Mitochondrial Eve Research Articles

Mitochondrial DNA: From Forensic Genetics to the Origins of Humanity

Mitochondria are cellular organelles that provide cellular energy. Along with chloroplasts of plant cells, mitochondria are the only organelles that have genetic material. These peculiarities make mitochondrial DNA (DNA) one of the main research topics in the field of Cytology and Genetics. Interest shared by Criminalistics, which uses mDNA analysis for forensic identification of DNA traces in which nuclear DNA analysis is not possible. In addition to being used in forensic investigation, mtDNA analysis has also been widely used in paleoanthropological investigation through the elaboration of human phylogenies, which retroact to only one female ancestor, known as mitochondrial Eve. In this context, this manuscript aims to address the relevance of this organelle in the field of Criminalistics and the Sciences of Origins, presenting the scientific, philosophical and theological implications arising from the in-depth analysis of this cellular structure.

HF01-15 FIRST SEX - THE NATUFIAN STATUE

You have accessJournal of UrologyCME1 May 2022HF01-15 FIRST SEX - THE NATUFIAN STATUE Nikil Sairam, and Michael Moran Nikil SairamNikil Sairam More articles by this author , and Michael MoranMichael Moran More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002541.15AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The hunter-gatherer’s who eked out a tenuous survival strategy during the last phases of the Bolling-Allerod Epipaleolithic period certainly procreated. These pre-literate peoples are the first to demonstrate sexual practices in artwork millennia prior to written language. The British movie of 1966 starring Raquel Welch as Loana, One Million Years BC failed to capture the sexuality of the caveman and cavewoman as well as this actual sculpted piece. METHODS: Much of the published writings on or about the Natufian cultures were gathered and utilized to better understand the sexual practices of these peoples. Dorothy Garrod (1892-1968) famed daughter and only surviving child of Archibald Garrod was the discoverer of the Natufian culture and peoples in 1928. Her mentor, Abbé Henri Breuil discovered a rare calcite statue, known as the “Ain Sakhri’ figurine that dates roughly to 9,000 BCE and identified by him to be Garrod’s Natufian culture. RESULTS: The figurine has undergone extensive investigations and was created upon a calcite cobble. It was sculptured to show a couple in coitus as well as being a phallic illustration. The artist utilized a pointed, probable stone chisel to remove pieces and make the delicate, copulating figures. The two entwined figures are locked in a forever intimate coital scene, presumably a female and a male, arms and legs wrapped around one another in a sitting position. CONCLUSIONS: The origin of human sexuality is linked to the development of mankind itself, well documented by modern genetic paleoanthropological investigations into mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam. The hominin lineage has recently experienced a modern Renaissance with rapid expansion in our knowledge about the evolution within Africa, correctly hypothesized by Charles Darwin. …”the statuette…had never been above ground, where it would have faded and worn away; on the contrary it bore ash marks, evidence of an existing undisturbed level, but no of clay as it would have been the case if in a cave.” Eminent social anthropologists believe that sex cannot be understood except through its social and political setting may apply to primitive civilizations that have been studied in the modern era, but these rules have difficult applications to the paleolithic era. So little is known about the ancient Natufian culture that is pre-pottery, pre-literate, pre-metallurgy but obviously not pre-sexual or erotic. Source of Funding: None © 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 207Issue Supplement 5May 2022Page: e217 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Nikil Sairam More articles by this author Michael Moran More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement PDF DownloadLoading ...

