Spencer: It took our ancestors those first humans around 35,000 years to make a perilous journey from Africa to the new world. Today, nearly 500 generations later the descendants can make the trip in less than a day from anywhere in the world. Every year for about 5 days nearly million people do precisely that they come here to Rio de Janeiro for one of the most exuberant celebrations of life anywhere in the globe. That's why I have chosen to end my journey here.
[Noise of the crowd][MUSIC]
15 years ago, the story would have been impossible to tell the scientific technology simply didn't exist. But in this era of globalisation, isolated populations are being absorbed at an ever-increasing rate. It's possible that by the end of the century, the genetic sign posts of our journey would have been dispersed around the globe. When this happens, the story will once again become hidden. My colleagues and I have been very lucky to able to tell this story to decipher the genetic clues during this brief window of history.
[MUSIC][Celebrations]
My journey around the world has only been possible because of some unusual people, the Navaho Indians from the Canyon Day Shay.
[Pictures of Navaho's].
The Chupchey reindeer herders from the Russian Far East.
[Pictures of Chupchey herders]
The people of the crossroads in Central Asia
[Pictures of Crossroads]
And the Australian Aborigines.
[Pictures of Australian Aborigines]
Yet we can all trace our ancestry back to those few people who left Africa 50,000 years ago.
[Scene change: photo studio]
Photographer: Heads up Girls and Boys, 1 2 3
[Whispering during a photo shoot]
Man1: I am from Liberia. I am African and Native American.
Girl1: I am from New Zealand. My father is Walsh and my mother is Greek English.
Girl2: I am from Denmark. My father is Danish and my mom is Thai.
Man2: I am from Caribbean. My father is African and Spanish. My mother is Irish, German.
Girl3: I am Slovakian. That's it.
[Photo shoot going on]
Spencer: So I reached the end of journey and what have I learnt? Well, a lot I have been humble by the courage and resilience shown by our ancestors. I witnessed firsthand the powerful combination of intelligence in the human spirit and with reassuringly I have proven to myself that all those years in the lab weren't wasted. The story carried in our blood really is true.
[Snaps]
But there is one lesson that stands out from all others; it's the lesson about the relationships. You and I and in fact everyone all over the world were all literally African under the skin. Brothers and Sisters separated by a mere 2000 generations. Old-fashioned concepts of race were not only socially divisive, but also scientifically wrong. It's only when we fully taken the sign board that we can say with any conviction that the journey our ancestors launched all those years ago is complete.
Presenter: Dr. Spencer Wells
Disclaimer: All video content is embedded from an external site, the contributor of which is given at the top of this page. All transcriptions were done by DNA Heritage.
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