Thoughts About the Future: Human Origin

DISCOVERING YOUR INNER NEANDERTHAL

The debate about whether modern human beings eliminated the Neanderthals as they moved into their territories or interbred with them has gone on for a long time among scientists. Until recently, the more satisfying theory that modern humans decimated their less-adapted rivals has largely prevailed. After all, the Neanderthals are viewed as stocky, not very intelligent, early human beings who died out about 30,000 years ago; as modern human beings spread from Africa, they killed them off. So who would want the genes from such a subhuman species in one’s genome?

But now there seems to be new evidence that modern human beings really did mate with Neanderthals, so that we share about 1 to 4 percent of their genes. At least that’s the claim of a team of biologists, led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, according to an article in the New York Times.

These scientists, who have conducted the fi rst detailed analysis of the Neanderthal’s genome or genetic sequence, claim that they have recovered 60 percent of this sequence so far by examining the DNA from Neanderthal bones. This has led them to discover that 1 to 4 percent of the genome of non-Africans comes from Neanderthals, who split off from the modern human evolutionary line about 600,000 years ago.

How did this mixing happen? According to one theory, modern human beings expanded out of Africa about 44,000 years ago into Europe and had a chance to meet and mate with Neanderthals for the next 14,000 years until Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after a population of human beings spread out to East Asia. Another possibility offered by the Leipzig scientists is that this interbreeding occurred in the Middle East between 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, before the human beings who went to East Asia split off from those in Europe. Also, these scientists have argued that these human beings were not yet fully “modern” and did not come from the same gene pool as the human beings in Africa; so, the Neanderthals only interbred with non-Africans. In coming to their conclusion, these scientists looked at genetics and fairly complex statistical calculations, unlike other paleontologists who have focused on the archaeological record.

In any case, this possibility that many of us might share 1 to 4 percent of our genes with Neanderthals is intriguing and suggests other possibilities. For example, once the Neanderthal genome is fully recovered and compared with the human genome, it is possible we might share even more DNA with Neanderthals, depending on what the additional 40 percent of the sequence reveals. Also, it is possible that different people will have different amounts of Neanderthal DNA, which opens up other avenues for exploration.

For example, just as people might be interested in tracing their ancestry through genealogical records, they might be interested in learning what percentage of genes they share with Neanderthals.

People might use this information in various ways. For example, if it becomes cool to have Neanderthal genes, people might want to brag about how much they have, or if it becomes an unfavorable trait, like having a genetic marker for a propensity to get a certain disease, people might want to conceal this background. In turn, whether having this gene becomes cool or something to be concealed depends on the research discovered about the Neanderthal genes shared with modern humans. On the cool side, the genes might predispose someone to be strong and tough and have great endurance in cold weather, but on the negative side, the genes might result in a tendency to be shorter and have slightly lower intelligence.

In any case, once Neanderthal gene mapping becomes possible as a commercial venture, marketers will most certainly emphasize the positive advantages to attract customers who want to know about their Neanderthal genes, much like a growing number of people use various services today to fi nd out about their DNA ancestry. In fact, people may want to play up their Neanderthal heritage. For example, they might wear T-shirts or caps proudly proclaiming themselves to be 1, 2, 3, or 4 percent Neanderthal. There might be parties and mixers where people might dress up like Neanderthals; Neanderthal costumes might become big sellers during Halloween. There might be TV shows and movies featuring characters with Neanderthal traits. A few years ago, a TV show tried to play off the caveman image in the GEICO commercials and featured cavemen trying to navigate in modern-day society. At the time, the show didn ’t do very well, but maybe it was ahead of its time. Now, the Neanderthal connection might prove more popular. Moviesmight feature what-if scenarios, such as “What if the Neanderthals won and modern humans died out 30,000 years ago? What would society be like today?”

Meanwhile, whatever effect the Neanderthal connection has on popular culture, scientists are likely to start other lines of research to fi nd out more about the effect of these genes on human beings today. For example, they might set up studies to compare people in different cultures who have more or less Neanderthal genes, such as comparing people with 1 to 2 percent with those with 3 to 4 percent or more. Then, after taking into consideration other infl uences, such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, education, and gender, researchers might be able to learn how having more or less of these genes might affect modern humans.

For example, maybe researchers might fi nd that those with more of the genes are more or less successful, tend to be in certain professions, or are more or less likely to marry. They might also look at the success rate of marriages between those with high or low Neanderthal genes or for “mixed” marriages in which one partner is high in Neanderthal genes and the other is low in them. They might consider the relationship between personality and having a high or low percentage of Neanderthal genes. In fact, maybe one ’s genetic makeup could turn out to be one of those demographic variables that social scientists frequently use in different studies, as they discover more and more differences between those with a low and a high percentage of Neanderthal genes.

Then, depending on whether people like having Neanderthal genes, a whole new profession might spring up to reduce or increase having these genes in one ’s makeup, much like clients go to plastic surgeons to augment or decrease certain body parts, like one ’s nose or one ’s breasts.

In sum, if we do have some percentage of Neanderthal genes, it might be fascinating to fi nd out how much and how to work with these genes. And not only scientists but marketers will soon be helping us learn about and embrace our Neanderthal heritage. Then, when someone calls someone else a “Neanderthal,” the term will have a new and perhaps very positive, cool meaning.

Extracts taken from "The Very Next New Thing ~ Commentaries On The Latest Developments That Will Be Changing Your Life" by Gini Graham Scott (2011)