The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry

The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry

Preface: “Be a Mystery”: (The Infinity of) Black Feminist Thought

preface Sometimes, even those of us who have organized our entire lives around the transformative possibilities of Black feminist thought can sit back in wonder at the expansiveness of this intergenerational transnational practice.Thisspecialissuetakesamomenttoimbibewhere we have been, where we are, and where we have yet to journey . The contributors to this special issue on, or more precisely, of Black feminist thought find Black feminist thinking in a wide range of times, places, and forms. Each of the contributors invites us to bear witness in a distinct way to the pushes and pulls of critical engagement with Black feminist thought. Biomythic origin point “mitochondrial eve” brainstorms the archive and admonishes those of us looking back to “be a forest of your own / dreams.” Gladys Bentley sends unrequited texts to . . . Gladys Bentley . Everything is possible here, even what should never have happened. In If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday, Farah Jasmine Griffin, one of the most dedicated and prolific stewards of Black feminist thought as a liberatory practice, cites Rita Dove’s poem “Canary” to evoke the protective strategies Black women employ to hold something (ourselves, each other) sacred in an unfree world.1 The lineage we participate in through our Black 1. Farah Jasmine Griffin, If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001), 155–56. “Be a Mystery”: (The Infinity of) Black Feminist Thought 8Preface feminist intellectual labor is sacred to us. For generations, even before the name “Black Feminist,” it has existed as a form of love, communion , protest, and prophecy, often far from the spotlight. Nurtured by the warmth of imagination, practices became praxis. Griffin and others have ensured a tradition wherein, to invoke Griffin’s paraphrase of Toni Morrison in her tribute to Nellie McKay, “the mothers may soar and the daughters may know their names.”2 We are some of the daughters. But we are living in times that neither we nor our mothers would hardly recognize. Abolitionist queer Black feminists are topping the New York Times bestseller lists. Our scholars and experts speak on the nightly news. Some of what were once our most marginalized proposals have become policies, funding keywords, and even memes. The Movement for Black Lives, one of the largest and most visible social movements of our time, or any time, explicitly connects its vision to the foundational Combahee River Collective statement. We do this work now in the light of recognition. Masses of people think they know what Black feminism is, and yet, this is not the world that we dreamed. We, the current generation of practicing Black feminist thinkers, are faced with the consequences of Black feminist practice feeling like less of a mystery. We celebrate the legacy our foremothers have made possible, and we must also think creatively, lovingly, and sometimes even cryptically about what this moment can and must mother—or bring into being. It has to bring into being something we cannot describe from here, something we have not yet known. It is exhilaratingly beautiful to look upon what’s been made possible , but we know there is so much more than recognition. Undaunted by a world still hellbent on not caring for or loving us, even as it consumes our insights, theories, and modes of organizing, we create worlds filled with an abundance of joy, affirmation, and ingenuity. It is from this robust, ancestral practice of world-making that this special issue emerges. The pieces found here provide insight into one of the most dynamic aspects of Black feminist thought: its generative power. The range of topics included in this special issue encapsulates the breadth of this interdisciplinary, transnational, multimodal, and 2. Farah Jasmine Griffin, “That the Mothers May Soar and the Daughters May Know Their Names: A Retrospective of Black Feminist Literary Criticism,” Signs 32, no. 2 (Winter 2007): 483–507. Preface 9 intergenerational practice. Given the seemingly infinite nodes and entry points of Black feminist thought, it is befitting that this issue coheres because of an unboundedness and porousness among the pieces. The art essays, articles, field reviews, and conversations converse, dance, and harmonize with...

Mitochondrial eve brainstorming the archive

Feminist Studies 47, no. 1. © 2021 by Bettina Judd 13 mitochondrial eve brainstorming the archive Bettina Judd what if we were to recover the first utterance of our selves? before black (but happen to be, in this moment of looking back, black.) before african (or african descended. from a place that would be called africa. from the first large place surrounded by waters.) before woman (and all of the lies told therein.) what would we be? would we able to utter our own names? would i hear myself when called if i ever recovered me? -*the archive would be my dreams the intensity of elders’ eyes things that could not be said lest we all fall apart where shattered in the first place, the first time. uncover what? my marrow? this pelvic bone you once called home? you a child of children, a memory-premonition 14 Bettina Judd why you want so bad to remember all the things i’ve willfully forgotten? the hungers i’ve stuffed with human flesh? the joys i’ve chosen to live and in living would not write them down? uncover what? go. live. be a forest of your own dreams. be a mystery for your own children ...

