Map showing human migration routes beginning about 100,000 years ago, based on mitochondrial (yellow) and Y-chromosome (blue) DNA evidence collected by the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project and other sources.

My guest Tahya wonders if her affinity for and ability to serve as a conduit for ancient arts born of cultures not directly tied to her genetics is due to wisdom coded in our DNA.  And that brings up interesting pieces of human history that we are beginning to learn more about.

Genographic evidence points to a common maternal ancestor for all humans; she is known as Mitochondrial Eve and it is theorized that she lived approximately 200,000 years ago. (http://tiny.cc/uol51)   In a nutshell, this means that every one of us is related to one another.  And given that the geologic age of the Earth is over 4 billion years, a mere 200,000 years is almost unfathomably recent in such a lengthy timeline.

To further develop the implications of Mitochondrial Eve, professor Nina Jablonski, head of the Penn State Department of Anthropology,  has discovered that skin color changes faster than scientists had previously believed.  This is due to the strength of ultraviolet light (UV) of the climate lived in and our body’s melanin (skin pigment molecule) production.  In climates with stronger UV, the melanin creates darker skin pigment to protect the body from excessive UV. The opposite occurs in cooler climates (e.g., lighter skin).  Professor Jablonski has determined that it only takes 100 to 200 generations for skin pigment to completely change; that’s approximately 2,500 years. And given migration patterns of human settlements over millenia, Professor Jablonski finds it likely that one’s  ancestry  o f 2,500 years ago or more will reveal that family skin pigmentation is quite different than present family skin pigmentation.

Whatever race, culture, minority, majority, ethnicity you have been taught to use as an identification for who you are is a limiting means of establishing your True Self.  You are more complex, interestesting and deeper than you’ve been led to believe.