Matt Gagarin

21 September 2019

Anthropology

Eons, PBS. “When We Met Other Human Species.” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 9 July 2019,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYwMLSNHnU&list=WL&index=31&t=2s​.

Research Assessment #2

The human lineage has been a mystery ever since the theory of evolution has been

proposed. Recent discoveries have lead to the conclusion that modern humans have descended

from interbreeding with other now deceased Homonyms such as the Neanderthal and

Denisovans. Many interbreeding events took place around 145,000 to 40,000 years ago that left

modern humans with many benefits. With our lineage being convoluted and dense, many

genomes from other species have given us helpful traits such as a better immune system,

sunburning, and more hemoglobin in our blood. These inherited traits were useful for survival in

the past, but have also left us problems with high blood pressure and risks of blood clotting.

Previously, it was believed we only interbreeded with Neanderthals, however, there has been a

recent discovery in our ancestry, as a new species of ancient humans, the Denisovans, were

discovered in 2008. This new revelation has left anthropologists puzzled, intrigued, and

questioning our upbringing.

Anthropology has many fields, and the field I am mostly interested in is archaeology.

However, this discovery mixes biological anthropology with archaeology, which has made me

more intrigued in all the different fields this science has to offer. Learning about this has opened

my eyes to what all of anthropology has to offer, as I want to learn about all of anthropology, not
just archaeology. This field is too dense for just generalizing it or focusing on one specific field.

Being able to collectively use different anthropologies to determine how Denisovans are related

to modern humans is very interesting. It is as if all the anthropologies fit as cogs in a machine,

working together to advance human knowledge of ourselves and our past.

Knowing how our lineage and the ins and outs of how we became ‘us’ is very interesting

to me already, but this topic and research captivated my attention. I always wondered our lineage

and how we came to be, but with these recent discoveries, the forecast of what is to be

discovered next is shrouded in mystery, and perhaps one day I will be on a team dedicated to

solving it. The theories explaining the disappearance of other Homonym species is heavily

debated and discussed, and having knowledge of these theories is crucial to my understanding of

archaeology and anthropology. It is essential to have a strong foundation to build off of, and

there is no better place to start than the beginning.