(re)Producing mtEve

In their 1987 Nature publication, “Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution,” Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan C. Wilson gave a new reconstruction of human evolution on the basis of differences in mitochondrial DNA among contemporary human populations. This phylogeny included an African common ancestor for all human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages, and Cann et al.’s reconstruction became known as the “Out of Africa” hypothesis. Since mtDNA is inherited exclusively through the maternal line, the common ancestor who was first branded African Eve later became known as Mitochondrial Eve (mtEve, for short).In this paper, I show that mtEve was not a single, successful, or purely scientific discovery. Instead, she was produced many times and in many ways, each of which informed the next. Importantly, though Wilson and colleagues heralded mitochondrial DNA as a source of certainty, objectivity, and consensus for evolutionary inference, their productions of Mitochondrial Eve depended as much on popular assumptions about the certainty of maternal inheritance as they did on new molecular and computational tools. This recognition lets us reevaluate the complex consequences of these productions, which, like mtEve herself, could not be confined to a purely social, material, or scientific dimension.

Overcoming bioethical, legal, and hereditary barriers to mitochondrial replacement therapy in the USA

The purpose of the paper is to explore novel means to overcome the controversial ban in the USA against mitochondrial replacement therapy, a form of IVF, with the added step of replacing a woman’s diseased mutated mitochondria with a donor’s healthy mitochondria to prevent debilitating and often fatal mitochondrial diseases. Long proven effective in non-human species, MRT recently performed in Mexico resulted in the birth of a healthy baby boy. We explore the ethics of the ban, the concerns over hereditability of mitochondrial disease and its mathematical basis, the overlooked role of Mitochondrial Eve, the financial burden of mitochondrial diseases for taxpayers, and a woman’s reproductive rights. We examine applicable court cases, particularly protection of autonomy within the reproductive rights assured by Roe v Wade. We examine the consequences of misinterpreting MRT as genetic engineering in the congressional funding prohibitions causing the MRT ban by the FDA. Allowing MRT to take place in the USA would ensure a high standard of reproductive medicine and safety for afflicted women wishing to have genetically related children, concurrently alleviating the significant financial burden of mitochondrial diseases on its taxpayers. Since MRT does not modify any genome, it falls outside the “heritable genetic modification” terminology of concern to Congress and the FDA. Correcting this terminology, the IOM’s conclusion that MRT is ethical, the continuing normalcy of the first MRT recipient, and increasing public awareness of the promising benefits might be all that is required to modify the FDA’s position on MRT.

Post-fertilisation sperm mitophagy: the tale of Mitochondrial Eve and Steve.

Preformationist William Harvey's proclamation of everything live coming from an egg still holds true for mammalian mitochondria and mitochondrial genes. At fertilisation, mitochondria carried into the oocyte cytoplasm by the spermatozoon are sought out and destroyed, leaving only oocyte mitochondria to propagate their mitochondrial (mt) DNA to offspring. This clonal inheritance mode, the 'mitochondrial Eve' paradigm, is mediated by oocytes' resident proteolytic, organelle-targeting mechanisms, including the substrate-specific ubiquitin proteasome system and the autophagic machinery for bulk protein and organelle degradation. Ubiquitination of sperm mitochondria within the cytoplasm of the fertilised oocyte was initially discovered in mammals. More recent studies in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans implicated the ubiquitin-binding autophagy protein sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1) as the early adaptor channelling ubiquitinated sperm mitochondria towards the autophagic machinery. Downstream receptors include microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3α (LC3) and GABA type A receptor-associated protein (GABARAP). Among mammals, the domestic pig is the ideal mammalian model of mitochondrial inheritance because of rapid sperm mitophagy at the 1-cell stage of embryo development. Primary recognition of sperm mitochondria by SQSTM1 inside the porcine zygote is followed by GABARAP-containing autophagophore formation, and contributed to by valosin-containing protein (VCP), a 26S proteasome-presenting protein dislocase. Consequently, coinhibition of SQSTM1-GABARAP and VCP activities in the porcine zygotes, resulting in 2- to 4-cell embryos carrying intact sperm mitochondrial sheaths, revived the moniker of 'Mitochondrial Steve'. Further work will identify the determinants of species specificity of sperm mitophagy and explain the interplay and possible consequences of a mismatch between clonal mitochondrial genome and biparentally inherited chromosomal genes encoding for structural mitochondrial proteins and transcription factors. By better understanding sperm mitophagy and its potential failure, we may be able to alleviate mitochondrial disease and early pregnancy loss in livestock and improve their fitness, reproduction and ability to pass favourable production traits to offspring.

