Scientists Trace Society’s Myths to Primordial Origins

Scientific American have analysed how stories change in the retelling down through the generations, sheding light on the history of human migration going as far back as the Paleolithic period. The research lends credibility to the out-of-Africa theory of human origins, asserting that anatomically modern hu­mans originated in Africa and spread from there to the rest of the world. It complements phylogenetic studies by biologists that indicate the first major wave of human migration radiating from Africa followed the southern coastline of Asia, peopled Australia some 50,000 years ago and reached America from an east Asian source. Both the biological and myth­ological research point to a second migration reaching North America at more or less the same time from a north Eurasian source.