Analyzing the Documentary The Human Family Tree - Essay Example

Human life is considered to have begun in East Africa and over thousands of years, population movements around the world were caused by recurring ice ages, periods of drought, and the rising and lowering of sea levels, which for example turned islands into contiguous land masses over which people migrated. Sometimes population would split and move off in different directions, with one group possibly carrying with them a marker causing a slight difference in genetic makeup than the other group. More recently population movements have tended to be caused more by economic and political conditions rather than by climatic shifts. It is unclear from the documentary how the timetable for the various population movements was arrived at, but the extraction of DNA confirming the discovery of the body of English King Richard shows that DNA can be preserved for many years after death suggests that possibly DNA was obtained from well preserved human remains as well as from people currently alive. In any event, the notion that severe climatic changes could cause the population to split with one group carrying a slightly different marker than the other makes sense to me even if the timetable may be somewhat inaccurate. The documentary traces the genetic history of specific people tested in the Queen experiment and determines their ancestry through their particular markers to population movements thousands of years ago. It concludes with a creative and graphic illustration of the population movements throughout history. People in the Queen's experiment were divided into 5 groups (to represent population groups) in a park and were reunited with each other to represent population movements until there was only one representing the effect of modern globalization. Therefore while in the distant past population groups have split and branched out, more recently to a great extent they have reunited. The documentary makes a strong case that differences, for example in skin color, are not caused by genetic variation but by evolutionary adaptation. For example, there was a population movement of a black group from East Africa to Asia. Even though their genetic makeup is similar to the original African group, they now have lighter skin. Although it takes thousands of years to change, this seems to confirm the notion that darker skin is an evolutionary adaptation to a hot dry climate which over time will become lighter in a cold one rather than being due to a genetic variation. The central point of the documentary is that while people of the world may differ significantly in skin color, at least genetically inside we are very much alike even with the presence of markers. Therefore race has no biological basis but is a social construction invented by people such as the Europeans to describe people in other parts of the world they encountered who had different skin tones than they did.

Sometimes, however, as Hitler did with the Jewish ethnic group, the dominant group can ascribe inferior racial status to the despised group even though their skin color is similar. This is called racialization and in Hitler’s case was promoted by attempting to differentiate by pseudoscientifically encouraging the breeding of strong blue-eyed blond babies considered to be consistent with the Aryan race.

I am an Asian from South Korea who attended middle school in New Zealand and high school in Canada. In New Zealand, I was subject to racism even from my teacher. White people from Europe treated New Zealand as their colony. This seems to be a hangover from 500 years ago when their technological superiority allowed them to conquer much of the world. This lead them to consider themselves as innately superior and “God’s chosen people” over those conquered. This ethnocentric attitude could result in harsh or paternalistic treatment of indigenous people, but regardless it was based on the notion that because of their alleged superiority they had the exclusive right to deal with natives as they saw fit. However, my experience was 10 years ago and I understand racism has lessened since then.

In Canada, in high school, I was not subject to racism although I tended to socialize more with others from Asia than white Canadians. Unlike the US, at least until recently, Canada does not expect immigrants to renounce the culture they brought with them and to assimilate as 100% Americans. as they have historically been expected to do under the melting pot theory. Instead, Canada encourages homeland cultures to be retained as long as core Canadian values and laws are respected in a pluralistic society. Thus socializing with those of similar backgrounds was not discouraged, especially during the initial period of adjustment.

This documentary shows that racial differences are only skin deep since we all share similar if not identical gene structures. Therefore, if we display negative racial attitudes based on different skin colors, in a sense we are doing this against a brother or sister if not a twin in the human family. It behooves us in the interest of world peace, as much as possible to promote equal opportunity, mobility, and prosperity prospects of people of all so-called races.