The African American Bible: Bound in a Christian Nation

At 2015 National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama delivered a sermon from his bully pulpit that garnered ire of Christian Right.1 In retrospect, there were many moments from speech that could have caused concern. The president's conciliatory gestures toward Dalai Lama might have opened a diplomatic Pandora's box, for even slightest bow of acknowledgment could tax relations with Chinese government. Ultimately this hardly proved newsworthy, nor did Mr. Obama's description of Islamic State as a death cult. His denunciation of Islamicized violence in Paris, Pakistan, and Middle East was as expected as his recitation of words attributed to Prophet Muhammad, None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself2 At time, the golden rule was a party line feigned by Democrats and Republicans alike.Any contention from these statements paled next to this controversial presidential parable:So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities-the profound good, strength, tenacity, compassion and love that can flow from all our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends? Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in name of Christ.3Much could be said about identity politics at play in Mr. Obama's statement- limits of his religious pluralism, his signification of 9/11, his social location of theodicy. But in this moment, I'd like to suggest that this event was proof positive that Americans are bound in a Christian nation.To be clear, United States of America is not made up solely of Christians, nor is it a theocracy. But America is a Christian nation. Those who protest with song of the separation of church and state forget that its refrain comes after a verse not about whether but how one may operate in other. Put differently, Americans would not argue about church-state relations were it not a central concern.In terms of anthropology of Scriptures, I contend that black people's relationship with Bible testifies to two aspects of Christian nation paradox.4 America is a strange new world in which some are bound in (i.e., enchained, castigated, conquered) just as it can be promised land where others are bound for (i.e., invigorated, cheered, conquerors). In theorizing about an African American Bible, members of Society of Biblical Literature might re-cognize category of Scriptures as indicative of stories not only that we read but that also read us back.5 Within their binding, astute begin to make sense of their worlds.The following reflective essay recounts some of lessons learned in studying tension between Bible and very constitution of African American identity. There we see ambivalence of this nation's Bible readers to matter of black life-namely, that its import is far from sacrosanct according to America's hermeneutical posturing.6In BeginningAt crossroads of genetic turn and post-civil rights era, inclusionminded Americans began to profess that we are all just part of one race, human race.7 The Christian Pop/Rock/Rap group called DC Talk (Decent Christian Talk) made statement into a creed.We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place.We're colored people, and they call us human race.We've got a history so full of mistakes.And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace.8The racial sentiment also reflects scientism of Zeitgeist. The Mitochondrial Eve discourse has given moderns sufficient license to remark that we are all African from a certain point of view. …

