffusion are important for understanding the history of Africa. African historians take pride in the fact that Africa is most certainly the birthplace of humanity. There is evidence showing that humanity began in Africa by remains left behind by human groups and societies. They have retrieved fossils of living organisms, and even written records, like cave drawings. Dating back millions of years ago Africa provides the best time line of human development because other parts of the world do not have evidence dating back as far as in Africa. Where did humanity and human history begin? There are theories supporting both that, humans evolved from various parts of the world, and that humans rose in Africa then migrated to other parts of the world and continued to develop. The theory that has the most support is that humanity rose in Africa then moved to other regions of the world. Africa is indeed the home of humanity but because Africa is where humanity began they were not able to be at the top of the evolutionary ladder because their global location did not allow them to develop faster. Human history in general is difficult to understand but we can look at the past to learn more about where we came from and how our societies have developed.

Human evolution is the gradual process in which people, or Homo sapiens, originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence, particularly in the form of fossils and secondary remains, show that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people evolved over a period of approximately six million years. Humans are primates. Both genetic and physical similarities show that humans and the great apes (large apes) of Africa, chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. The volume of fossils found in Africa suggests that most evolution occurred there and is likely the place of origin for early humans. This brings to fruition the “out of Africa” theory, also called the “single-origin hypothesis.”

“Although we are all members of a single species, we differ from one another in such visible traits as the color of our skin and the shape of our noses, and in biochemical factors such as our blood types and our susceptibility to certain diseases” (Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, 2013, p. 34). To understand human physical development and evolution one has to understand biological anthropology as the focus on humans as biological organisms. Biological anthropologist conduct research, and form techniques of modern molecular biology to learn about human variation and how it relates to different environment humans lived in as well as their conditions.

Human evolution according to research started over 6 million years ago. The outcome of the evolution process is the current human beings. Scientific studies have revealed over the years a remarkable affinity between the chimpanzees/Apes and human beings. Even though this reality is not a definitive prove that human beings evolved from apes, it does show that the human beings are in one way or another related to other primates. Scientists suppose that the humans and the primates shared a common ancestor. The subject of what makes humans what they are and their origin has been the exclusive purpose leading to many scientific studies globally (Coolidge & Wynn, 2011). Studies believe that Africa was the origin of evolution millions of years ago. Fossil remains have been discovered in different parts of Africa as well as other regions of the world. Different hominins have been discovered around the world in the last 1 million years. Thus, the different discoveries have led to comparisons between the various species of hominins to clarify on their similarities as well as differences. This essay seeks to explain whether they were distinctively different species or regional versions of the same species.