Ghengis Khan has 16 Million Living Descendants, and the Interesting Genetics of Americans

Human ancestry is deep and complicated, as a matter of fact, you are related to some people in history multiple times through the various lineages of the same descendant.  Not only that, but several recent findings suggest that we are related to two different species of humans that have since gone extinct, the Neanderthals and the Denisovians.

But in a more recent context, as my title suggests, in many ways, it's a disconcerting thought to think as Oxford Geneticist Bryan Sykes says in a recent 'Big Think' article, "My guess is that the Y chromosome of every living man has spent at least one generation in the testis of a warlord."

Genetics isn't only a study of something inconsequential, but rather a integral part of who we are today; not just as a person, but as a people.  For Americans, that genetic story originates in a fascinating way.  Three main ways to be exact, over the frozen "waste lands" of Siberia, boats from Europe, and slave ships from Africa.  All, which required a lot of "trouble" as Sykes says, to get here.

"Sykes tells Big Think he set out, Easy Rider-style, to find the ways in which people with African, Native American and European ancestry were linked. The results were often quite surprising. For instance, most African Americans have some European DNA.  

This raises an interesting question. What does it mean about your identity when you discover that you are related to another group that you never would have suspected? The truth is simply too disturbing for some people who simply don't want to know."

The fact is, most of our history is a story of conquest and domination.  But, while our history books are written by the winners of conquests, our genes are a diverse combination of both the winners and the losers, and that's a history that cannot be denied.

Sykes' humbling commentary on this matter is simply that he is "proud."  

"I’m very proud of all of my ancestors that have got their DNA through to me, and I think everybody should be, particularly in America. Because all of you have ancestors that took a lot of trouble to get here..."

Sykes has written two popular books on genetics, "The Seven Daughters of Eve" and "Adam's Curse."  I plan on reading both and expect another to be coming soon on the topic of America's diversity, which quite possible could be the saving grace of our species in the case of a massive epidemic of disease.  But, that's another topic for another day.