Mitochondrial genetics and cancer

The first modern human, the Mitochondrial Eve, was traced back to Africa about 200,000 years ago, based on the variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). An eruption of a super volcano, Mount Toba, in Sumatra 70,000 years ago may have led to a 'nuclear winter', followed by a 1,000-year ice age. This cold snap would have made life difficult; genetic evidence indicated a sharp reduction in population size around this time, reaching approximately 10,000 individuals. Once the climate started to improve, our ancestors recovered from this near-extinction event. The population expanded, and some courageous explorers ventured beyond Africa. Around 50,000 years ago some of these brave ancestors had successfully crossed the globe to South East Asia and Australia. Some of them settled in the Indonesian archipelago, forming the first settlement of prehistoric Indonesia. The second migration happened around 10,000 years ago, where a group of hunter-gatherers followed the now-submerged river systems that once ran from mainland Asia between the modern islands of Sumatera, Java, and Borneo. Then, around 4,000 years ago the third group of ancestors arrived. This agricultural community brought along their culture of pottery, plant cultivation, and animal domestication, co-inciding with the vast spread of Austronesian languages. Therefore, it is likely that the Indonesian archipelago hosts a wide range of linguistic, ethnic and genetic diversity. 1 Nowadays, the modern Indonesia is home to around 700 ethnic populations, each with distinct cultural and linguistic characteristics, representing vast genome diversity. Our ancestors’ decision to embark on a sea travel and take on its related lifestyle has influenced the development of susceptibility and resistance to various diseases observed today. During the prolonged travel, our ancestors were subjected to changes in global climate and geographic dynamic, which strongly influenced and shaped the genetic background of modern humans, including the mtDNA genome. Mitochondria, a well-adapted endosymbiotic intracellular organelles, became efficient for energy production through-out the course of evolution. They are critical for survival and proliferation of living organisms under aerobic conditions and produce ATP through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Adaptation to new environments that favor beneficial traits may have caused genetic risk differences that influence the crucial function of the mitochondria, consequently affecting many function in the cell. 2 The altered function of the mitochondria might act as an important factor for disease susceptibility across many human populations, i.e. mtDNA variation that grouped together forming a certain type/group (the mtDNA haplogroup) was reported to modulate cancer susceptibility 3-5 and resistance 6 in Chinese population. Cancer cells are characterized in general by a decrease of mitochondrial respiration and OXPHOS, a consequence of disruptive mtDNA mutations commonly found in cancer cells, and thus one could say that the growth of cancer cells is directly limited by energetics. 7 In order to survive, cancer cells must modify their mitochondrial physiology to optimize energy production to their changing environments. There are two types of advantageous mtDNA mutation in cancer cells: mutations that impair OXPHOS and serve to stimulate neoplastic transformation, and those that facilitate cancer cell adaption to changing bioenergetics environments. 8 These mtDNA mutations would eventually lead to an enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can act both as mutagens and cellular mitogens, and contribute directly to cancer progression. 7 Therefore, it can be concluded that mitochondrial alterations are critical for cancer initiation, promotion, and metastasis (Fig 1). Figure 1. Integrated mitochondrial paradigm to explain genetic and phenotypic complexities of metabolic and degenerative disease, aging, and cancer. Top three arrows : factors that have impact on mitochondrial OXPHOS robustness, risk for developing disease symptoms. Central oval arrows : pathophysiological basis of disease processes and the basis of disease progression. Lower five arrows : summarized disease categories and phenotypic outcomes of disturbed mitochondrial energy transformation. Bottom arrow : effect of the problematic accumulation of somatic mtDNA mutations resulting in delayed onset and a progressive course of diseases and aging. Right arrow : clinical problems that can result from reduced energy production in the most energetic tissues: the brain, heart, muscle, and kidney. Left arrow : indicates the metabolic effects of mitochondrial dysfunction, which result in the perturbation of the body’s energy balance. Lower right arrow : mitochondrial alterations are critical for cancer initiation, promotion, and metastasis . Lower left arrow : the hypothesized inflammatory and autoimmune responses that may result from chronic introduction of mitochondria’s bacteria-like DNA and N-formylmethionine proteins into the bloodstream. 9

Hominin interbreeding and the evolution of human variation.

Mitochondrial Eve confirms the “out of Africa” theory, but the evidence also supports interbreeding between Homo sapiens and other hominins: Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo heidelbergensis. This article explains how interbreeding between early H. sapiens and archaic hominins occurred. The availability of edible insects in East Asia aided the spread of the unaggressive, highly cooperative Neanderthals, who interbred with H. sapiens in Asia, resulting in a higher admixture of Neanderthal DNA in East Asian populations. Geographical variation in degree of interbreeding between H. sapiens and Neanderthals likely contributed to neurological and behavioral differences in modern humans. Similarly, people with Denisovan genetic admixture were better able to dwell in mountainous regions, allowing their genetic legacy to cross the Himalayas and persist in Southeast Asian and Oceanian H. sapiens. In the Sub-Saharan region, unaffected by Denisovan or Neanderthal interbreeding, H. sapiens interbred with H. heidelbergensis, because high humidity militated against fire-making and allowed the survival of these non-fire-making hominins.

