The Moving Finger Writes...

Tracing ancestry

The latest trend in anthropological studies is the tracing of human ancestry to the earliest living man. The Genographic project conceived and designed by Dr. Spencer Wells and National Geographic is perhaps one of the most publicised studies of our times. And, to its credit, has marketed itself well. While in Washington D.C earlier this year, I visited the NG museum and found a grand display of the project. And earlier this month, I read a full page feature in the Time magazine about a woman who attempted to trace her roots.

Every passing day renders the human gene more "diluted". Globalisation has brought different cultures, races and tribes in contact with each other and in the process has mired the human tree with more twists in its branches than every before.

If Sherlock Holmes and Jack Frost are icons of the detective world, then the Genographic project is the mother of all snoops. Would you disagree that there can be no greater curiosity than to determine with whom the buck started in the game of Life ?

I shall soon embark upon my personal journey ...