The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey - Essay Example

Journey of Man ‘The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey’ is a National Geographic documentary made on the book with the same title, and hosted by the author of that book, Spencer Wells. The main theory implied by this documentary is that the whole of mankind originated from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago. Spencer Wells, a geneticist, proves this theory by travelling to different countries and finding genetic evidence related to the theory by identifying genetic markers in the blood samples of major groups such as Australians, Asians, and many more. I can highly relate with Wells’s approach about origins and that there is no such thing as a ‘race’, a word which becomes the basis of discrimination faced by Black Americans like me. Moreover, I was greatly intrigued by the way physical features of different groups evolved, and flattered that the male sex chromosome played an important part in this research. However, some of Wells’s sayings seemed contradictory to his views. Moreover, I did not like the way the host acted sometimes while conducting the research. Therefore, after watching this documentary, I had mixed opinions about it. During the beginning of the documentary, an explanation is given on Wells’s theory that the birthplace of all humans alive on this planet is the same-Africa. The pride I felt in my ethnicity after discovering this was immense. True, I do not completely associate myself with Africa as my nationality is ‘American’, but I am after all an ‘African American’. This realization also instilled a sense of shame in me due to not having even a bit of patriotism in me for the country where we African Americans are originally from; early in America’s history, Africans were brought to America from Africa as slaves but were later given freedom and equality, due to which we are now African Americans. This documentary has made me accept the fact that it does not matter which country I was born in or which country’s nationality I assume. What really matters is that all African Americans know that their great great grandfathers directly originated from Africa, but majority of them forget about this origin. I myself had forgotten this origin until I watched this documentary. This is not the only reason why I am so grateful to this documentary. Thanks to the ground-breaking discoveries made by Spencer Wells, one develops a new perspective of the concept of race. By stating that “we are all African under the skin”, Wells’s disregards all the old-fashioned concepts of race, such as thinking that people with the same color of skin or language are the same. Spencer puts this point across by exploring how Africans migrated to different parts of the world and evolved in different ways, which is why people with similar physical characteristics started to associate themselves with one of these ‘different races’. The documentary disagrees with such associations and I highly agree with this point. I believe that by seeing an individual through ‘racial lenses’, assumptions about that individual would definitely be made according to his/her ‘race’. According to me, this is termed as a kind of discrimination. Being an African American, I myself have been a victim of having assumptions being made about me, such as the time when a grocery owner kept a watchful eye on me while I was buying groceries (just because majority of the shoplifters in that neighborhood are African American). Therefore I really approved of Wells’s opinion that everyone is the same, and not part of ‘different races’. As he says in his documentary, we have the same descendant, who was from Africa. However, something about this statement of his made me doubt his personal opinions a bit. By terming us all as ‘Africans’, Wells is in fact calling us a race-something which is contradictory to what his views throughout the documentary are. According to Wells, there is no such thing as a race, but implying that we are all ‘African’ shows otherwise. I personally felt that, by calling us all ‘Africans’, Wells means that we all originated from a race that suffers from poverty and famine, and which dwells in barren lands. Thus, I feel that it would be better if he had just stated that we have ‘come from Africa’, instead of calling us a race and contradicting his own views. The host of this documentary also opposes his belief and theory of racism being unacceptable-by showing an act of racism. For instance, in the documentary, when he and his group comes into aboriginal villages in order to prove his theory, Wells tries to explain his genetic journey to them, telling them all about his scientific research and where their descendants really came from. I really disapproved of this act of Wells, as I can imagine how baffled and irritated those tribes must have been at the appearance of a person who shows up out of nowhere and starts telling them where they came from. This showed how insensitive and rude Wells acted by imparting scientific knowledge on people who are content with who they are. Moreover, knowing that these people have no sense of intellectual superiority in the area of science, Wells should have at least allowed them to digest science’ explanation and let them give their own views on the subject. Furthermore, I literally cringed with embarrassment at the way Wells went from tribe to tribe only for the purpose of praising some of the tribes’ members for their prominent genetic markers. If I would have been in their place, I would definitely find Wells a racist, regardless of what he says his views are. In addition, I sometimes get the feeling that this whole research was all about him. The reason for this is because he keeps talking about making history and his part in the ‘greatest discovery’. Personally, it makes me think that Wells’s motives were ego driven, as the spotlight gravitates from ‘man’s’ journey toward Wells’s own journey. It would have been better if the documentary would have given much more knowledge about the specific markers used to identify migratory patterns, especially regarding how each major group is unique. On the other hand, I was very much intrigued at discovering how similarities between people and their African origins are determined. Although it may sound a bit sexist, I was a bit flattered at finding out that it is mainly the Y chromosome, which only males have, that is essential to Spencer Wells’ research of tracing back specific lineages. According to his research, it is the Y chromosome which contains mutations that are used as genetic markers. Another interesting point which made me wonder was that, even though everyone descended from a man in Africa, the physical features of people in some countries differ from those of people from other countries. This documentary explains this point very effectively, saying that populations evolved according to the conditions they faced in the places where they migrated to. This completely cleared my doubt regarding the reason for the different color of certain major groups’ skins. ‘The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey’ certainly gave me a lot to ponder about. It made me realize that I had forgotten where my true origins lie and how African Americans should be proud of being ‘African’, not ‘American’. Moreover, I highly agree with Spencer Wells’ views that the concept of ‘race’ in today’s world is wrong and that everyone is equal. The fact that the male chromosome has a huge part in Wells’s research, and the reason why people from different groups have different physical features caught my interest. However, I sometimes got the feeling that Wells did not conduct the research in an ethical manner, and put too much focus on himself. Furthermore, I personally thought that Wells’ views given in the documentary were a bit false, as his statements and actions in the documentary were in contrast to them. Read More