Genetic drift in populations governed by a Galton–Watson branching process

Most population genetics studies have their origins in a Wright–Fisher or some closely related fixed-population model in which each individual randomly chooses its ancestor. Populations which vary in size with time are typically modelled via a coalescent derived from Wright–Fisher, but use a nonlinear time-scaling driven by a deterministically imposed population growth. An alternate, arguably more realistic approach, and one which we take here, is to allow the population size to vary stochastically via a Galton–Watson branching process.We study genetic drift in a population consisting of a number of distinct allele types in which each allele type evolves as an independent Galton–Watson branching process. We find the dynamics of the population is determined by a single parameter κ0=(2m0/σ2)logλ, where m0 is the initial population size, λ is the mean number of offspring per individual; and σ2 is the variance of the number of offspring. For 0≲κ0≪1, the dynamics are close to those of Wright–Fisher, with the added property that the population is prone to extinction. For κ0≫1 allele frequencies and ancestral lineages are stable and individual alleles do not fix throughout the population. The existence of a rapid changeover regime at κ0≈1 enables estimates to be made, together with confidence intervals, of the time and population size of the era of mitochondrial Eve.

Water in Mythology

Water in its various forms–as salty ocean water, as sweet river water, or as rain–has played a major role in human myths, from the hypothetical, reconstructed stories of our ancestral “African Eve” to those recorded some five thousand years ago by the early civilizations to the myriad myths told by major and smaller religions today. With the advent of agriculture, the importance of access to water was incorporated into the preexisting myths of hunter-gatherers. This is evident in myths of the ancient riverine civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, as well as those of desert civilizations of the Pueblo or Arab populations.

Mitochondrial Eve and the Affective Politics of Human Ancestry

AbstractThis article explores a scientific technology—mitochondrial analysis—that underlies contemporary technoscientific phenomena such as genetic ancestry tests, ethnic diversity projects, and national genome projects. The article focuses on the figure of “Mitochondrial Eve,” the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of modern humans, who lived in Africa a few hundred thousand years ago. Introduced by Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan Wilson in 1987, Mitochondrial Eve became the object of an intense scientific and cultural debate, appearing in numerous journal articles and on the cover of Newsweek magazine, as well as in media commentaries on gender roles and popular culture. Through a critical reading of the press coverage of the mitochondrial debate between 1987 and 2000, this article explores an evolving set of cultural emotions, including hope, celebration, suspicion, and anxiety that shaped the idea of human ancestry during the debate. The article argues that the introduction of “Y-chromoso...

Marian diamond: the "mitochondrial eve" of successful aging.

Marian diamond: the "mitochondrial eve" of successful aging.

The First Modern Human Dispersals across Africa

The emergence of more refined chronologies for climate change and archaeology in prehistoric Africa, and for the evolution of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), now make it feasible to test more sophisticated models of early modern human dispersals suggested by mtDNA distributions. Here we have generated 42 novel whole-mtDNA genomes belonging to haplogroup L0, the most divergent clade in the maternal line of descent, and analysed them alongside the growing database of African lineages belonging to L0’s sister clade, L1’6. We propose that the last common ancestor of modern human mtDNAs (carried by “mitochondrial Eve”) possibly arose in central Africa ~180 ka, at a time of low population size. By ~130 ka two distinct groups of anatomically modern humans co-existed in Africa: broadly, the ancestors of many modern-day Khoe and San populations in the south and a second central/eastern African group that includes the ancestors of most extant worldwide populations. Early modern human dispersals correlate with climate changes, particularly the tropical African “megadroughts” of MIS 5 (marine isotope stage 5, 135–75 ka) which paradoxically may have facilitated expansions in central and eastern Africa, ultimately triggering the dispersal out of Africa of people carrying haplogroup L3 ~60 ka. Two south to east migrations are discernible within haplogroup LO. One, between 120 and 75 ka, represents the first unambiguous long-range modern human dispersal detected by mtDNA and might have allowed the dispersal of several markers of modernity. A second one, within the last 20 ka signalled by L0d, may have been responsible for the spread of southern click-consonant languages to eastern Africa, contrary to the view that these eastern examples constitute relicts of an ancient, much wider distribution.

