Human Origins and Migration
The human species most probably originated in Africa more than six million years ago, descended from the common ancestors of apes and men. In the early days of humanity, there were, of course, very few of us, so there was necessarily very much interbreeding among close relatives.
Gradually humanity spread throughout Africa, into the Middle East, into Europe and Asia, into Southeast Asia and Indonesia and on into Australia and Polynesia. Eventually humans crossed the land bridge between Asia and Alaska, entered the Americas, and spread throughout North, Central, and South Americas.
Meanwhile, explorers, conquerors, traders and ambassadors were increasing contact between the peoples of the world throughout history and pre-history. There is new evidence that Asians may have visited South America directly after the first wave of migration, and everyone knows that the Vikings may have visited North America before Columbus. In any event, after Columbus the Europeans virtually invaded the Americas and brought slaves from Africa as well. All these contacts led to a lot more interbreeding than many of us would like to admit.
Cousins have always been interbreeding with cousins, whether we like to admit it or not. And all it takes is one unconventional couple to create a spreading wave of progeny that weaves two separate populations together in the relation of cousinhood.Each person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, etc.
If one carries that progression back to the 50th generation, each of us would have 250 ancestors, far more human beings than have ever lived on this planet. Obviously, there must have been quite a lot of interbreeding among relatives in the past. In fact, if one goes back about 1000 years -- fifty generations -- we all probably have the same ancestors!.
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