One family: We are all Africans

Now it can be told. All people in the world are cousins. We are all one family. According to 'The Genetic Archeology of Race' in The Atlantic Monthly (April 2001), scientific research has shown that there is more genetic variety among chimpanzees on a hill in Africa than among all the people of the world.

Steve Olson, author of this article, reports that all the people of the world today are descended from a group in eastern Africa. These people spread throughout the world and wherever they went their genes eventually prevailed. Olson says that no evidence of warfare is found in this takeover and that 'archeological evidence indicates that bands of modern and archaic people sometimes lived near each other for thousands of years... The cave paintings of Europe... some of which date from the time when modern people were replacing Neanderthals evince plenty of violence against animals but not against people.'

Yet the myth of racial superiority dies hard. As Olson reports, Carolus Linnaeus, the botanist who devised the name for humans, Homo Sapiens, divided the race into four groups: 'red Americans, yellow Asians, black Africans, and white Europeans.' With typical racial bias, he concluded that the Americans were 'ill-tempered... obstinate, contented, free.' He labeled the Asians as 'severe, haughty, desirous,' and the Africans 'crafty, slow, foolish (not realizing that he himself was an African.) His own Europeans, of course, he considered 'active, very smart, inventive.'

One might have expected more than such hasty generalizations from someone with scientific training. However, it is easy to generalize wrongly when one has made too few observations. The generalizations Olson has reported are based on extensive and sophisticated observations.

What then are the sources of differences we observe between groups of people• Climate and culture for starters. It is obvious that persons exposed for many generations to more direct and more intensive sunlight have darker skin. There is no doubt a safety factor involved there.

A myth reported from some people in the Philippines said that when God first created mankind the man was baked in an oven. The first one in was left in the oven too long and came out very dark but otherwise perfect. So God kept this one and tried again. The second one was pulled out too soon and came out pasty white. So God kept that one also and tried the third time. This one came out just right - golden brown, which just happens to be the color of people in the Philippines. A variation on the Linnaeus myth.

Another significant difference between people groups has been culture. They devise different solutions to problems of life and pass the solutions along generation by generation. When Europeans and Americans met and clashed on this continent, the Europeans had certain cultural advantages which made the conflict unequal. Among these, of course, were sailing ships which made it possible for them to get here. Included also were guns, the wheel, and domesticated animals. But more important than all of these were diseases which the Europeans brought. These devastated the Americans because they had not encountered these diseases before. One author says that it was diseases which conquered the Americans rather than the Europeans' cultural advantages.

Rather than offer to share and exchange cultural practices, most Europeans considered it their destiny to destroy or enslave Americans, a typical strategy for persons who consider other groups inferior instead of the cousins they really are.

So we are all one human race. Does this help or hinder• One would hope we can begin to see all humankind as brothers and sisters and respect them as such. But of course, plenty of violence occurs even among close relatives. Just being related does not solve problems in and of itself. My father, who grew up in Tennessee, told of a man he knew who said he liked living there because 'he had no kinfolk there.'

What can be readily observed are wide variations of intelligence and creativity within groups. Yet intelligence and creativity of themselves are not enough to permit a person to be successful in life. Supporting families, churches, and broader communities are needed to nurture the growing person. In any case, let us remember that every person we meet is at least a distant cousin. Learning to live with and cherish them is a first-rate task.

Hertzler is a Scottdale resident.