Activity‐Based Travel Scenario Analysis with Routing Problem Reoptimization

AbstractActivity‐based travel scenario analysis and network design using a household activity pattern problem (HAPP) can face significant computational cost and inefficiency. One solution approach, called reoptimization, makes use of an optimal solution of a prior problem instance to find a new solution faster and more accurately. Although the method is generally NP‐hard as well, the approximation bound has been shown in the literature to be tighter than a full optimization for several traveling salesman problem variations. To date, however, there have not been any computational studies conducted with the method for scenario analysis with generalized vehicle routing problems, nor has there been any metaheuristics designed with reoptimization in mind. A generalized, selective household activity routing problem (G‐SHARP) is presented as an extension of the HAPP model to include both destination and schedule choice for the purpose of testing reoptimization. Two reoptimization algorithms are proposed: a simple swap heuristic and a new class of evolutionary algorithms designed for reoptimization, dubbed a Genetic Algorithm with Mitochondrial Eve (GAME). The two algorithms are tested against a standard genetic algorithm in a computational experiment involving 100 zones that include 400 potential activities (resulting in a total of 802 nodes per single‐traveler household). Five hundred households are synthesized and computationally tested with a base scenario, a scenario where an office land use in one zone is dezoned, and a scenario where a freeway is added onto the physical network. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of reoptimization heuristics, particularly GAME, and the capability of G‐SHARP to capture reallocations of activities and schedules with respect to spatiotemporal changes.

Mitochondrial Eve 12.16

Research Article| March 01 2013 Mitochondrial Eve 12.16 Bettina Judd Bettina Judd Bettina Judd is a visual and performance artist, poet, and scholar. She is currently a Five College Dissertation Fellow in Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College, a doctoral candidate in Women's Studies at the University of Maryland, and an alumna of Spelman College. For more information on Bettina, go to www.bettinajudd.com. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Meridians (2013) 11 (2): 60. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.11.2.60 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Bettina Judd; Mitochondrial Eve 12.16. Meridians 1 March 2013; 11 (2): 60. doi: https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.11.2.60 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsMeridians Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2013 by Smith College2013 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

African Eve: Hoax or Hypothesis?

The replacement hypothesis proposes that “modern humans” evolved only in sub-Saharan Africa, through a speciation event rendering them unable to breed with other hominins. They then spread throughout Africa, then to Asia, Australia and finally to Europe, replacing all other humans by exterminating or outcompeting them. In this critical analysis of the replacement hypothesis it is shown that it began as a hoax, later reinforced by false paleoanthropological claims and a series of flawed genetic propositions, yet it became almost universally accepted during the 1990s and has since dominated the discipline. The numerous shortcomings of the hypothesis are appraised from genetic, anthropological, and archaeological perspectives and it is refuted. The resulting hiatus in the history of the human genus is then filled with an outline of a comprehensive alternative theory presented recently, which not only explains the origins of “modern humans” but also numerous so far unexplained aspects of being human.

The African Eve Effect in Science

The Matthew and Matilda Effects in science were coined in 1968 (Robert K. Merton) and in 1993 (Margaret W. Rossiter) respectively, as tools to analyse the reward systems of science. By proposing the African Eve Effect in science as a third effect, the original scope for analysis of these systems is broadened from the social structure of science to the anthropological dimension of science. Similarly, the ‘psychosocial processes’ that were considered as affecting the reward systems (Merton, Science 159:56–63, 1968) are extended to include discursive practices. The African Eve Effect refers to the scientific notion of the ‘African Eve’ (or mitochondrial (mtDNA) Eve), a concept put forward by scientists to designate the genetic mother of all modern humans. Three discursive conventions constitute the African Eve Effect and together shape patterns of the distribution of recognition for scientific work: projecting imaginative geographies of otherness onto the frontiers of science; collecting, transporting and enframing material and ideas according to a Western epistemological order; and ‘evolutionising’ nature and the human in science. The objective of this paper is to specify and illustrate an experimental tool for analysing the entanglement of the reward system in science with culturally fashioned imaginaries and agendas.